Communicating in Health and Social Care Organisations: A Comprehensive Guide

This report delves into the multifaceted nature of communication within health and social care organizations. It explores relevant communication theories, analyzes the impact of cultural factors and legislation, and examines the role of ICT in enhancing communication practices. The report also provides practical strategies for improving communication processes and addressing potential barriers.

Communicating in Health and Social Care
Organisations
1

Table of Contents
Executive summary...............................................................................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................4
LO1 Be able to explore how communication skills are used in health and social care..........................5
1.1 Apply relevant theories of communication to health and social care contexts.............................5
1.2. Use communication skills in a health and social care context.....................................................9
1.3 Review methods of dealing with inappropriate interpersonal communication between
individuals in health and social care settings...................................................................................10
LO2 Understand how various factors influence the communication process in health and social care.
.............................................................................................................................................................12
2.1 Explain how the communication process is influenced by values and cultural factors..............13
2.2. Explain how legislation, charters and codes of practice impact on the communication process
in health and social care...................................................................................................................14
2.3. Analyse the effectiveness of organizational system and policies in promoting good practices. 15
2.4. Suggest ways of improving the communication process in a health and social care setting......16
LO3- Be able to explore the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in health and
social care............................................................................................................................................18
3.1 Access and use standard ICT software packages to support work in health and social care......18
3.2 Analyse the benefits of using ICT software packages to support work in health and social care
for users of services, care workers and care organizations...............................................................20
3.3 Analyse how legal considerations in the use of ICT impact on health and social care...............21
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................22
References...........................................................................................................................................23
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Executive summary
This report helps to understand the concept of communication. Communication is the method
of transferring the information from one person to the other. If there is proper flow of
communication in organization it leads to attaining the goal. This report analyses the different
aspects of communication with their theories and styles. It also accesses the different
strategies to the users that helps them to understand the techniques and they can easily adapt
the better method communication. It also evaluates the different factors that affect the process
of communication. Legislation plays a crucial role in the organization by establishing the
procedures and standards.
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Introduction
This report discusses the aspects of communication in the health and social care organization.
In this, it analyses the different theories that can be adopted by the organization that helps to
communicate within the organization. Different skills of communication can be evaluated
with different methods. It also an emphasis on the different strategies that can be used by the
workers to ensures the needs of communication. It also helps to understand the different
factors that influence the process of communication in the organization. The legislation also
plays crucial roles that help the employers to understand the practices and codes in
organization. It also accesses the role of ICT in health and social care with their advantages.
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LO1 Be able to explore how communication skills are used in health and social care
Introduction
The communication skills in areas where supporting and helping people during an emergency
are serve a crucial role. They are essential to exchange information, monitor the health of
people, and inspect the overall health improvement of patient’s condition. In this section, we
will see how different theories of communication is applied in health and care contexts and
analyse those strategies.
1.1 Apply relevant theories of communication to health and social care contexts.
The theoretical models serve a useful purpose in planning, application, and evaluating the
outcomes. Many theories are appropriate in understanding the behaviour & decision-making.
In the field of health and social care, social psychology models are often brought into use.
There are numerous communication theories that can be applied in the health and social care
sectors, such as cognitive-theories, psychoanalytic theory, and step-stage theories.
Cognitive Theories: these give a ‘continuum accounts of behaviour’. Cognitive theories
comprise the ‘Theory of Planned Behaviour’ and the ‘Health Belief Model’
Theory of Planned Behaviour: It states that the most appropriatedeterminant of behavior is
to perform a particular behaviour. This is based on the person’s intention to show behaviour
and the intentions can be determined by the following three factors:-
 Assessment of the behaviour i.e., analysing the pros and cons of showing a
behaviour.
 Social Factors, such as peer pressure, media and family problems.
 The perception that usually people have to perform the behaviour.
