Effective communication level 3 health and social care free essay sample

Effective communication is important both within an organisation and externally. Effective communication improves business efficiency. Communication is about passing messages between people or organisations. Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place to another. A skill is the ability to be able to do something well, it is something that an individual can learn and improve on. An example of a skill would be being able to ride a bike or lift an elderly person properly within a care home setting. A quality is something that an individual has; it is part of an individual’s personality. A quality comes naturally to each individual. An example of a quality would be having patience or being a kind and caring person. As health care professionals everyone needs various skills and qualities but it has been said that communication is the most import one for a health care professional. Abraham Maslow studied the needs of humans and his theory was that the purpose of human life was personal growth. We will write a custom essay sample on Effective communication level 3 health and social care or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Maslow believes that communication is the most important to help meet the needs of each individual. He also believed that care workers needs effective communication because they are working with troubled people. This essay consists of the role of effective communication which contains examples within the health and social care setting to help me establish my understanding of effective communication. As a health care professional it is vital that you make sure that you develop positive relationships with your colleagues and your clients. There must be positive relations between colleagues to make sure that everything is completed to the best of everyone’s ability. Positive, supporting and caring relationships help to meet the needs of each service user. Every relationship that a health care professional has with their clients and colleagues must be respectful and trustworthy. The relationship that the health care professional has with their clients influences the care that given to each client. A positive and caring relationship is the best relationship to help the care that is given be as efficient and effective as it can be. It is important to make sure that all the clients need are met. A positive, caring relationship helps the client’s communication with the health care professionals easier than having a negative relationship. This is because the client knows that they can trust the health care professional. Example 1 When I was on work experience, in Singleton Hospital 2012 I was able to develop positive relationships with the staff on the department. I was able to do this by completing group tasks with the staff and one to one tasks with my supervisor. These were both done in two different situations, formal and informal. I worked with some patients that were in the hospital wards. I completed various activities with one patient that had a hearing impairment. I overcame this by using non-verbal types of communication like visual aids for example, pictures, signs, symbols and writing. A visual aid helps people with hearing impairments communicate easier with other people as it makes it easier for them to understand what the other person is saying. It is important to use the individuals preferred method of communication. If an individual prefers to use a different type of language then it is important that the health care professionals make sure that they do something to make sure this is what happens for the client. Example 2 Each week on placement with the college I am improving my relationships with the residents in Cwrt Clwydi Gwyn nursing home. One resident in the nursing home I already have a positive caring relationship with. I have built this relationship with the resident by sitting with them and listening to their stories. Each week I sit with them for about half an hour to make sure that I am giving them the time that they need to socialise with someone that they don’t often see. I work alongside this resident doing various activities in formal and informal situations. By sitting and listening to this resident I am helping to build a positive, caring and supporting relationship with the resident. It is important that I use the correct method of commutation that the resident would like me to use, in order to communicate with them efficiently. If the residents would like me to communicate using Finger Spelling or British Sign Language I must make sure that I do something to make sure that I am able to commutate with them the way that they would like me to. As I am unable to do British Sign Language I should ask a carer if someone who is able to do British Sign Language would not mind sitting in on the conversation. Many of the residents in the nursing home just want someone to sit in silence with them, just so they can tell their stories. They just want someone to listen to them. Example 3 When visiting my Grandfather in his nursing home I noticed that he has a positive relationship with one of the residents in the nursing home. My Grandfather built this relationship with this one resident by completing activities together. This helped them both get to know each other more and it helped their relationship improve. They both have positive relationships with each other and health care professionals around them all day long. This helps the care that is given more efficient and effective for both my Grandfather and the other resident in the nursing home. The nurse interacts with my Grandfather by using arts and crafts. As my Grandfather enjoys doing this it helps him to relax and feel more comfortable with the people around him. It is important that each health care professional is able to share and receive information correctly. It will depend on the person that the health care professional is trying to share information with on how they do this. Many people within the health care setting will have different barriers to stop certain types of communication from effectively working but there are many ways to overcome this problem. It is important that the health care professionals know how to share information efficiently with various people to make sure that the information that they would like to share with the individual gets across to them in the correct way without any confusion or misunderstanding. It is important that each health and social care professional knows what form of communication to use when they need to give different individuals different types of information, if it needs to be written down or orally presented to the individual. There are many ways that health and social care professionals can give information to others. One example of this is using a text message. If a health and social care professional is unable to attend work they may send a text to their manager to tell them this information. Example 1 During my time on my college placement I noticed that different carers within the nursing home communicate with different residents using different types of communication. One elderly woman in the nursing home is completely deaf without her hearing aids. She doesn’t like to wear them as she finds them uncomfortable, so this means she often doesn’t wear them and she cannot hear the carers when they are trying to communicate with her. This means that the carers need to find different ways to communicate with her other than communicating verbally with her. The carers write things down that they need to ask her. They also use pictures and objects of reference. An object of reference is when a certain individual associates an object as having a specific meaning like an event or activity. An example of this is showing an elderly person a tooth brush might mean that is time to brush their teeth. Example 2 Another example of sharing information, is sharing confidential information. If information needs to be kept private, then the way people communicate needs to be confidential. When I was on my first week of placement I noticed that a family member of one of the residents in the care home wanted to speak to the manger in private. The manager took the family member into to office to speak to them. They made sure that everything that was said was not over heard and could be kept private between the manager and the family member. The manager effectively communicated with the resident’s family member to