Data Protection Act Compliance in Healthcare Communication

According to the Data Protection Act, firms in the health and social care sector must obtain consent from service users before disclosing their personal information to third parties. Effective communication is crucial for healthcare professionals to interact with patients and convey information accurately. To achieve this, they can employ various theories and methods. Additionally, care firms can utilize ICT software packages to improve their work efficiency.

Communicating

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Theories of communication to health and social care ..........................................................1
1.2 Usage of communication skills ............................................................................................2
1.3 Review of methods of dealing with inappropriate interpersonal communication ...............3
1.4 Strategies that exist to support users of health and social care with complex health needs .3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Communication process is
influenced by values and cultures .............................................................................................4
2.2 Current and past legislation,
codes of practice impact on the communication process ..........................................................4
2.3 Effectiveness of organisational
systems and policies ..................................................................................................................5
2.4 Ways of improving the communication
process in health and social care setting ...................................................................................6
TASK 3 + PPT.................................................................................................................................6
3.1 How to use and access standard ICT software packages at workplace ................................6
3.2 Benefits of using ICT software packages in health and social care .....................................7
3.3 Impact of legal consideration with respect to ICT in health and social care organisation ...7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The main motive of health and social sector is to deliver high quality and excellent care
services to all types of service users. For this purpose, communication process plays an important
role in order to understand the requirements and needs of patients. In this sector, effective
communication is essentially required between health care professionals and service users.
Process of communication is a simple act of exchanging or conveying the information from one
person to another. In every care organisation communication factor is essentially required to
attain the objectives at workplace.
The present research reports helps in understanding the concept of communication in
Health and Social Care (HSC) sector. It also evaluates various methods and theories which help
in resolving the issues of inappropriate communication in care firm. Along with this, report also
describes the ways for improving communication and impact of legislation, charters and code of
practice on this. It also evaluates the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
software package in this care sector.
TASK 1
1.1 Theories of communication to health and social care
There are various types of communication theories which help in improving the
interaction process at workplace. These theories are such as operant conditioning, cognitive,
humanistic, psychoanalytic and behaviourist learning theory etc. In this, psychoanalytic theory of
communication to HSC is discussed below as:
According to Freud, the current theory is based on the behaviour of individuals. In this,
behaviour of human is generally shaped by the experience that encounters by him throughout
their life events. Individuals tend to deal with various situations consciously but in real manner,
it will be driven by their unconscious intuitions. In this, Freud defines that emotions and current
feeling are involved in conscious mind. On the other side, past life experiences are included in
unconscious mind whereas recollected memory involves in preconscious mind. In this, Freud
divides the humans mind in three stages such as ID, ego and super ego. The communication
process is based on these three stages of humans (Communication Theory. 2012). This theory
represents a base of communication in HSC context. For example, a service user is not able to
express his problems in words. In this situation, caring roles or health assistant neglects him then
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there are chances of occurrence of both unconscious and preconscious mind. This situation
creates a communication gap at the workplace of care organisation between service user and
caring roles.
Strengths- The strength of this theory is that it enables the patients to interact and communicate
with their health professionals with respect to health issues. With the help of this theory, patient
easily gets relived with their medical illness symptoms (Gradinger, Britten and Popay, 2015).
Weaknesses- The overall results which are carried out by this theory are quite difficult to
measure.
In addition, other is humanistic theory which helps in developing the both hope and
positive attitude in care organisation among service user and caring roles. It mainly emphasis on
respect and goodness of mankind. By adopting and implementing this theory, care organisation
will be able to create friendly, corporate and open environment in order to reduce the chances of
communication gap.
1.2 Usage of communication skills
According to given case study, a local day centre in East London provides care and
support services to people who have learning disabilities, challenging behaviour and mental
health issues. In this, new recruiters use the English as a second language. With the help of
effective and clear communication process, health professionals will be able to fulfil the
requirements of patients (Arnold and Boggs, 2015). With the help of communication skills,
carers will be able to understand the needs of people who have mental health issues and learning
disabilities. In order to convey the message, service users can use various tools of
communication such as:
Verbal communication
By speaking words, information is delivered to patients. With the help of this method,
health care professionals and service user effectively communicate with each other. In case, if a
patient is hearing impaired then by speaking words, information cannot be transmitted. In order
to resolve this problem, health professionals can use the lip reading mechanism to convey the
information (Gallois and Giles, 2015).