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(Figure 1. The Theory of Planned Behaviour)
(Source: Value Based Management, 2015)
Health Belief Model
(Figure 2. The Health Belief Model)
(Source: Research gate, 2014)
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The Health Belief Model (HBM) is based on some psychological model and is often used by
the psychologist in order to explain or predict the behaviours. In this, a focus is being put on
the beliefs and attitudes of an individual. In current times, the HBM is used to explore a
variety of short and long-term health behavior. The HBM method does not consider person’s
beliefs, attitudes, or other factors that could actually affect a person’s behaviour (Levinson,
2016).
Psychoanalytic Theory: This is one of the major personality theories based on the idea that a
person gets motivated more by the forces that are guided by the rational and conscious
thoughts. According to Sigmund Freud, the human behaviour is characterised by three
components i.e., Id, Ego, and Super Ego as shown in figure 3.
(Figure 3. Three components of mind in psychoanalytic theory)
(Source: Business Jargons, 2016)
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Step-stage Theory:
This theory was given by Jean Piaget and talks about the cognitive development. It says that a
child goes through four stages of cognitive development. In addition, this theory focuses on
understanding the ways in which a child gain knowledge and their nature of intelligence.
Piaget’s stages include:-
 Sensorimotor stage: 0 to 2 years
 Preoperational stage: between 2 to 7 years
 Concrete operational stage: between 7 to 11 years
 Formal operational stage: from 12 and above
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1.2. Use communication skills in a health and social care context.
Every organisation irrespective of the domain it is dealing in or the scale has its goal and
communication processes and tools help in achieving them. The health and social care
organisations are majorly supported by the process of communication because if the
representatives do not understand the problem of their patients, then how they would
diagnose them. In Cavell Residential Care Home, many techniques are been brought into use
to make sure that the proper communication process is flourishing within the organisation.
Looking into the importance of service users and professional staff, latest technologies should
be introduced and employees should be trained to make use of them to carry out an effective
communication with their client.
Modern equipment and tools are being developed so to improvise the monitoring processes of
social care centres. According to the norms dictated by the National Health Agency, the
training of staff is mandatory for the effectiveness of a good communication process (Epstein,
2016). In many research work, it has been found that practicing a communication effectively
can help in raising the overall performance of the organisation and cast a huge positive
impact over the growth of the health and social care centre. Health and social care sector is
characterized by employees and clients belonging to different race or class or gender, or
ethnicity. In other words, communication is the simplest way to understand the wellbeing of
patients and to tell how he/she is coping with the illness.
A proper communication can help in building healthy relationships with the patients and
other clients and if this is not the case, then misunderstanding takes place that could affect the
image of the organisation. Thus, effective communication act as a pivot to health and social
care sectors around which the activities revolve.
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1.3 Review methods of dealing with inappropriate interpersonal communication
between individuals in health and social care settings.
Effective communication is been stressed because it allows the service users to influence the
decisions made by the health and social care centres. Users can easily figure out what has
been proposed for them. According to Cavell Residential Care Home, the health and social
care sectors, numerous barriers to communication may arise while understanding the patient’s
condition. These are misinterpretation, linguistic barriers, lack of trust, breach of
confidentiality, etc. The lack of knowledge about the particular language is the main reason
behind the inability to explain the health issues to the representatives.
Apart from this, patients may use different signs to indicate his/her illness, but signs can be
interpreted in different ways (Evans, 2016). So in order to cope with all such situations, the
representatives of health and social care centres must be able to grasp the knowledge of
different verbal and non-verbal ways of communications. A proper care should be given
while writing a prescription for the patient in order to avoid problems related to the schedule
of a particular medication and its dosage. The professional dealing in this area should take
care of the confidentiality of the information of their patients and should not disclose it
without their consent.
If in any case, the data confidentiality is breached, then this will lead to communication
failure and breaking of trust. On the other hand, the representatives must not behave
inappropriately with their clients, misuse their powers, and should support their co-workers in
order to form a grounded relationship within the organisation. This would help them in
dealing with the miscommunication.
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1.4 Analyse the use of strategies to support users of health and social care services with
specific communication needs.
As per the head of Cavell Residential Care Home, to formulate some beneficial strategies for
health and social care centres, a large amount of information is needed. It has been found in
many cases that behind some ineffective diagnoses, the main reason was ineffective
communication or misinterpretation of information by the health representatives.
