Communication

Siobhan Wolfe

Communication Task 2

There are various different ways to care workers can adapt their style of communication to meet the needs of others. If for example they are dealing with a service user who has a speech impediment then they could use closed questions to allow them to communicate effectively on the other hand if a service user is able to talk and the care worker uses a lot of closed questions it could prevent effective communication as they are not given as much freedom to talk or explain how they feel. Using a lot of open questions (how, when, why?) allows the service user to expand of their answers and have effective communication with the care worker. The pace at which the worker speaks at can also be of great importance when trying to achieve effective communication they must change the pace at which they speak depending on the type of service users they are dealing with, for example if they are dealing with someone who is hard of hearing it may be beneficial for them to slow the pace at which they speak to allow the service user understand them. Many issues could arise if service users have misheard a worker and vice versa this could be because they may have thought they had heard them say they had already received their medication when they haven’t, this could have serious repercussions in the future. The tone which someone speaks can significantly change the type of message that is being communicated by speaking in a sharp tone it could upset someone.

A communication passport aims to support people that have problems with communication and therefore can’t speak for themselves the passport presents information about the individual positively and not a set of problems it is easy to read and also describes how the person will try to communicate in the best possible way. The passport belongs to the person and not to family or staff, though these people may use it and update it accordingly. The passport it important when new people come into a person’s life so information can be passed on for example when temporary staff meet the volunteer or if the person is introduced to a new foster family.

There are different ways a person can communicate within a work place or a health and social care setting. Written methods of communication are commonly used in health and social care settings such as letters can be posted to a patient informing them of dates and times of hospital appointments, other ways of written communication can include if a staff member receives a written warning within the work place. Written methods of communication are used as it’s a more formal way of communicating information. Oral communication is used the most to provide information through staff members or to a patient this is because when talking to them a lot of information can be passed on quickly and if a person doesn’t understands then any problems can easily be cleared up. On the other hand problems may arise from using this method of communication as a care worker may have a style of communication that that the service user may struggle to understand such as stated above. Electronically mediated information is now coming more common within the health and social care setting as technology is advancing. For example an e-mail can be sent to multiple people at one time allowing the information to be passed on quickly this can be used when handing out notices about the staff rota or arranging meeting. Also services such as doctor’s surgery’s and dental practices send out reminders via text message to remind the service user about an upcoming appointment they may have.

Interpersonal skill are the skills we use subconsciously on a daily basis, we use them to communicate with others and when speaking in groups, interpersonal skills include things such as our ability to listen and understand others, decision making , problem solving and also in many other ways. There are various elements involved when providing effective communication, these include the way we verbally exchange information to others we can speak, lip read, or even use sign language this is important in a health and social care setting as we may be dealing with someone who is unable to communicate easily and therefore we need to be able to deal with this appropriately by using a technique that would best suit the person. For example if dealing with someone who struggle to talk to other we could alter the types of questions we use when speaking to them using closed questions to gain answers and speeds up the response, on the other hand if dealing with someone who likes to talk and you want to know a lot of facts about a certain subject you can ask open questions that allow a more in-depth detailed answer. Non verbal communication is used a lot in a health and social environment and includes many things such the way we move our body language and generally how we present ourselves to others, this is closely followed by active communication which are things such as smiling, nodding and showing that you are involved in what’s being said and that you care about what is being said, these factors are vastly important to effective communication as someone can easily believe you don’t want to be involved in the conversation if you don’t have correct body language. There can be many barriers to communication that can result in poor communication such as using sarcasm, and folding arms to create more of a physical barrier between two people, its important that the service user doesn’t think that we create barriers to communication as they need to feel they can talk to us about any issues that they have otherwise this could result in the wrong treatment of them or any misunderstanding from occurring.

Informal one to one interaction occurs occasionally in a care setting such as when a nurse is handing out meals to patients or when they are having a general conversation about the day or family etc. Argyles communication cycle states that we communicate when we see or hear the message that is trying to be conveyed we then perceive the message and acknowledge it, then we receipted with a new message that the first person sent they will then also see understand and then send a message back this continues to form a conversation. There are different factors that could effect this cycle such as if the meaning of the message isn’t clear or misinterpreted, or if we assume that the other person has heard what is said also assuming that the person is ready and willing to listen if not then they may only hear half of the story and finally assuming that the other person using terms and language that the other person doesn’t understand or isn’t used to any of these factors could cause a breakdown in the communication cycle and result in poor communication. An example of communication that has broken down could be if a nurse asked the service user if they have had there medication, the service user may be hard of hearing and reply incorrectly to the nurse thinking she said do you want your medication and now a breakdown in communication has occurred. Formal group interaction can occur between the staff member many times such as in a shift hand over, staff meeting or in a discussion about rotas, this type of interaction is used when something is of importance and needs to be discussed in either depth or is of great significance. Tuckmans theory of group development looks at the four stages that are involved in creating a group. Firstly forming is where the group first meets and team member are feeling anxious about joining the group and will look outside for a team leader or someone to co-ordinate them, next storming and this stages speaks for itself, its when the group members have grown in confidence they then reject any tasks and demands from outside authority, but some people will still feel uncertain. Norming this is where the group will start to act as a team they express their views and opinions about the problem at hand and then set up procedures to deal with it, people ignore individual difference and become more accepting of one another in order to progress with the problem they have. The final stages performing this is when the group is now solely concerned with getting the job done people or given individual role and a process is put in place to reach the final goal, the people in the group now share a common focus and now communicate effectively and in turn become an efficient group. In his theory it also states that a team isn’t fully operative unless its passed the full three stages of forming, norming and performing, and also that if the process of Norming isn’t fully completed the group cant progress and may actually reverse to the storming stage. Most groups never fully get pass the norming stage as they find it difficult to actually communicate and put aside difference.