Written communication
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With the purpose of conveying the information to service users, carers can draw the
image or write the content on the paper. Through this, service users will be able to understand
the meaning of information.
Non Verbal communication
With the help of this mechanism, health care professional can convey the message by
doing facial expressions and body languages. The staff members can use the graphics and images
options to deliver the message. In addition, by forming the shapes from hands means sign
language's method can be used by health care assistants at the time of offering services to
learning disable people.
Body language: Body language is also one of the form of communication in health and social
care sector. This helps in expressions and feelings with different body languages. This is one of
the most effective ways which can be used in communicating with different people in health and
social care organisation. This helps in expressions thoughts and feelings in easier way as
compared to verbal form of communication.
Listening: Listening is also a form of communication were employees and service users are
engaged in listening activities so that they are able to communicate with the other individuals in
more effective manner. Listening is usually practised in meetings and other conferences where a
person discusses on a various topic and other members are engaged in listening to him/her so that
they can express their views later on.
1.3 Review of methods of dealing with inappropriate interpersonal communication
In HSC organisation, the situation of interpersonal communication basically arises from
the wrong use of vocabulary, sign language symbol or misinterpretation of body languages etc.
At workplace of care organisation, the situation of interpersonal interaction mainly leads to
communication gap. If the barriers are too strong then, process of communication gets highly
affected. As per the given case scenario, it is evaluated that new recruiters mainly uses the
English as a second language. This situation creates a communication gap between service user,
health professionals and staff members as well. In this context, the barriers of proper
communication are such as breach of confidentiality, power, trust, inappropriate language, in
congruent message and misinterpretation of message etc. This concept will be understood with
the help of one example such as a patient of day care centre belongs to another country then it is
obvious that he is unaware of English language. So, at the time of communicating and interacting
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with patient, health professionals are required to use various types of communication methods
non verbal, verbal and written etc. (Piper, McIlwraith and Watson, 2015). In order to convey the
message, health professional can convey the message by using sign language but there are
chances that meaning of signs may differ in another country. There are more chances that patient
misunderstood the meaning of particular sign which creates inappropriate interpersonal
communication. In order to understand the requirement of service use, open and clear language is
required at the time of communication among health care professionals and service user.
1.4 Strategies that exist to support users of health and social care with complex health needs
In HSC, effective communication is essentially required to fulfil the medical
requirements of service users. With the purpose of establishing effective communication at
workplace, health care workers require to use various types of strategies. In order to meet the
expectations of people who have learning disability, mental health issues, autism, dementia,
hearing and visual impaired, few strategies could be used. In this, proper training can be
provided to all health professionals and caring roles, so that they can meet and support the
patients. The training sessions may include verbal and non verbal methods of communication.
After training, all health care workers will be able to effectively interact and communicate with
patients by using gestures, facial expressions, sign languages and lip reading mechanism. In
addition to this, technology tools such as reading lenses system, Braille system and voice
recognition etc. can also be used by workers of HSC sector in order to deliver effective care and
support services (Egbert, 2016). Further, other language knowing people can be hired at
workplace so that they can work as an inter mediator or a translator between patient of another
country and health professionals. In order to resolve the problems related to other languages, care
firm can also use the picture exchange communication mechanism in which graphics and video
could be provided to patients so that they can understand their medical health situations.
TASK 2
2.1 Communication process is influenced by values and cultures
In health and social care sector, process of communication is mainly influenced by values
and culture of both service user and health care professional. In order to attain the target of
delivering effective care services to patients, it is essentially required for care firms to respect
their culture and values. In this communication process is influenced by both factors are such as:
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Culture and Values factor- In care firm, there are many services users who relates to diverse
culture. So, it is very important and essential to respect the cultural values of every patient with
the purpose of making them satisfied with care firm. In this, difference present not only in
culture but also on other things such as background, religion, language and ethnicity etc. Due to
large scale of diversification, it is very difficult for caring roles to respect these factors. In this, it
is essentially required for care firm to respect the ethnicity and religion of patient in special
manner (Gould, Berkowitz and Bronstein, 2015). The reason is if a patient belongs to Muslim
religion then they request from care fir to provide Halal food. In this, care organisation has to
consider this request in effective manner. In health and social sector, meet the requirements of
services users without hurting their cultural values. In respect to gender and age, there are many
patients who are old age, children and females etc. By considering the age of patients, caring
roles requires to handle accordingly like more attention required by both kids and older people.
