Interpersonal Skills In Health And Social Care

This sample paper on Interpersonal Skills In Health And Social Care offers a framework of relevant facts based on the recent research in the field. Read the introductory part, body and conclusion of the paper below.

In this assessment I am going to demonstrate an understanding of effective communication and interpersonal interaction in health and social care. I am also going to talk about the types of communication i.e. formal and informal and also what is good or bad communication.

One-to-one communication

When starting a conversation with someone you have never met before, you should first try to start a positive atmosphere with the right kind of feeling. It is also very important to create a positive emotional atmosphere so that the person can feel comfortable with you from the start so you can discuss complicated issues or give information. For example when I was working in the nursery I had to talk to the child that was crying because they didn’t want to leave they parents so I had a one to one conversation with him and I made sure that the child knew that I was happy with him and wanted him to come play with me and to stop crying by my facial expression and body language.

I asked him a lot of open questions like ‘What did you do at the weekend? and How was you Christmas? He was talking back. He felt relaxed and happy which made him forget about his parents not being around.

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He was happy to speak to me and he felt like he was not alone.

• How a conversation could go
• Greeting or a warm up
• Conversation or information exchange
• Farewells or winding-down

Why Is Communication Important In Health And Social Care

When you have got someone talking and relaxed you have created a good feeling. You can now start to talk about anything with them. Sometimes you can even start a personal conversation asking how their health and family are and talk about any problems they are going through. When the conversation is coming to a end you would want the person to want to talk to you again so you have to leave with the right kind of emotions. You could end it with a phrase like ‘see you soon’ which shows them that you enjoyed their company and would like to talk to them again and to also show that you value them.

Group communication

Group communication only works when everyone is involved. Some people are open but on the other hand some people are quiet and don’t like to talk so they feel threatened if their have to speak within a formal group of people so there might stay quiet because they are worried about people reactions, I was working in a youth club and I had to get the children talking about an activity the club wanted to do with them. It’s very important that everyone in the group feels included because that will bring the right atmosphere and my job was to hear what they wanted to do. The youths in the group often use humour or other friendly ways of behaving to create the right group feeling, this will encourages them to talk and get involved. Creating the right atmosphere involves ‘maintaining’ the group so this aspect of group communication is often called group maintenance.

Group leader

There are different type of groups sometimes you need a leader and other times you don’t, but the groups with the leader turn out to be more successful than those with out a leader. In meetings or classroom discussions you would find a leader or a chairman for example in the youth meeting I took with the youths I was the leader and because the discussion had a leader it was successful everyone new I was the leader as well so when I said you talk there talk and I made sure there was no trouble makers there. When talking or arguing with your friends you often don’t have a leader that’s why it’s often loud and get out of control. Having a leader is very useful because the leader can encourage people to say what they have to say and for people to speak one at a time. The leading also often encourages people to focus on a particular task within a group.

See of signs and symbols

In a working environment signs and symbols are everywhere because its one of the best way of communicating without saying anything instead putting a picture where everyone can see it. I am going to be talking about how effective signs and symbols are in a care setting environment. People from backgrounds ages and even race if you put a sign in front of them there would be able to tell you what the sign says. When I was working in a nursery there was a child who could not speak English so we had to teach her using signs and symbols. When we wanted to talk to her we used sign language and she could understand everything we were trying to say.

In the nursery I was working in there was lots of signs everywhere because children like colours, signs and symbols these are normally in lots of different colours. There could be signs or a symbol for every word in for example…

• This sign mean wash your hands after using the toilet.
• Sign language is used a lot even in a nursery because

Written communication

Written communication is the best way of remembering what you have been told for example when I started my work placement I was given an introduction package showing me where everything was and what the nursery was all about. I still use it even through I am working there. Written communication allows you to keep information for as long as you want.

When we had staff meeting we would have a sheet that tell as what the meeting is about before the meeting start and the order the meeting is going to go. When something is written its also easier to understand when someone is saying it because you can read it as much times as you want where us if someone is saying it and you miss what there said you would have to ask to say it again and if you keep asking then the person will be angry with you.

