The Role Of Effective Communication In Health Care

Effective communication is much more about exchanging information between one another, it’s all about the understanding the information behind the emotions that take place. But the word communication alone is all about transferring information.

Context:

One to one setting:

One to one conversation plays an important role in life. This type of communication generally appears face to face. This can emerge formally and informally. An example of a formal conversation in a Health and Social environment could place in a Care home where you may have to speak to the nurses.

The body language and posture of an individual would be accomplished in a professional manner to exhibit that they are interested whereas an informal conversation could take place between a friend. The body language and posture is rather more classed as being slouched and the language gradually changes to being slang. Slang in other words is a language that is spoken by peers, and is very hard to understand especially if u have difficult listening or never heard this type of language before.

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Group setting:

A group conversation contains a lot of people with different views and is slightly different from those that use one to one situations. Each and every person has a right to speak. Group communication can be very complicated as it can only work if everyone is able to be involved. There are times were communication can sometime feel challenging, competitive and negative as there will be a few members that will dominate from the group.

This mostly occurs when individuals are new and are taking part of a big project. In most matters the posture, body language and tone of voice shows whether you have interest or not. When someone is slouching this would instantly show others what type of person you are. Some people in groups create humour or a different way to create a right feeling between people and allow them to participate.

But the effect of communication that could occur would be that a group of people are to communicate but for some reason they can’t because they are from a different background. The way an individual communicates may relate to their culture manner and to others it may become very rude and defiant

Formal communication:

A formal conversation would originally start with a greeting which shows respect for others. The formal communication is often used when someone that is professional is having a conversation with a colleague or someone using a service. Using the formal conversation clarifies that nothing is misunderstood. Communicating with someone special such as a manager or an interviewer the conversation is in a formal format. The tone especially is presented in a certain manner which reflects that you are showing some respect and that you are interested in what the person is saying. An example of this type of communication would be someone professional. As in a health and social context such as a health or social worker they would speak clear, correct and avoid any misunderstanding.

Informal communication:

Informal communication is often used by people who know each other such as friends and family. The first object a person meets is by greeting. For some people the greeting may seem inappropriate while others won’t. Those who come in contact on a day to day basis may also share a relation of informal communication. An example of this would be a colleague also friends calling each other ‘love’ even when they have just met. This would be interpretated as being an informal communication due to the style of language spoken. Communication between practitioners, colleagues and clients: The use of proximity is used in a formal conversation between practitioners, such as a doctor talking to a patient.

He/ she will not sit close enough to the patient to invade their personal space. The body language and posture will be presented in a certain manner that will indicate to the patient that the doctor is paying full attention to them. In some situations when co- operating with a patient the use of Jargon may be present e.g. a patient may need an operation and in simple words the doctor may have to inform the patient allowing them not to worry and panic. This indicate that there is a different way of speaking for everyone.

For some individuals who have a disability such as a person in a wheel chair may not be able to reach the desk where the receptionist maybe sat as the desk may be too high for them to reach this would therefore make it harder to communicate.

Even for care workers it is important to respect one another and it indicates that each other has respect for their colleagues that be surrounding them. For those colleagues that fail to show respect may fail into respecting the service which may lead to a disadvantage.

Forms of communication
There are many forms under the communication category such as:
Verbal communication
Non-verbal communication
Written communication
Oral communication
Computerised

Verbal and Non-verbal communication is as important as each other and involve many features. Non-verbal communication involves facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice and the gestures that are seen through the body language. On the other hand Verbal Communication involves the clarity of speech, remaining calm and following the basic rules of custom that will allow the process of verbal communication to take place There are many special methods that will allow individuals to communicate with one another whether you have a disability or not, there is always away round. Braille is one of the few methods that are being used my people who live around the Health and Social care content. Braille is a method that is mainly used by blind people that is a form of communication in the use of character that are made up six dot positions Makaton is another example of a special method presented by an individual whom may have a difficulties learning.

