• Do you find your working life is a succession of meetings?
• Do you need to make sure you've got an accurate record of your meetings, including effectively capturing actions?
• Would you like to remove your fear of taking minutes?

For everything from a formal AGM to weekly staff gatherings, minute-takers are expected to provide an accurate record of proceedings, often with no training or guidelines. This can result in minutes that are too sketchy or too detailed; failure to follow up decisions; a lack of evidence for later proceedings; and a waste of many people's time.

This course will take you through every stage of the process of taking minutes, clarifying objectives and standards. You'll be equipped with ideas for successful preparation, listening, analysis and note-making and introduced to the principles of clear, effective writing. This event is highly participative and provides an opportunity for every attendee to develop their skills. You'll benefit from this course if you are expected to take accurate and professionally produced notes or minutes.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• list what you need to do to prepare for meetings prior to, during and after the event
• state the role and responsibilities of a chairperson
• demonstrate setting a well structured agenda
• state common obstacles to effective listening and demonstrate your own listening skills
• identify a method of note-taking that suits your preferred style
• select the important and relevant points from a discussion
• state agreed accepted conventions for the format of minutes
• produce an accurate set of minutes, clearly and concisely

What the course will cover:

• Personal objectives for the course.
• The meeting - what you should do before, during and after.
• The role and responsibilities of a chairperson.
• Styles of agenda.
• Setting the agenda.
• Barriers to effective writing.
• Listening and summarising a conversation.
• Methods and style for taking notes - reducing note-taking.
• Dealing with jargon and medical terminology.
• Confidentiality.
• Recording decisions and actions.
• Proofreading.
• Suggestions for skills practice and useful resources

All courses are delivered onsite by a training team with experience of working in over 50 NHS Trusts, and provide key professional development skills contextualised to fit an NHS environment.