Effective Communication in Health and Social Care Essay
Communication is a term used by professionals in the Health and Social Care system, but is also used on a daily basis by everyone all around the world in many different ways. In this written report I will discuss the role of effective communication and interpersonal interaction in Health and Social Care settings. Communication can be explained and put forward in different types of ways, depending on the person whom you are interacting with, the environment in which the form of communication is taking place and finally what type of communication they are used to performing to others, this can also be re worded as the context of communication.The different contexts in which communication may occur are: one to one, group, multi agency, and multi professional, between colleagues, professionals and service users. In more detail One to One communication is the act of one individual communicating with another; this can be shown to be interpersonal interaction.
This can be done face to face, e-mail, letters, sign language etc. It can also be split in to different types for both group and one to one communications.Formal conversation is often used when a professional person, such as a health or social care worker, speaks to someone using a service, (i.
e. , Having a job interview)and Informal communication (often used between people who know each other well,(i. e. , Having a chat with a friend/family member), would be classed as a type of Informal communication. Group communication is referred to as a form of communication between 3 or more individuals.
Numbers from 3 to 20 people is shown as small group communication and then the larger groups would hold 20+ people interacting with one another (i. . , Parliament coming together to discuss policies in the Houses of Commons), which would be a form of Group Formal communication, (i. e.
, going to a party with over 20+ people there), this would be shown as Group In formal communication.Multi Professional interaction a defined would be shown as exampled; services or activities which involve staff drawn from an organisation such as Health, Social Services and Voluntary Groups maybe involving themselves in a situation (i. . , regarding an adult with dementia that is in hospital orcould potentially need re housing or put in to a care home). Multi Agency communication is slightly different to Multi Professional.
Multi Agency communication requires people from different professions and agencies to work together towards meeting the needs of a child; (i. e. , a child that has been taken away from their family and needs re housing with a different appropriate adult).Communication between colleagues can vary on the profession of the person, a doctor would use short hand when writing or taking notes about a patient and only a doctor would understand, someone of a different profession attempted to read a doctors version of short hand would not understand as it is not involved in their own profession.
The way that people of the same profession talk to each other have their own type of language which can also be called ‘jargon’ which usually only certain professions would use. Communicating with a service user would depend on what type of service they are using.For example if a service user was an older woman in a care home that just had small day to day problems but was still very much aware of what her surroundings were and who everyone was then you could have a regular interaction with her with no need to change the means of communication, where as a service user say with dementia or a learning disability would need the forms of communication changed to where they can understand fully; (i. e.
, slowing the words down as you talk, change the tone of voice to what the service user feels comfortable with and other forms of communication if necessary).Interpersonal skills are those skills that enable us to interact with another person, allowing us to communicate successfully with them. One positive can be that it develops positive relationships with people using services and theirfamilies and friends, so they can understand and meet their needs.
Developing positive relationships with work colleagues and other professionals is another positive as it helps to understand one another’s points of view, (i. e. , a discussion about a child that needs to go to temporary accommodation).
Sharing information with people using the services, by providing and receiving information and reporting on the work they do with people. There are many different forms of communication in regards to how you get a message to one another, although communication can be broken down in to two different categories, which are verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication uses words to present ideas, thoughts and feelings.
Good verbal communication is the ability to both explain and present your ideas clearly through the spoken word, and to listen carefully to other people.Written communication is said to be the same as oral but it is written down on paper instead of words being spoken out loud, which then changes it from a ‘verbal’ to ‘non-verbal’ type of communication. Written communication is seen as more reliable than spoken communication, as information can be missed out and more added in. this can cause service users and care workers to receive wrong information, therefore potentially proving the wrong type of care needed which can cause conflict and possible danger for the service user.Technological aid is using electronic or mechanical inventions to help the disabled to communicate to others.
In practice it refers specifically to systems that assist the handicapped and elderly. These aids can be many things, (i. e. , laptops/computers, phones etc. ).
