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Unit 1
Developing effective Communication
Learning outcomes After completing this unit you should:
- Understand effective communication and interpersonal interaction in health and social care
- Understand factors that influence communication and interpersonal interaction in health and social care environments
- Understand ways to overcome barriers in a health and social care environment
- Be able to communicate and interact effectively in a health or care environment. OCR Level 3 Cambridge Technicals in Health and Social Care
Why do we communicate:
To make relationships
To maintain those relationships
To develop and maintain our self concept
To pass information
To meet our needs
To work effectively
For our happiness
Effective communication
One to One conversation continued
Once you have created a good feeling, you can move on to the business – the things you want to talk about. When it is time to finish the conversation, you want to leave the other person with the right kind of emotions so you might say something like ‘See you soon’ to show that you value them. Formal conversations often follow a three-stage model, with an emotional ‘warmup stage’ at the beginning, a ‘business’ or ‘exchange of information’ stage in the middle, and a ‘winding down stage’ at the end.
Group conversation
Taking part in a group discussion involves the same issues as one-to-one communication as well as some additional issues. How does it feel to be in the group? Group discussion only works well if people want to be involved. Sometimes people feel threatened if they have to speak within a formal group of people, or they might stay quiet because they are worried about other people’s reactions. It is important that the group has the right emotional atmosphere. People in groups often use humour or other friendly ways of behaving to create the right group feeling, which encourages people to talk. Creating the right group atmosphere involves ‘maintaining’ the group so this aspect of group communication is often called group maintenance.
Formal group conversations
Have you prepared what you are going to say? When talking in a formal group you will need to think through your points before sharing them with the whole group. Because of this extra preparation, talking to a group can feel very different from talking in a one to one situation.
Group communication
Are you good at taking turns? Group communication fails if everybody speaks at the same time. It is harder to work out who should be speaking in a group discussion than in a one-to-one conversation. The skill of taking turns involves identifying the following pattern. When a person is about to finish speaking they usually signal this by lowering their voice tone, slowing their pace of talking and looking around at other people in the group. The next person to talk knows that it is their turn by watching the eyes of other group members. If people fail to notice these patterns then too many people may try to speak at the same time. If everybody is talking then nobody is listening!
Informal communication
We often use informal communication when we know people well – for example, with friends and family. Some friends or family members may use terms that other people would not understand. Local groups from particular places might also have their own ways of speaking. For example, some people in southern England might say things like ‘Hiya, mate. How’s it goin’?’ If you belong to this group, you will appreciate this as a warm, friendly greeting. But different groups of people use different informal language so it can sometimes be hard to understand the informal communication of people from different social groups.
Formal communication
Formal communication Health and social care work often involves formal communication. For example, if you went to a local authority social services reception desk you might expect to be greeted with the phrase ‘Good morning. How can I help you?’ This formal communication is understood by a wide range of people. Formal communication also shows respect for others. The degree of formality or informality is called the language ‘register’.
Communication between colleagues
Family and friends know you well and will usually understand you, even if you communicate poorly or very informally. Communicating with people at work is different because: It is important that care workers communicate respect for each other. Colleagues who do not show respect for each other may fail to show respect to the people who use care services. You may often have to greet colleagues by asking if they are well and spend time on ‘warm-up talk’ in order to show that you value them. You will need to demonstrate that you are a good listener and can remember details of conversations with your colleagues. Colleagues have to develop trust in each other. It is important to demonstrate that you respect the confidentiality of conversation with colleagues. Work settings may have their own social expectations about the correct way to communicate thoughts and feelings. These may differ from social expectations when communicating with your friends and family. Although communication between colleagues may often be informal it is important that care workers use skilled communication in order to develop respect and trust
Communication between professionals
Communication between professional people and people using services Professional people, such as doctors and nurses, often work within their own specialised language community. A language community is a community of people that has developed its own special words, phrases, social expectations and ways of interacting that set it apart from other groups of people. Professionals are usually well aware of the need to translate technical language into everyday language when they work with people from other professions or people who use services. It is important that professionals check that they are not being misunderstood
Multi Agency
Multi-agency working Health and social care professionals often have to communicate with colleagues who work for different organisations. For example, a home care organiser might have to communicate not only with people who use services and care workers but also with community nurses, GPs’ surgeries, hospital services, occupational therapists, voluntary groups, day care groups and many other organisations. It is important not to assume that people from different agencies will understand the same terminology. Formal communication may help to convey respect and avoid misunderstandings when interacting with unfamiliar professionals in other agencies.
Multi-professional working
Professionals from different backgrounds often have to work together in order to assess and meet the needs of people who use services. Multi-professional working happens when many different professionals work together. Communication will often need to be formal and carefully planned in order to avoid barriers to understanding.