Organisation indulged in health and social care sectors must understand that by using proper
techniques and selecting the good communication skills, one can treat his/her patients with
respect, ask relevant and easily understandable questions, build a healthy relationship and
bring the trust among themselves, thereby helping them in the best way possible.
In addition to this, having some knowledge of technology and other communication tools can
help them in their domain of Excellency and proficiency. The strategy is to motivate the
whole society or community to make use of curative or some preventions for a better
wellbeing. The Health care representatives should make use of the strategies for assessing the
need of their patients and understanding their different signs as linguistic barriers may arise in
some cases. By analysing the users’ needs, an organisation dealing in health and care sector
will be able to satisfy its patients.
Conclusion
In this report, the overall overview of the communication process in health and social care
sectors have been discussed thoroughly. Various theories of communication and their
applicability in the health and social care sectors are analysed briefly and different methods
of dealing with miscommunication situations were reviewed in the course of this report.
Before concluding, an analysis of various strategies in order to support the health and social
care services had been done along with their specific communication needs.
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LO2 Understand how various factors influence the communication process in health
and social care.
Introduction
The communication process is affected by various factors and each of them has its own
implications for the health and social care organisations. In this report, the cultural factors
and values and its relationship with the communication process are analysed. On moving
further, the role of policies and the organisational system is assessed with respect to the
process of communication. Later on, the ways of improving the communication process in
relation to the health and social care centres have been discussed.
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2.1 Explain how the communication process is influenced by values and cultural factors
One can link the communication with the values and culture of people or organization. Since
the professionals working in Cavell Residential Care Home have to deal with individuals
from different religion and ethnicity, communication serves as an instrument to deal with
such cases. Ineffectiveness in understanding the aforementioned factors can lead to
miscommunication and affect the reputation of the organisation. For example, in the United
Kingdom, English is the national language but not everyone is native English speaker.
Therefore, expressing ideas or exchanging the information becomes quite perplexing for most
of the non-English speaker.
Talking about the service users, many times it is quite complicated for them to express their
needs and problems they are facing. This makes them less engaged with their healthcare
professionals. To discard such problems, the Department of Health has guided the health and
social care centres to provide the leaflets to the service users in different languages. In case,
an organisation is not doing so, it will have a drastic impact on the growth of the
organisation.
The evil side of the values and cultural factors is that it leads to discrimination within the
organisation and this should be avoided. Every employee working in the health and social
care sector must respect the working pattern and the thought process of others as a part of
values and cultures. This not only establishes a genuine communication process but it also
fosters the working environment. If values and cultures are not handled with utmost care,
then this may lead to disrespect, hatred, and hesitation (Pirnejad, 2014). Thus, the values and
cultural aspect of an individual cast a severe impact on the communication process.
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2.2. Explain how legislation, charters, and codes of practice impact on the
communication process in health and social care.
Every organisation has to comply with certain legislation and guidelines set by the
government. The government of the UK are continuously telling the health sector
organisation to improve their communication process and organisations are working to
improvise it. The benefits of an effective communication process are many: it gives them the
confidence to work efficiently and integrate every stakeholder in the progress of the
organisation. Talking about the Data Protection Act 1998, this legislation entitled the
organisations to build a smooth communication between the social care organisation and the
service users. This provide them the right of protected data i.e., their data is to be protected in
a very safe conditions and they can communicate their health information to their healthcare
representative.
Moreover, it was earlier discussed that discrimination hinders the communication process.
Therefore, to curb this issue, the Equality Act 2010 protects people from getting
discriminated based on age, beliefs, sex, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, education, and social
class. Apart from this, According to United Nation Report, the NHA mandates every social
care or health centre to store a health record of every patient (WHO report). The UK
legislation obligates the organisation to formulate a company HR policy to hire health service
providers and other staff with required communication and language skills so as to make
some grounded relationships and to maintain the warmth of it (Sorensen, 2012). This would
ultimately improve the country health service quality and standards.
