Effective Communication in Health and Social Care

This assignment provides an overview of the importance of effective communication in health and social care services. It discusses various types of barriers that can affect communication among co-workers and between healthcare professionals and patients, such as emotional and cultural barriers. The assignment also highlights the need for self-improvement and developing effective skills to overcome these barriers. Additionally, it emphasizes the use of strategies to support users with specific needs, including written, verbal, and non-verbal communication methods. This is a useful resource for students looking for past papers and solved assignments on this topic.

COMMUNICATION IN
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1 ..............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Shannon and Weaver model of communication ..................................................................1
1.2 Use of communication skills in health and social care.........................................................2
1.3 Barriers in communication ...................................................................................................2
1.4 Use of strategies to support user of health and social services ............................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Communication is one of the most essential element within each and every organisation,
it helps to share ideas, plans and thoughts among various stakeholders related to the business.
This report is in context to National health services(NHS), which refers to each and every public
health services in United Kingdom. The report will discuss about various communication
theories used within health and social care services along with the communication skills used
within the same. The report will also determine methods of dealing with inappropriate
interpersonal communication with health and social care services. Furthermore, this study will
analyse the use of strategies supporting users of the heath & social care services.
Task 1
1.1 Shannon and Weaver model of communication
This model of communication was developed in the year 1948, it was created when
Claude Elwood Shannon wrote an article “A Mathematical theory of communication” in Bell
system technical journal with warren weaver (Kroshus, Chrisman and Rivara, 2017).
Concepts in Shannon Weaver Model
 Sender(Source of Information) – Sender is an individual who develops a message,
chooses the channel and sends the information or message.
 Encoder(Transmitter) – Encoder is a sender who utilise machine that transform
message into signals or binary data. It might also directly refer to the machine.
 Channel – Channel is the medium utilised in order to send message or information.
 Decoder(Receiver) – Decoder is the machine utilised for converting signals or binary
data into message of the receiver who convert the message from signals.
 Receiver (Destination) – A receiver is the individual who receives the message or the
place where the message must reach. The receiver gives feedback with respect to the
message.
 Noise- Noise refers to the physical disturbance such as people, environment etc which
becomes a barrier between the receiver and message.
In context to NHS, Shannon and weaver model of communication plays a vital role in
promoting health and social care (Finset and etal., 2017).. Each and every day few minutes of the
prime time on radio and television is dedicated to health promotion purposes. For example –
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Videos on dieting and exercise, the source of information or sender is NHS itself, encoder is the
network or television service provider, channel is Television, decoder are the viewers of patients.
Noise in this communication can be language differences or lack of connectivity to television
network.
1.2 Use of communication skills in health and social care
Communication is referred to a two way process between the sender and receiver, it helps
in allowing people to interact or share ideas with others as well as to develop a relationship with
them. In the process of transmitting message through different channels the various
communication skills are used including questioning, listening, reflecting, explanation,
consultation, mentoring and summarizing. Good skills of listening consist of hearing what other
people are saying and thinking as what to respond, it is also known as active listening. It is a
major skills used in the verbal communication (Kirschbaum, 2017). For example –
communication between doctor and patients orally in a appointment. On the other hand there is
non-verbal communication that includes gestures or symbols. For example – No-smoking
symbols within hospitals or bulletin boards in healthcare organisations consisting demonstration
of human body. The other type of communication skill required in health and social care services
is written communication skills. It includes message or information in written form that is
transmitted between sender and receiver. For example – Doctors prescription, it includes
medicines that needs to be consumer by patients for getting well.
1.3 Barriers in communication
There are various barriers in communication that the transfer of message from sender to
receiver. These barriers affects the quality of communication process, these barriers can be
described as below -
1. Language barriers – Language plays an important role in communication process, the
ways in individuals speak or convey message is different. If the receiver is not able to
understand sender is using in a communication process he or she will fail to understand
the message or information conveyed the them (Moore and et.al., 2018).
2. Interpersonal barriers – This is another barrier that affects overall communication
process, inability to make relationship or poor self esteem with others can influence the
actual communication among the co-workers within an organisation. For example – a
doctor do not talk much with ward boys because of self esteem.
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3. Emotional barriers – These barriers includes lack of self confidence and resistance to
communicate with others. For example – if a patient is suffering from a serious disease
which is difficult to be treated, doctor resist or feel bad to tell them about it. This is a kind
of emotional barrier that highly influence communication process in the health and social
care services (Alabdulhafith, Alqarni and Sampalli, 2018).
In order to overcome these barriers, health and social care professionals must pursue self-
improvement for developing effective skills. Improving written, verbal and non verbal
communication skills can assist them to share and convey ideas or thought with others
successfully.
1.4 Use of strategies to support user of health and social services
There are different types of people or patients with specific communication needs using
health and social care services. Some patients may not understand English and some may not be
to speak, some may be uneducated and some may be deaf. For such patients, it is very essential
for the healthcare profession to choose the most appropriate method of communication such as
written, verbal and non-verbal communication (Lee, 2017). For example – if a patients has
problem in hearing, healthcare professionals can use written or non-verbal communication to
convey a message. If a patient do not understand English, doctors or nurses can use a translator.
It is important all these needs of the patients in order to provide the best health and social care
services.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kroshus, E., Chrisman, S.P. and Rivara, F.P., 2017. Parent Beliefs about Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy: Implications for Ethical Communication by Healthcare Providers. The
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 45(3), pp.421-430.
Finset, A., Bieber, C., Brown, R.F., Deveugele, M. and Pieterse, A., 2017. The perspective of the
person in healthcare: Listening to and engaging persons in healthcare.
Kirschbaum, K.A., 2017. Intercultural Communication in Healthcare. The International
Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication, pp.1-13.
Moore, P.M., Rivera, S., Bravo‐Soto, G.A., Olivares, C. and Lawrie, T.A., 2018.
Communication skills training for healthcare professionals working with people who
have cancer. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (7).
Alabdulhafith, M., Alqarni, A. and Sampalli, S., 2018, September. Customized communication
between healthcare members during the medication administration stage. In Proceedings
of the 20th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile
Devices and Services (p. 49). ACM.
Lee, C., 2017. The role of interpersonal relations in healthcare team communication and patient
safety.
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