Analysis of Communication in Health and Social Care Organizations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of communication within health and social care organizations. It begins with an executive summary highlighting key issues such as the importance of communication skills, the impact of organizational factors, and the integration of information communication technology. The report delves into various communication theories and their application in health and social care, emphasizing the need for effective verbal and written communication. It explores strategies to support service users with specific communication needs, reviewing methods for interpersonal communication, including two-way dialogue, partnerships, and social networks. Case studies illustrate communication challenges and solutions, focusing on patient-provider interactions and the use of ICT software. The report concludes by suggesting ways to improve communication processes, such as embracing change, assessing risks, addressing language barriers, and encouraging investments in communication improvement. The application of relevant communication theories, including cognitive and social cognitive theories, is also discussed, providing a thorough overview of the subject.

Communication in Health and
Social Care Organization: A
Study on Health and Social
Care

Date of Submission: 04/01/2016
Executive summary
Communication skills in health care service is a major concern issue because there are many
variables that stand in the ways of development in health and social care service. Various
communication skills may result in various outcomes for the communication process itself in
health and social care service. Different organizational factors influence the effectiveness of
the health and social care service which may be controlled by the internal effort sometimes
though there are some extenuating factors that cannot be controlled because of the nature of
the challenge they face in the recent decade. Information communication technology is the
name revolution in health and social care sector. People are having belief in the utilization of
information database for instant health and social care database. Therefore the newer
challenge of this century is the integration of information communication technology in
health and social care.

Table of Contents

l壱INTRODUCTION
Communicating in health and social care has been a cornerstone because this kind of
public service always required mass attention to bring in so that people can be aware of what
they can have against the challenge expecting in health and social care. Various
communication theories prevail in the context of health and social care whereas the main
issue is to maximize the social cost benefit provided not only by the state but also by the
private corporations working in the field of health and social care. The applications of these
theories are a mile stone because they provide the future insight of the prospects of health
and social care. Various legal dilemmas arise because it is always to protect the mass interest
of the people in general. The context of information communication technology is wide
applicable to this aspect because the world is getting smaller towards one single community
to serve and therefore the flow of information towards the public has got more significance
than ever before.

1.1“Q01 1.2 Use communication skills in a health and social care context”
Communication skill in health and social care context always tries to focus on the career
orientation of the employees. For the benefit of the service user the communication can be
written as well as the communication can be performed verbally. The advantage of the verbal
communication is that by verbal communication the communicator, in that case, the service
provider or health and social care worker can earn the trust of the service users in a manner
that will not be possible in the written communication. Besides, there are certain matters that
are best told n verbally rather than in written form (Beresford, P., and Branfield, F. 2005).
The main advantage of the written communication the field of health and safety is that it is
documentary and therefore can be used as future document in case of any kind of legal
necessity. Therefore the supervisors in the field of health and safety must be trained in
communication skills because it will help them to go near to the service users. It is common
tradition for the professionals of the health and social care work place to attend any kind of
training as well as development opportunity. Generally National Health Service arranges
various training as well as development program for the employees as well as employer in
the field of health and social care. (Braun, V. and Clarke, V. 2006)

“Q02 1.3 Analysis the use of strategies to support users of health and social care services
with specific communication needs”
Utilization of strategies in the context of health and social care always focuses on the basic
principles of this sector. Communication strategies vary from service to service, goal to goal,
organization to organization and most importantly communications needs. The most
important thing that has to be kept in mind while developing communication strategy in the
field of health and safety is to make sure that the needs of the service user have been put over
everything otherwise the efficiency as well as effectiveness of that communication strategy
will go in vein. That is the reason why various health and social care work place has acquired
different communication strategy (Beresford, P., and Branfield, F. 2005). The elements of
the communication strategy may vary from the demand of the service users but still the
communication management has to make a flexible structure of approach to communication
inside the organization as well as outside the organization. Verbal as well as non-verbal
techniques are the most common communication strategy used in the field of health and
social care work place. For example we can have the braille method as established for those
persons who cannot see. This kind of communication strategy will be applied to the eye
hospital because people will need to rely on them. (Gitterman and Germain, 2013)

“Q03 1.4 Review methods of dealing with appropriate interpersonal communication between
individuals in health and social care settings:”
Two-way Dialogue:
Dialogue between the service provider as well as the service users will lead to a better way of
commitment among the parties in health and social care work place. In that case there must
be a common way of communication so that no language barrier can make hamper in the
way of providing service.
Partnership between Provider and Client:
Partnership between the service users as well as service provider can be a great innovative
idea by which he information communication technology can make the difference among the
service users.
Atmosphere of Caring:
Relationship oriented health and social care setting is the call of modern times because
without it the modern health and social care work place cannot maintain the diversity in the
work force behavior. (Beresford, P., and Branfield, F. 2005)
Effective Bridging of Social Distance:
It is one of the major accomplishments in the field of health and social care by which we can
manage the formulation of removing the distance between the social status of the service
users in the various level of society.
Social Networks:
They play a vital role because the present world is the world of tremendous technology for
which all of the advancements in the health and social care work place are dependent on the
acceptability of the technology in the level of health and social care. (Bright, L., and Dalley,
G. 2013)