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2.3. Analyse the effectiveness of organizational system and policies in promoting
good practices.
No doubt that policies and organisational system play a crucial role in setting up an effective
communication system. They help in maintaining a healthy relationship with clients, values,
and behaviour. It reflects the friendly environment within the organisation. The effectiveness
and productivity of an organisation depends upon its policies and to maintain a healthy
working environment firms keep on making changes in their current policies and
organisational system. Policies make employees responsible and ethical. It makes them
disciplined and focused towards their work and they understand the consequences of not
following them. This responsible attitude is quintessential in improvising the communication
process within an organisation.
The important part of every effective communication process is getting the feedback from the
customers about the service quality. Feedbacks can be positive and negative, and organisation
must consider both of them so as to make the apt changes in their procedures to deliver the
best to their customers. Many research works have shown that policies help in setting up an
effective communication system at the work premises which further assists in employee
development. The policies against discrimination, for health and safety, or equality promote a
smooth communication process at work place. Policies for appreciation and reward can
actually trigger the employee to improve the level of communication (Marmot, 2014).
There are many ways of improving the communication process in health care centre, such as
relationship building sessions, implementing legal policies, employee training, etc.
Formulating and implementing the legal policies is one of the most powerful tool that can be
used in improving the communication process. The idea is to induce the sense of
responsibility in the work force. In addition to this, relationship building sessions are
mentioned because the immensely help in health and social care settings. These sessions can
be organised by the organisation for its employees regularly to make the workplace friendly.
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2.4. Suggest ways of improving the communication process in a health and social care
setting.
Everyone who is connected to health and social care organisation must understand the
importance of a functioning process of communication as it is the most crucial requirement of
their profession. Out of many ways, one such way is to bring trust in the relationship. This
could be done by the provision of data security. By securing the information of the clients,
one can discard the misunderstanding and complications in the communication process. In
many research, it has been found that by implementing the sustainable and dynamic rules in
the documentation of the reports, one can improve the communication process.
Making use of certain technological aids or other communication tools can serve the purpose
of establishing the effective mode of communication in the organisation (Ventola, 2014). In
health care, there are persons with certain disabilities. So providing them an opportunities to
exchange their thoughts can majorly improve the organisation goodwill in the market. The
barriers to communication can be many but if an organisation understands, easily identify
them and work to rectify them, then it can ultimately forms a healthy communication process.
Service providers must understand the processes and activities that are essential for the
complicated process of communication and should train their employee in accordance with
them. Having a helping desk for the customers in the health care centres can also be an
effective move in the direction of establishing the communication process in the organisation.
These desk can provide information, listen to the problem the patients are facing (Viner, et.al,
2012). Therefore, one must provide a training program that helps them to increase their
language and communication skills, and helps them to cater to the different language users.
Conclusion
In this report, the factors that affect the communication process have been discussed briefly.
Apart from this, the role of organisational system and policies has been elucidated. Before
ending this report, a brief about the ways of improving the communication process within a
health and social care centre are mentioned.
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LO3- Be able to explore the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in
health and social care.
Introduction
In this task, it discusses the different types of software packages that can be used by the
Cavell Residential Care Home in London. It also evaluates its advantages in relation to
the workers, users, and organizations. It also accesses the legal impact on the use of ICT
on H& SC.
3.1 Access and use standard ICT software packages to support work in health and
social care.
The software is the programming instructions and applications that enables to use the
computer and helps the organizations. There are different software packages that can be
used by the Cavell Residential care home to communicate with each other at the time of
emergency. Different software packages are word-processing, database, internet, email
etc.(Tondeur, et. al., 2017).
If the organisation can use the software they can improve their standards of services that
can be provided to the patients. By using the standards they can easily understand the
routine and schedule of the patients and proper treatments can be provided to the
patients. Different software is discussed below:
Word-processing: This software can be used to manipulate the document such as report,
resume and it also provides the different tools for copying, deleting. It also saves and
edits the documents. The organization can easily the move, paste and deleted the data
with the help of word processing. For example, if Cavell Residential care home wants to
make the table and charts of the patients to know the data they can use this software.