2.2 Current and past legislation,
codes of practice impact on the communication process
Legislations are made by government for the well being of both service user and health
professionals. It is a group of various types of laws which helps in improving the life of
individuals in effective manner. The department of health information charter, mainly looks after
the personal data and informations of health care firms. All the data is stored in more safe and
secure manner so that effective services could be provided to them. In addition, data protection
act 1998 control the power of both government and organisation in terms of using the personal
information of service users. This act ensures that information of all patients are used and
accessed in secured way or not. By following this act, care organisation stored the patient's data
in more safety way (Baker and Watson, 2015). The confidentiality is maintained because
personal information can not be disclosed to any other third party without taking permission of
owner. In codes of practice, six Caldicott principle is included. It is applied to handling the
identifiable information of service user in effective way. In helps in justifying that why the
identifiable personal information of service user is being used by organisation such as situation
of transferring them etc. In addition, the discrimination act reduces the chances of discrimination
on basis of few grounds such as sex, age, physical disability, religion or culture.
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2.3 Effectiveness of organisational
systems and policies
The effective and good practices of communication process increase the trust and
satisfaction among patients in respect to care and support services. The good practices helps in
building the building confidence and improving the efficiency of care services effectively. Every
care organisation in health and social care sector are required to implement and promote the
effective policies which promotes the good communication at workplace. In promoting good
practices of communication process, the effectiveness of organisational policies and systems are
defined below such as:
Organisational System
It is very important for care firms to maintaining their working environment effectively
and appropriately. In care firm, every caring roles and workers have their specific roles and
responsibility which contributes in achieving the strategic objectives in relation to offering
effective care services to meet the requirements of patients in fast and accurate manner. In order
to manage the work effectively, it is essentially required to assign the roles and responsibility to
every care worker (Glanz, Rimer and Viswanath, 2015).
Organisational policies
With the purpose of promoting effective communication at workplace, care organisations
are required to develop and implement the effective policies. The organisational policies may
relates to safe guarding, discrimination, equal growth opportunity and confidentiality etc.
2.4 Ways of improving the communication process in health and social care setting
In health and social care sector to improve the communication system, NHS (National
Health Services) takes the initiative to implement RiO system. In this daily progress records of
service users are stored with high level of security. With the help of this system, medical records
related files can be retrieve and update in fast manner. In order to resolve the problem of
communication in respect to other language, care home is required to hire the new recruiter on
the basis of English as their first language, qualification and education etc. further there are also
several types of ways and methods are present to make the communication more effective and
clear in organisation (Rosse, Essink-Bot and Wagner, 2015). In this, methods such as verbal, non
verbal, written, one to one and group discussion etc. along with this, to make the communication
more effective and interesting, health care professionals can convey the information in form of
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video, graphics and presentation. Further, the care organisations also required to follow the laws
and policies in respect to improving communication process at workplace. The regular training
can be provided to all health care workers and person with a knowledge of other languages van
be hire as a staff member.
TASK 3 + PPT
3.1 How to use and access standard ICT software packages at workplace
In nature, information technology is a type of umbrella which holds various applications,
communication devices, software, hardware networking and satellite systems etc. In present time
ICT (In formation Communication technology) is used in many things such as libraries,
education and healthy care organisation etc. According to given case scenario, it can be defines
that ICT package support this sector in many ways such as data analysis, spread sheet and power
point presentation etc. In order to use their software package, internet connection is essentially
required. In this without connecting with internet, this software can not be used. I use the Digital
Blood Pressure device at my workplace which helps in measuring the blood pressure counts of
patients in more accurate manner. In relation to this, it is also important for me to store their
medical records (Robson and Robinson, 2015). For this purpose, I use the spreadsheet and
database tools. Further, to convey the information to other colleagues at my workplace, I also use
the power point presentation method. In this various images and diagrams van be attached which
makes the information more useful and presentable. It is very helpful in defining and explaining
the things to others through charts and images. In addition, to communicate with my other
members, I use the electronic mail method. It helps in improving the communication level at my
workplace because by using this all staff members can easily and effectively communicate with
each other (Callaghan and McBride, 2015).