Case Study 01
Patient G does not have a physical dilemma but she had a mental sophisticated situation
which needs to be monitored. Patient G has a great deal of illness so she must be taken
proper care. In order to render proper care there is a grave need of continuous
communication between the service user patient G as well as the service provider the health
worker. There are various ways by which he health worker can make contact with the patient.
It can be verbal by which it means that if the patient cannot understand the written
documents like the doctor’s advice the health worker will read it out for her. The
communication between the patient G as well as the health worker can be in the form of non-
verbal communication. The example of non-verbal communication will be the use of body
language. Braille writing and other efficient ways of communicating with the sensitive
patients can be a very good way of communication review. Social community networks can
play a vital role in the mental refreshment of the patient Ms. G. (McKeganey, N.P. and
Bloor, M.J. 1993)
Case Study 02
If JEFF had proper training about the systems of answering questions to the nearest person of
the patient therefore he would be able to distinguish between the answerable questions as
well as non-answerable questions. But since there is no prior training opportunity provided to
employee Mr. JEFF so he had the advantage of not being sued for the disclosure of sensitive
information to the patient’s friend without the approval of doctors or the medical committee.

3.1 Access and use standard ICT software packages to support work in health and social
care”
Standard information communication software package has the ultimate goal of connecting
the world to a single link so as to make sure that health and social care becomes viable
through technology. Information communication always tries to keep pace with the modern
development in the field of health and social care. The use of paper documents was once
inevitable in the field of health and social care by which we can only afford to keep a limited
number of information of a particular patient for a particular period of time (McKeganey,
N.P. and Bloor, M.J. 1993). But the evolution of technology in the field of health and social
care work place of information has made the world a more challenging work place. It seems
to understand the nature of the volatility of the information it keeps to track the records of the
patients at any level of time. Cost of documentation has substantially decreased because the
use of information communication tech has been emerged. The revolution in information
communication technology has made health and social care sector more attractive as well as
more competing than ever. (Jacobs, S., and Netten, A. 2013)

“Q04 2.4 Suggest ways of improving the communication processes in a health and social
care”
Embrace the need for change
Communication process is substantially subject to change therefore improvement in this
section depends largely how the flexibility of the communication process can cope with the
change not only in the internal environment but also in the external environment.
Consider our own population and our current risks
Population geography and current risk assessment is very important in the implementation of
a good communication policy. If we cannot collaborate our communication policy with the
existing health and social care trends it will go to the vein because population is the
fundamental base of health and social care work place.
Assess the availability and quality of our non-English written materials
Communication barrier is a large threat in the field of health and social care because verbal
as well as non-verbal communication both cannot ignore the importance of culture barrier
like the ignorance of specific language as for example, English. Proper training and
development project should be made concern. (McKeganey, N.P. and Bloor, M.J. 1993)
Encourage investments in communication improvement
Communication improvement is not an instantaneous process rather it is a collaboration of
joint effort so as to make sure that all kinds of barriers are being removed. Investments must
be attracted to newer communication theories application, communication tools as well as
communication technologies because this sector has bewildering prospects in the future.
(Hussein, S. and Manthorpe, J. 2012a)

“Question 5 1.1 Application of relevant theories of communication to health and social
care contexts:”
Appropriateness of the communication theories in health and social care depends upon the
professional development in that particular field. (Beresford, P., and Branfield, F. 2005).
Relevant theories have been established to identify the relationship among the extenuating
factors of health and social care. The application of those relevant theories in the field of
health and social care context is given as:
Cognitive theories provide ‘continuum accounts of behavior’, proposing that a certain set of
perceptions or beliefs will predict a behavior. Once we predict the specific behavior, we are
able to treat it rightfully. (McKeganey, N.P. and Bloor, M.J. 1993)
Cognitivist theory has been also traced as one of the major works in the field of health and
social care work place. It was introduced as the evolution of social learning theory which was
first gathered by Mr. Bandura. The fundamental of the cognitivist theory is that the health
and social care work place participants have to gather the wisdom about the inception of the
service user by dint of experience as well as observation of certain facts. This theory tries to
find out what a service user wants from the offerings of the health and social care work
place. (Duffy, S. 2012)
Social cognitive theory is founded in an antigenic perspectives. People are self organizing,
proactive, self reflecting, self regulating, not just reactive organism shaped and shepherd by
environmental events or inner force.
Cognitive dissonance is a theory of psychology that translate into thought conflicts. Under
this situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produce feeling of
discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behavior to reduce the
discomfort and restore balance etc. As per this theory in the communication process,
individuals uses their attitude, beliefs, self perception, feelings etc. They translates their
thoughts into the word and apply in communication.

“Q6 2.1 Overview of how communication processes are influenced by values and cultural
factors:”
Values and cultural factors can act as the major determinants in the pathway of health and
social care department. Communication process in health and social care always has two
different dimensions of impact. The very first dimensions of impact is that the influence of
value in the health and social care settings. Value means the combination of beliefs about
certain facts but in case of health and social care work place settings values generate a great
significance because by dint of demographics there are always peoples who will take service
from different value perceptions. Those service users who are different in values as well as
perceptions must be dealt according to the impact of their value accommodation. Culture is
the very second factors that impact the effectiveness of the health and social care work place
settings. Without the emergence of culture every service user is same but it is the impact of
culture that makes the service user different. (Eames, S., and Wong, A. 2013)Culture plays a
very crucial role in communication process because while two or more than two people
interact with each other than their value, belief, style, attitude can represent their cultural
background. Effective value and culture of individual positively influence the
communication process and it reflects impression on the other people mind.