This method is to communicate by the benefit of signs and symbols. Makaton adapts the uses of speech as well as actions and symbols. The uses of picture cards with facial expressions and words will make it a lot more accessible for those who have learning difficulties. Sign language is a language that which instead of sound but instead visual language. There are made up by the shapes, position and movement of the hand and arms with facial expression to express the speaker’s thoughts. Sign language is mainly used in communities that hold deaf people or hard to ear themselves and their family and friends. Written communication is a form of communicating with each individual. Many people in the Health and Social environment have a key aspect towards it as on a daily basis they keep records and update the writing records. Each and every standard of communication needs different types of skills but they all require literacy skills.

A more formal type of writing would be expected as the nurses would complete a record about a particular patient and it wouldn’t be appropriate if within the record they were some slang. Oral communication needs to be used to give important messages to patients of colleagues. There are various care settings for example doctors, surgeries, hospitals, old people’s home etc. Doctors may need to tell their patients about their illness and the advices on it and in some cases help them in their medications. Some elder individuals may suffer from bad illnesses so therefore they would need extra care, so with the help of care workers they need to make sure the oral communication is used greatly to explain them about medicine or any other thing for them to comfort the patient.

So therefore people in the health profession need to obtain information through the oral communication. Computerised communication is a form of communication that is usually used through technology that allowed us to communicate with various people and getting messages across. Example of this type of communication would be emails, messages via phone, social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram). Each and every method of communication that is sent is portrayed in various different ways.

What is interpersonal interaction?

Interpersonal interaction is the process which allows people to exchange information, feelings and the meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages; it’s a face to face communication. Interpersonal communication is not about what is exactly said but the language that is being used and how it is being said. There are different types of interpersonal interaction that are mentioned below: Speech needs to be very clear as it is essential, particular when working with different people such as the service users who may have difficulties giving or receiving messages. Speaking clearly allows information to be absorbed and understandable and if one individual is having difficulties learning or hearing they can easily lip read or use body language to show their understanding

. Language:

Dialect is when individuals use different words for everyday objects or feelings depending what area they come from the country. In some parts of England many people speak slang such as ‘init’ instead of pronouncing it as ‘isn’t it’. It make cause confusion for some people as they will not understand this way of language that is spoken by many people

Jargon is a service that is used in a technical language that may cause the service user to not understand. For example a doctor may say to a patient that they need a blood test or need to take an operation. This can cause the patient to panic and get frightened especially if they have been rushed to hospital. With the doctor explaining the blood test or operation in simple facts can calm the patient down and give them relief. Non-verbal:

Facial expression is a non-verbal action that allows us to tell what someone is feeling by the expression of their eyes. Our eyes come wider when we are excited or happy. So the opposite facial expression for being annoyed would be a frown.

Posture is a part of body language that gives an indication of whether the person is interested in what you are saying. Individuals that tend to slouch in position with their head in their hands illustrate to others their feelings about what’s going on.

Touching or contacting with one another can be very comforting but you have to be careful to use your touch in an appropriate manner. For example an individual such as an old patient living in a care home may feel upset and a nurse may want to give them a hug as they would do with a friend or family. But the problem may occur when the nurse doesn’t know this individual and may be breaching their personal space and would become embarrassed or possibly offended. In some cultures touching is not appropriate as they may not shake hands. Possibly people would ask the service user what they would like to do illustrate how they will need them to be touched.

Silence and reflective listening includes gestures that would be used by our body to convey a message. Some gestures such as hand signals are universally recognised in different ways. Different gestures can be offensive from culture to culture and not all hand gestures are universally recognised.

Communication variation between cultures:

There are many variations between cultures such as the same thing will mean different things in two different cultures so therefore can make communication quite complicated. For example eye contacting someone is seen as polite and respectful communicating in the western country but other foreign countries may see this as bad manners.

Bibliography
http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/getattachment/subjects/health-social-care/series-pages/btec-assessment-guides/series-boxes/sample-chapters/unit-3-effective-communication-in-health-and-social-care.pdf.aspx https://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/FEAndVocational/HealthAndSocialCare/BTEC/BTECLevel2FirstHealthandSocialCare/Samples/StudentBook/BTECLevel2FirstHealthandSocialCareStudentBookSampleMaterial-Unit1CommunicationinHealthandSocialCare.pdf