3.2 Benefits of using ICT software packages in health and social care
In health and social care, various types of benefits can be get by suing the ICT software
package. In this, benefits are such as flexibility, security and reliability etc. This also helps in
increasing the effectiveness, efficiency and capabilities of staff members. It also maintains good
communication and healthy relationship among service users, health professionals and staff
members of care firm. Buy using this ICT software method, chances of medical errors also
reduces and it also improves the quality of treatment services. By using the database option, it
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helps in storing and maintaining the medical records data of patient in easy manner. For the
security purpose, passwords can be set on data base so that any other person can not access and
misuse the personal information of patients (Piper, McIlwraith and Watson, 2015). By using the
enterprise resource planning mechanism, care firms are able to keep a close eye on their
performance. It updates daily informations in respect to project progress, work effectiveness,
project status and employees performance etc. The advance feature of taking automatic backup at
daily manner helps in regaining the all important lost data and informations.
3.3 Impact of legal consideration with respect to ICT in health and social care organisation
In order to use the ICT package in health and social care sector, wide varieties of legal
laws and acts are required to be considered. This ICT software package entails both advantages
and disadvantages. The over and ineffective usage of this results to cause many issues which
may relates to arm injury, back pain due to poor sitting posture and eyesight problem. In order to
resolve the problems which are related to ICT software use, care firms are required to follow one
act that is known as Misuse of Computer Act, 1990 (Slawomirski and Iedema, 2015). With the
help of this act, all employees of care firms are advised to use it in an appropriate and in limited
way. Along with this, to make the health workers and services users more safe and secure, care
firms are required to follow health and safety act. Further, as per this data protection act, cited
firm has to take the permissions to owner in order to disclose his personal information in front of
third party.
CONCLUSION
With the help of this present research report it is articulated that communication process
plays a vital role sector of health and social care. In order to deal and interact with service users,
it is essential for health experts to have the effective communication skills. In addition to this,
they can also use various theories and methods at the time of conveying the information to
patients. On other side, to make the work more effective, care firms can also use the ICT soft
ware packages.
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Gradinger, F., Britten, N. and Popay, J., 2015. Values associated with public involvement in
health and social care research: a narrative review. Health Expectations. 18(5). pp.661-
675.
Arnold, E.C. and Boggs, K.U., 2015. Interpersonal relationships: Professional communication
skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Gallois, C. and Giles, H., 2015. Communication accommodation theory. The International
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Wood, J., 2015. Interpersonal communication: Everyday encounters. Nelson Education.
Egbert, N., 2016. Communication, Spirituality, and Health. The International Encyclopedia of
Interpersonal Communication.
Baker, S.C. and Watson, B.M., 2015. How Patients Perceive Their Doctors’ Communication
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Glanz, K., Rimer, B.K. and Viswanath, K. eds., 2015. Health behavior: Theory, research, and
practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Rosse, F., Essink-Bot, M.L. and Wagner, C., 2015. Language barriers and patient safety risks in
hospital care. A mixed methods study. International journal of nursing studies.
Robson, A. and Robinson, L., 2015. The Information Seeking and Communication Model: A
study of its practical application in healthcare. Journal of Documentation. 71(5).
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Piper, D., McIlwraith, J. and Watson, N., 2015. The role of the law in communicating patient
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Slawomirski, L. and Iedema, R., 2015. Communicating about how the safety and quality of care
are regulated. Communicating Quality and Safety in Health Care, p.282.
Callaghan, P. and McBride, P., 2015. UK mental health legislation. Oxford Handbook of Mental
Health Nursing, p.223.
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