Database: It is the electronic arsenal of data that can be build by the users to review the
information of patients in coherent and rapid manner. This software package is designed
to create the system of databases that can be changed, managed and helps to extract the
information in the organization.
Internet: It is also considered as the package as it provides the wide variety of
information and communication facilities through the different standards and protocols.
For example, if the organization uses the facilities of internet then they can easily extract
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the data and information of patients and also search the services and techniques that can
be provided to the patients in case of emergency.
Email: It is the software that can be used by the doctors to know the information of
patients. It takes less time and through this large number of organization gets connected.
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3.2 Analyse the benefits of using ICT software packages to support work in health and
social care for users of services, care workers, and care organizations.
In today’s era, the ICT software can be used by the numbers of individuals, service users
and organizations that help them to review and monitor the functions of organization.
The software of ICT helps to increase the efficiency and speed in providing the care by
the health care providers and it also allows the personalization and communication of the
information. The ICT helps the doctors to analyse and access the reports of patients with
the help of internet. It also allows monitoring the different test such as breathing, sugar
test, a pulsing rate that leads to providing the more time and concentration on the
patients.
There is different software such as Electronic Health Record that provides the history of
patients and that allows the doctors to reduce the errors by analysing the data of the
patients. Services users can receive the advantages by using the different electronic
devices that monitors the level of blood. ICT helps to deliver the information and data
through the communication service and also shares the information from one
organization to other. The users who avail the facilities of ICT they can easily take the
data and methods of solving the problem of diseases of patients. The workers can easily
understand the methods and process of the organization so that they can lead to a goal
and provides the better services to the doctors and patients. Cavell Residential care home
by using the ICT they can access the data easily and helps the patients in ascertaining
their diseases with different functions and also provides them effective remedy( Oh, et.
al., 2018).
If the services provider uses the ICT there will be less chance of accidents in relation to
the patients. They can reallocate the expenses on health as well as social care that will be
cost and time effective. It also encourages the safety environment for the patients. If
organizations use the ICT there will be the transformation of better quality products to
their patients as they analyse the services with their positive and negative
aspects(Bánszki, et. al., 2018).
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3.3 Analyse how legal considerations in the use of ICT impact on health and social care.
Legal consideration of Health and social care will provide the security to the workers,
staff, and organizations. It is helpful to collect the data and that can be secured and
remains in the confidential position. There are different legislations that help the
organization in framing the policies and plans. These are:
Health and Safety Act, 1974: It provides the duties on employers. The manager and
employer are responsible for the health and safety of workers in the organization that
ensures the safety environment in the hospital. While using the ICT applications and
software the workers have faced the different problems such as eye problem that leads to
the eye pain and strain due to continuous work. It is the responsibility of the employer to
provide them facilities and safety to employees (Spiezia, 2018).
Display Screen Equipment Regulation 1992: This regulation aims to protect the health
of the worker through the computerized monitor systems. In this, the executive is
responsible to protect the workers from the health risks to those workers who perform
the task with display screen equipment (DSE) such as PC’s, laptops. The employers
should reduce the risks and provides the proper training to their workers so that they can
perform better in the organization.
Data Protection Act 1998: This ensures that the information placed on the computer that
can be protected through the use of passwords and encryptions to allow the
confidentiality. As there is different software through which information can be leaked or
hacked and that affects the health and social care(Gilligan, et. al., 2018).
Conclusion
From the above task, it can be determined that ICT plays a significant role in the Health
and social care. It provides the applications and software to the organizations so that they
can perform better in organization.
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Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that communication is the important aspects
in the organization. It can be analyses’ that all the employees should be experienced and
skilled so that they can easily use and apply the different theories to improve the skills of
communication. It also adopted different strategies that support the health and social care
with their needs. It also establishes the role of systems and policies that lead to the
improving the process of communication. It also understands the role of ICT that helps
to keep the data secure and protected. With the help of ICT, the process of
communication will be easy and safe that provides the updated technology to the
employees. It also provides the better procedures and plans for the organization.
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