make sure that the information was shared correctly. If this information was shared between the two people in a different environment then the information that was shared might have been either misunderstood or over heard by someone else. Example 3 Whilst I was on my work experience with the school in Singleton hospital, I noticed that one of the consultants in the hospital was talking to one of his patients about the results of their x-ray. The consultant was talking to their patient in the middle of the waiting room where anyone could overhear their conversation. This conversation should have been made in a private room because the subject of the conversation was a confidential subject. The consultant should have realised this before the conversation took place. Having good self-esteem can help an individual communicate effectively. Also having good effective communication can help increase an individual’s self-esteem. People with low self-esteem may find it hard to communicate. Having low self-esteem may result in the individual not being able to communicate properly so the information that the individual is trying to get across to the client or their colleagues may be incorrect or could even be misunderstood by the receiver. Having low self-esteem may stop the individual from developing strong, positive and caring relationships. This may then lower the individual’s self-esteem more. www. livestrong. com/article/187227-self-esteem-effective-communication-skills/(16-11-2013) Example 1 During the time on my college placement in Cwrt Clwydi Gwyn nursing home, I noticed that one of the carers had really low self-esteem. She was really quite when she was working with the residents and the residents found it hard to understand what she was trying to say to them. I noticed her trying to ask one of the residents what they wanted for their dinner. The resident could understand the carer as she was speaking really quiet. The resident was getting really frustrated with the carer as the resident could not understand what the carer was trying to ask them. Example 2 Another example that I noticed on my college placement was the carers that had really good self-esteem. The carers with good self-esteem and high confidence were able to communicate more effectively with the residents. One carer had really high self-esteem and was able to communicate with every resident in the nursing home. She was able to overcome all the barriers that stop communication from happening. As she could effectively communicate because she had high self-esteem the residents were able to understand the carer with no misunderstanding. Example 3 During my time on my work experience with the school, I noticed that one of the newly trained nurses on the ward found it hard to communicate with her colleagues. This is probably because she lacked in experience and didn’t have high confidence and self-esteem. She probably found it hard to develop positive relationships with her colleagues because she didn’t have high confidence to do so. Having good effective communication skills helps the individual work cooperatively with their colleagues. This is because having effective communication helps to develop positive relationships and it helps the individual to be able to commutate the information that is needed to be communicated easier and more efficient. By being able to communicate easier and effectively with their colleagues the task and work that needs to be completed will be completed quicker and easier as the colleagues are able to understand each other easier. Example 1 During my time on college placement I noticed that one carer within the nursing home found it hard to communicate with the other carers that she was working with. This made the job that they had to do together harder than it should have been. This is because the carer found it hard to work cooperatively with other people around her. The carer not being able to communicate with her colleagues makes her job harder as she is unable to share the information that is needed to complete the tasks that she needs to complete with her colleagues. I noticed that she could work efficiently when she needed to complete tasks on her own but when she needed to work with her colleagues she found it harder to communicate with them. Example 2 Most of the carers in the nursing home were able to communicate with each other efficiently to make it easier to work cooperatively with all of their colleagues. One of the carers was able to work cooperatively with every one of their colleagues. This shows that this certain carer had really good communication skills and was able to work with everyone efficiently and effectively. This makes her job much easier to complete as she is able to communicate the information that is needed for her to complete the task and the job easier. Example 3 During my time on work experience in Singleton Hospital I noticed that the nurses on the ward all worked well together as a team. They were all able to communicate well with each other to make sure that they were able to work together cooperatively. This made their job easier because everyone knew what they had to do to make sure that they were able to complete their task well as a group. Effective communication is important to help the individual preform their role effectively. Having good effective communication helps each health and social care professional complete and preform their role easier. This is because as a health and social care professional their job consists of working with many different people who may have barriers to stop communication working efficiently. Making sure that each health and social care professional is able to communicate efficiently makes their job a lot easier. www. managementstudyguide. com/role-of-communication-in-increasing-work-efficiency. htm(16-11-2013) Example 1 During my time on my college placement I noticed that one of the carers in the nursing home found it hard to communicate effectively with the residents. When she was trying to complete her job with the resident’s she did not communicate properly with them as she did not ask them if they were ready to have a bath or ready to get changed. This made the residents get really frustrated with her because some of them might have not wanted to do what the carer was doing with the resident. This made her task that she needed to complete harder. It is important that each carer asks the residents about what they want to do because they need to make sure that they are promoting independence. The relationship between the professional and the person using the service needs to develop by using good communication skills and the relationship cannot develop if the carer is making the client do something that they do not want to do. Example 2 One of the nurses on the ward that I visited on my work experience found it hard to communicate with the other nurses on the ward. This became a problem when she needed to work as a team with the other nurses. As she found it hard to communicate with others in her team, it made the task that she had to complete harder because she was unable to communicate the information that is needed. As she was a young nurse when she spoke to her colleagues and her patients she sometimes spoke using slag. This made it hard for some people to understand what she was trying to say. Example 3 During my time on my college placement I noticed that the senior carers were able to communicate well with each other and the residents in the nursing home. This made their role easier to do because they were able to communicate with the residents that have barriers to communication. One of the senior carers had to communicate with a resident that found it hard to see and hear her. The senior carer overcame this by speaking louder to the resident and showing the resident that she was there through the use of her non-verbal communication, in this case the career used touch. If she was unable to communicate efficiently she would find her job harder to complete as she would have not been able to overcome the barriers to communication. The role of communication plays an important part to help meet the needs of each individual within each health and social care setting. It is important to make sure each health care professional has effective communication skills to help provide the right care, which is effective to each client using each service. Who we communicate with will depend how health care professional communicate. Communication will depend on the context or situation.