In class when we are set work the teacher will tell us to write down or take notes on what he is saying so that when we are doing it alone we would know what to write and how to do it. In the nursery I was working in I had to do an activity with the children so I done a written activity where there are going to learn how to write and spell there names it was very successful because there got to take it home and learn it even more and now there all know how to spell there names and write it.

Language (first language, dialect, slang, jargon)

When it comes to language and communication it goes to ways because sometimes when you want to communicate with someone you have to speak in a language where there can understand you. Because different localities, ethnic groups and cultures all have their own way of communicating with each other and if you’re not from that group you would not be able to understand what there saying. The fact that you can’t understand what there saying some people are threatened or exclude by the kind of language they encounter in these speech communities however just using formal language will not solve this problem for example jargon is when complicated words are been used because the person and the phone is not going to understand so the communication with you and the person will be broken.

People from different geographical areas also use different ways of speaking to each other for example there are words that is used in south east London that are not used in north London for example strap in south means gun straly in north also means gun this is called slang. Slang is non-standard words that are understood by other members of a speech community but which cannot usually be found in a dictionary. When I was working in my nursery I child came from France and not speak a word of English so it was hard to communicate with her so we had to teach her English using her language and mixing it will English so that she can learn.

There was another case where a child has an older brother and the older brother speaks slang and the child picked it up and could understand so when I speak to the child I would use slang and the child could understand me more than any other teacher. It is very hard to communicate with someone if don’t speak there language because you would have to keep repeating yourself. According to the author and psychologist Steven Pinker (1994) estimated that there maybe about 600 languages in the world that are spoken by more than 100,000 people he also believe that there are many more minority languages.

Some people grow up in multilingual communities where they learn several languages from birth. Where us children in the UK have grown up to only use one language to think and communicate with which is English. The people who learn second language later on in life often find that they cannot communicate their thoughts as effectively as they might have done using their first language. The first language that people have learned to think in usually becomes their preferred language.

Non-verbal communication (posture, facial expression, touch, silence, proximity, reflective listening)

From the first time you meet someone you usually be able to tell how there are feeling for example if there angry, tried, happy, sad and even frightened even if there haven’t said anything. You can usually guess what a person feels by studying their non-verbal communication. Non-verbal means with out word. We send this message using our eyes, the tone of our voice, facial expression, our hands and arms, gestures with our hands and arms, the hands and arm the angle of our head, and the way we sit

To tell people what you‘re thinking of or how you are feeling.

When I was working in nursery from the first moment I walked in the room where the kids was I new their characters just my the way their was sitting to listen to the story for example some children were next to the teacher listen to teacher does was the children I thought are good students and a child was trying to talk to the other and he said no. So from that moment I could just see who troubles are and who are not. From the moment I walked in I new the children that was happy to see and the ones that are not just by their facial expression and when I said hi the voice of their voice in the reply. I was talking to a member of staff and this child came up to me and put his hands out and I picked him up I didn’t even have to say anything for the child he just felt happy with me.

The use of British sign language

The British sign language is used in the UK and it’s the first preferred language of some deaf people. The language involves movement of the hands, body, face and head. Thousands of people who aren’t deaf also use British sign language for example if a person is angry and someone is asking them a question they might answer with a head nod. As hearing relatives of deaf people, sign language interpreters or as a result of other contact with the British deaf community

Use of sign

Its not only people who have a disability .i.e. deaf or blind use signs and signed languages to communicate as many people who have perfect hearing frequently use non-verbal communication techniques when your out socializing with friends and even out home. We all use sign language in fact it is probably used more often than we realise as sometime you are unaware that you are using forms of sign language to communicate.

Variation between cultures

Culture variations can have a big effect on the way people communicate non-verbally. For example actions that are not seen as offensive in your home country may be seen very offended to foreign countries. That’s why communication with people from different cultures is especially challenging. Cultures provide people with different ways of thinking, seeing things, hearing, and interpreting the world.