People such as Stephen Hawking use aids such as these to communicate with other people, (Hawking has near complete paralysis but retains enough muscle control to allow him to press a button with his right hand. A computer screen displays a series of icons that allow control of his wheelchair, doors and appliances in his house.He can select items on the screen by pressing the button when a moving cursor passes over the correct area of the screen; Hawking speaks in a similar manner. The screen displays the alphabet, with a cursor moving over it. He presses the button at the appropriate letter. Once he has constructed a complete sentence, he can send the text to the voice synthesizer built into his chair).
Signs and symbols can be anything from using maybe street signs and the symbols on the road to British Sign Language, Deaf/Blind Sign Language and Makaton.Signs and symbols can be extremely important to every day people, using road signs is essential, if they were not there it could cause potential accidents or people could get lost. People with a physical disability benefit and advance from signs and symbols in many different ways, for example if a deaf person did not have the British Sign Language or Makaton to communicate with others then they would not have a way of communication with people or letting others know what their own opinion is.Braille is also a way of communication as blind people cannot see Braille has been put there as a form of writing so that they can learn to read and write. Without Braille blind or partially sighted people would never be able to read or write.
The early skills that are necessary to support the development of signed and spoken communication are: Attention Eye contact Turn taking Early gestures such as pointing Some people have other aids in the form of interpreters, translators and signers.These are people who communication meaning from one language to the other. This includes both spoken and signed languages such as English and British Sign Languages. When an interpreter works with a person that has a disability such as being deaf, blind or both, they become a part of the essential communication cycle with the service user. This helps people with this type of disability to communicate with others and have other communicate with them, without this they would not have any form of communication. Tuckman’s theory of group communicationDr Bruce Tuckman published his Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing model in 1965, with the theory that every form of communication has a series of steps required to complete the main goal of for example finishing a group task.
In 1977 Tuckman added a 5th stage, Adjourning to the process to address the issue of leaving a group and returning to independence. Tuckman’s model explains that as the team develops maturity and ability, relationships establish. The first stage is Forming, this stage is important because the team members get to know each other and become friendly.At first team members tend to behave independently and although goodwill may exist they do not know each other well enough to completely trust one another. The next step is Storming, this is important for the growth of the group. This stage distinguishes the strong groups from the weaker ones as some group do not make it past this stage.
Relationships between team members will become stronger or weaker at this stage. Usually at this stage one person from the group will take charge as the leader or the most dominant. The third step is Norming, at this stage the team agree on the rules and values by which they operate.The team begin to trust themselves and individuals start to take responsibility within the group. The fourth stage is Performing, which not all teams make it to the Performing phase, which is essentially on whether the group worked together as a team, formed a trusting bond within the group and conclusively produced satisfactory work in what they were assigned to do. Decision making is collaborative and expected and encouraged as there will be a high level of respect in the communication between team members. This theory can be used in a health and social care environment.A group of professionals come together to discuss the well-being of a child and where the child should be placed for temporary housing.
None of the professionals personally know one another and therefore do not know whether they can trust each others judgement. The group then start to talk about their individual points of view in what they believe should happen with the child. They get in to a heated discussion and no one seems to be listening to one another. The social worker that has been working with the child every week then decides to take charge of the situation.After some careful consideration and some views from the social worker, the group then decides to agree on the child going in to temporary foster care and agree that the social worker knows what’s best for the child as they have spent most time with the child. The group then takes action and puts the child in to temporary foster care. They dispatch and then go to back to their individual jobs. Argyles Communication Cycle Argyles stages of communication cycle are were an idea occurs, message coded, message sent, message received, message decoded, message understood.
The first stage where the idea occurs is when we think about the thing we are about to say and who to. The second stage, message coded, is when we plan to say it and how. The fourth stage is message received; this is when the other person hears what you have said.
