About this course
Better listening means safer care, stronger trust, and happier patients.
[podcast mini /media/goc-standard-1-intro.mp3]
Have you ever noticed how much a patient reveals in the smallest details—an offhand remark, a hesitation, a look of concern? In optical practice, those fleeting moments are often where the real clues lie. Listening isn’t a soft skill; it’s a clinical intervention that can uncover red flags, guide safer decisions, and even prevent harm.
This course is about transforming everyday conversations into powerful tools for diagnosis, shared decision-making, and patient partnership. By slowing down enough to ask open questions, by reflecting back what you hear, by making space for silence—you give your patients more than reassurance. You give them agency in their care. And when you adapt your approach for language, culture, or sensory needs, you make sure no patient is left unheard.
Your words, your posture, your careful documentation—each one tells a patient: I see you. I hear you. You matter. That is GOC Standard 1 in action, and it’s how you’ll strengthen trust, improve safety, and elevate the quality of every consultation you deliver.
Every consultation depends on more than tests and results — it depends on how well we listen. This course gives you practical tools to strengthen patient-centred communication, reduce risk, and meet GOC Standard 1 with confidence.
This course is relevant to the whole optical team, including
- Registered optical professionals wanting reliable CPD mapped to GOC Standards
- Locums, jobseekers, and overseas practitioners needing to demonstrate current knowledge
- Colleagues addressing professional challenges who require structured CPD for reflection and remediation
- Managers and teams who want consistent, defensible training
CPD Time: 60 minutes (1 CPD point, self-directed)
Assessment: 10 MCQs. Pass mark 80%. more…
On passing the assessment you will immediately receive a CPD Certificate.
Customer feedback on this course
- Clear, practical techniques.
- Essential for everyday practice; excellent focus on red flags and documentation.
- Great scenarios for handling language and neurodiversity challenges.
- Concise, evidence-based and directly relevant.
- Useful checklists and phrasing.
Aim:
The aim of the learning and teaching materials in this course is to meet GOC Standard 1 by developing active listening and inclusive communication skills that keep patients central to care decisions.
Course objective:
• to develop active listening and inclusive communication methods that support patient safety, shared decision‑making and compliant records.
Anticipated learning outcomes:
On course completion you will be able to:
• Recognise how attentive listening (Standard 1) supports patient safety, trust, and shared decision-making.
• Apply effective questioning, reflection, clarification, and use of silence (Standard 1) to ensure patients’ perspectives are fully heard and central to decisions about their care.
• Adapt listening and communication strategies (Standard 1) for language, cultural, neurodiverse, or sensory needs, ensuring inclusivity and accurate record-keeping.
GOC Framework Mapping:
Standard 1 — Listening to and involving patients
Domain: Communication
Learning content:
Why Listening Matters | The role of listening in clinical safety | Patient‑centred communication | Professional standards and accountability | Wider implications of listening | Principles of patient‑centred decision‑making | Shared decision‑making in practice | Skills for active listening | Open questioning in case history | Reflection and clarification | Non‑verbal communication | Preventing premature closure | Barriers to listening and mitigation | Cultural sensitivity and inclusive communication | Supporting neurodiverse and cognitively impaired patients | Health literacy and accessibility | Documentation and continuity of care | MCQ | Reading list
View full course description
GOC Standard 1: Listening to Patients in Optical Practice
Course Description
GOC Standard 1: Listening to Patients in Optical Practice
Strengthening Patient Partnerships Through Communication. This course teaches active listening as a clinical skill to reduce diagnostic error, support safe referrals, improve adherence and ensure records reflect the patient voice.
Why Listening Matters
Listening is an active clinical intervention. Learn how attentive history‑taking uncovers subtle symptoms and red flags, and how listening links to safety, trust and better outcomes.
The role of listening in clinical safety
Explore how good listening reduces diagnostic error, aids early detection and referral, and the consequences of poor listening for patient safety.
Patient‑centred communication
Learn collaborative consultation techniques that value lived experience and align care with patient priorities to improve outcomes.
Professional standards and accountability
Review GOC expectations to involve patients, adapt communication for diverse needs, and document how patient perspectives informed care.
Wider implications of listening
See how stronger records and clearer referrals, better safeguarding and equity arise from hearing the patient.
Principles of patient‑centred decision‑making
Integrate clinical expertise with patient preferences, follow shared decision‑making steps and document discussions and rationale.
Shared decision‑making in clinical practice
Practical steps for discussing options, risks and benefits, eliciting preferences and iteratively clarifying choices.
Skills for active listening
Practical techniques: open questions, reflection, clarification, non‑verbal attending, strategic silence and avoiding premature closure.
Open questioning in case history
How to invite the patient narrative, examples of open questions and when to use focused closed questions for detail.
Reflection and clarification
Techniques to reflect patient statements, clarify ambiguous terms and direct examination from precise descriptions.
Non‑verbal communication in optical consultations
Eye contact, posture, instrument and screen positioning, cultural considerations and the effective use of silence.
Preventing premature closure
Recognise the risks of early diagnostic closure; allow uninterrupted accounts and revisit inconsistencies.
Barriers to listening and how to overcome them
Strategies for time pressure, bias, environmental distractions and emotional challenges that impede listening.
Cultural sensitivity and inclusive communication
Adjust for cultural expression, language needs and health beliefs; use professional interpreters and accessible materials.
Supporting neurodiverse and learning‑difficulty patients
Adjustments for autism, dementia and learning difficulties: clear language, extra processing time, visual aids and appointment planning.
Health literacy and accessibility
Recognise low health literacy, use plain language, teach‑back and provide materials in multiple accessible formats.
Documentation and continuity of care
Capture patients’ verbatim phrases, link subjective concerns to clinical findings, and carry the patient voice into referrals and follow‑up.
Reading list
GOC standards and guidance, NICE and Accessible Information Standard, NHS and Royal College patient resources.
You can copy and adapt this example PDP entry for your own needs and circumstances.
| PDP Learning or Maintenance need |
| Improve patient‑centred communication and meet GOC Standard 1 |
| How does this relate to my field of practice? |
| Directly relevant to everyday optical consultations, safeguarding and referrals. |
| Which development outcome(s) does it link to? |
| GOC Standard 1 |
| What benefit will this have to my work? |
| Better diagnostic accuracy, safer referrals, improved patient satisfaction and documentation. |
| How will I meet this learning or maintenance need? |
| Complete this course and implement targeted listening strategies in practice. |
| When will I complete the activity? |