A teaching program for the critical care department would entail small group and student-centered teaching strategies that focus on communication enhancement and core skill competency development among learners. This teaching approach emphasizes more autonomy in the clinical care setting and encourages the teacher to consider learner characteristics among clinical and professional workers. The educational program described will be offered in hospital and other generic health care organizations where proactive team building skills and communication skills development are necessary to ensure a multi-disciplinary approach to learning and care giving. The teaching program provided will include a team approach to healthcare education encouraging participants to learn and adopt strategies for conversing and communicating with diverse populations including other professionals, students, clinical workers, patients, families and community members.

Teaching strategies must be based on learner characteristics and the place of employment students intend to pursue their career to be successful. Teaching strategies that are varied are most likely to be successful, and may include information technology training in skills development and writing genres and education about working in a multidisciplinary health care setting where a depth and range of activities and problems solving skills are nurtured among future healthcare practitioners (Biggs, 1999; Huttly, Sweet & Taylor, 2003).

Learner characteristics for employees in a critical care work setting are unique. Adult learners generally have specific characteristics that require use of effective strategies for learning and teaching the adult learner (Huttly, Sweet & Taylor, 2003). Studies suggest that multiple approaches may be more effective for helping critical care staff develop, including a "team healthcare approach" which educators can adopt and simulate in an educational setting "through interprofessional education and vertical integration of student years" (Huttly, Sweet & Taylor, p. 5).

Teaching strategies must incorporate multiple aims including improving adult critical care workers perceptions and experiences of their education and learning environment and supporting learners at varying developmental levels (Curzon, 2000). Among the skills necessary include improving communication skills in a patient centered manner; this may require that educators focus on

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