The fifth stage is message decoded; this is when the person you are speaking to breaks down the message and attempts to decode it. The sixth stage is message understood; this is when the other person can understand the meaning of what you have said to them.Aiming -In the first stage the idea occurs you think of something you want to communicate.
Communication always has a purpose. Usually it is to pass on information or an idea, or to persuade someone to do something. Encoding – Then the message is coded you think about how you are going to say what you are thinking and decide in what form the communication will be, for example, spoken word or sign language, a picture for maybe a younger person such as a child. You then think about what the message will be then prepare to send.Transmitting – The message is then sent, in the way that you and the receiver can understand whether it is spoken language, sign language, through pictures or music etc.
Receiving- The message is received the other person receives the message by hearing the spoken language or by seeing signs, pictures, music etc. Decoding – Message decoded the other person has to interpret what you have communicated; this is known as decoding. Responding – Message understood if you have communicated clearly, and there are no barriers to communication, the other person understands your message.
They show this by giving you feedback, i. . by sending you a message back. This theory of communication can apply to a health and social care setting. A care worker would like to ask a service user if they would like a cup of tea. The care worker thinks about how they will get the message across to the service user. The care worker decides to send the message in British Sign Language as the service user is deaf and therefore cannot communicate by spoken language.
The care worker then prepares to send the message. The care worker then sends the message to the service user in a way that they can decode and understand the message.The service user then receives the message as it was sent across as a sign The service user is now decoding the message (interoperating what the care worker had just said). The service user had understood the message and would like a cup of tea, they then respond back using British Sign Language. M1 Assess the role of effective communication and Interpersonal interaction in the health and social care with reference to theories in communication There are a number of strengths and weaknesses of communication and interpersonal skills.In one to one communication there are a number of strengths, such as there is more active participation between the two people, as usually the conversation deals with the topics of interests of both participants involved in the conversation.
It’s also easier to send and receive messages between the two as there is no other person to block the conversation or distract them in any way possible. The body language and facial expression of the participants can be understood easier as the focus would be from one person to the other and not having to constantly look around to focus on others.One on one conversation does not always take place face to face. Phone conversations can be seen as a strength and a weakness, as it is a direct conversation the participants will concentrate only on each other and the tone of each other’s voice rather than their body language which could have distracted them from the topic of the conversation, on the other hand the fact that they cannot see one another could cause problems with interaction between each other as they may need the body language of the other person to help them understand a message; (e.
g. f a person had a partial hearing, or needed sign language to help them communicate). Text messaging or e-mail can be seen as a weakness in the communication process as you cannot see the other person or hear the other person. It also depends on what the conversation is about and between whom. The type of language used in a professional conversation would be slightly different to a conversation between two friends as they both use different ways to communicate. A professional would usually in term use jargon to send a message to one another which maybe others would not use, this is also depending on what type of professional they are.
A conversation between two friends would be different as to the tone of voice used and the language used, in term they would use what can be called ‘slang’ to communicate towards each other. This can be shown to be both a strength and weakness as both types of communication would be suitable and easy for the receiver to decode but in other ways it would be difficult for others to understand if they are not familiar with the others form of communication. The communication cycle refers to two people have a conversation.Advantages of this theory are that the sender of the message can first think about the message, (making sure that the recipient can easily decode the message when receiving it), before sending it to the other person.
This may not be effective if the person sending the message is upset for example, in a counselling session this could then transmit the wrong message or make it hard for the counsellor to understand, therefore making it difficult to decode the message. The person that is trying to decode the message will need to use the following skills in order to successfully decode the message.Active listening is always needed in order to understand someone; if you do not constantly focus on listening to the sender then you may misunderstand what the message is. Repeating what the sender has said will help to understand and to let the sender know that you have been listening.
Asking questions to the sender will increase the level of understanding and help to communicate and stabilise the conversation between the two people. Receiving and sending clarification will let your sender know that you understand the message that is being put across to you and vice versa.
