Critical Reflection: Client Scenario and Social Work Communication

This assignment presents a critical reflection on a social work scenario involving a 75-year-old, widowed patient named Betty Miller who experienced a fall and hip fracture. The reflection focuses on the social worker's role in facilitating the patient's transition home, addressing her concerns about social isolation and potential future falls. The assignment details the communication strategies employed, including non-verbal gestures, open-ended questions, and providing options to the client, to build a therapeutic relationship and gather information effectively. The author reflects on the experience, highlighting the importance of active listening, patience, and mutual trust in establishing rapport with the client. The author also discusses the challenges faced during the process, such as repeating questions, and the lessons learned in providing holistic care to elderly patients. The paper includes references to support the communication strategies used.

Running head: CRITICAL REFLECTION
CRITICAL REFLECTION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Summarizing Client scenario and personal response as a social worker:
The provided case scenario deals with the 75 year old, widowed patient, Betty Miller who
stays at her home alone. She had been hospitalized on account of sustaining a fall at her home
that resulted in a hip fracture. Post hospitalization and commencement of the treatment process,
Betty is expected to recover completely so that she can return to her home. However, it is worth
noting here that the night when the client experienced the fall, she had felt miserable and was
unable to move or reach out to anybody for help. The rehabilitation team has provided the client
with an alarm which she is expected to wear at all times and on experiencing any issues, she is
expected to reach out the healthcare professionals through the alarm. However, the client
experiences a low mood as she is concerned about another fall and about not being able to wear
the alarm at all times. In addition to this, the client is also worried about having to manage
sustaining alone and feels socially isolated. As a social worker within the rehabilitation ward, my
responsibility would be to adapt measures so as to enable a smooth transition of the patient to her
home. In addition to this, I would also need to ensure that the client experiences improved mental
health status and is the level of her social interaction increases so that she can experience holistic
recovery.
Discussion on communication strategies used to converse with the client:
In order to organize appropriate referrals or arrange for support services that can ensure
wellness or recovery to the patients, it is extremely important for social workers to be able to
communicate effectively with the clients. As stated by Fernandez-Pena et al. (2016), effective
communication helps to establish a therapeutic relationship with the clients. In addition to this,
effective use of non-verbal gestures and verbal communication strategies help to gain mutual

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trust (Barratt, 2019). The advantage of building a positive therapeutic relationship with the
clients make it easier to understand and analyze the problems experienced by the patients and
adapt appropriate support interventions to facilitate recovery (Howatson-Jones, 2016; Khanna,
2017). In the words of Dube and Ducharme (2015), the use of appropriate communication
technique and gestures is dependent upon a number of factors that include consideration of the
demographic factors of the client such as the age or gender of the client as well as other factors
such as cultural and religious preferences of the client.
In this context, I would like to state that I had made use of a number of communication
strategies to establish a communication rapport with the client. During the commencement of the
meeting, I had first made use of appropriate non-verbal gestures, such as comforting the client by
holding her hand and offering her a glass of water. Further, I introduced myself to the client and
clearly stated my role in her care process. This helped the client to trust me with her personal
details. I then made use of strategies such as asking open-ended questions. As stated by Feo et al.
(2017), the use of open-ended questions, help clients to express their problems in a detailed and
comprehensive manner which facilitates improved analysis of the problem. Therefore, I made
use of open-ended questions such as, ‘How do you feel about going home two weeks from
now?’, ‘Does anything in particular bother you about heading home post treatment?’ Further, I
avoided using any affirmative or direct questions as affirmative questions reflect authority which
might poorly impact the emotional wellness of the client and as a result the client might abstain
from providing appropriate answers. In addition to this, on several incidents where the client
seemed confused about questions or could not come up with a proper decision, I provided
options to the client, so that it would be easier for the client to make a decision. This involved
questions such as, ‘What do you think would make your transition to home comfortable?’ The

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client seemed confused and had no response to the question and in order to help the client answer
the question, I provided options such as ‘Would you prefer a domestic helper who would help
you complete the chores?’ or ‘Would you like to consider the option of shifting to a residential
care facility where you would get an opportunity to stay with a lot of people who belong to your
age and experience similar problems like you do?’ On providing options to the client, the client
could answer better and as a result, appropriate support assistance could be arranged for the
client. Also, I ensured that the clinical environment was peaceful and did not agitate the client
which allowed her to respond properly to the questions based on which I was able to devise the
future course of actions that would facilitate convenience and recovery for the client.
Critical reflection on the experience:
On reflecting upon the experience of establishing a rapport with the client, it can be stated
that the experience was an incredible one. With the effective use of non-verbal gestures and
open-ended questions, I was able to converse appropriately with the client. I further felt that the
client felt comfortable in my presence and was able to respond to the questions appropriately.
However, I experienced challenges in terms of repeating some of the questions multiple times so
as to make the client understand what information I was looking for while asking the questions. I
felt a little vexed on having to repeat the questions a few times. However, I feel that I learnt to
tackle clients patiently especially when the patients are old aged patients. As stated Deveugele et
al. (2015) active listening helps to establish a positive rapport with the patients. I also learnt that
active listening is integral when it comes to analyzing the root cause of client’s problems or
inconvenience. I further realized that building a relationship on the elements of mutual trust,
respect and dignity would encourages patients to narrate personal experience and list personal

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details easily which helps to appropriately arrange referrals which helps to acquire improved
recovery that essentially focuses on the holistic care needs of the patient.

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References:
Barratt, J. (2019). Developing clinical reasoning and effective communication skills in advanced
practice. Nursing Standard, 34(2). Retrieved from: https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?
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495&h=%2bPw5IklUMM4pzYqGuk
%2fkMY3ZxVK3YjrGdngt4WM91RfAD8ewL80AYr8I7LjVM
%2bOzf7nAqHXHOI5%2fpQ4lWWbnfw%3d
%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.a
spx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler
%26jrnl%3d00296570%26AN%3d134400495
Deveugele, M. (2015). Communication training: Skills and beyond. Patient education and
counseling, 98(10), 1287-1291. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2015.08.011
Dubé, V., & Ducharme, F. (2015). Nursing reflective practice: An empirical literature. Journal
of Nursing Education and Practice, 5(7). Doi: https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v5n7p91
Feo, R., Rasmussen, P., Wiechula, R., Conroy, T., & Kitson, A. (2017). Developing effective
and caring nurse-patient relationships. Nursing Standard (2014+), 31(28), 54.Retrieved
from: https://journals.rcni.com/nursing-standard/developing-effective-and-caring-
nursepatient-relationships-ns.2017.e10735
Fernández-Peña, R., Fuentes-Pumarola, C., Malagón-Aguilera, M. C., Bonmatí-Tomàs, A.,
Bosch-Farré, C., & Ballester-Ferrando, D. (2016). The evaluation of reflective learning
from the nursing student's point of view: A mixed method approach. Nurse education
today, 44, 59-65. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.05.005

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Howatson-Jones, L. (2016). Reflective practice in nursing. Learning Matters.P.88. Retrieved
rom: https://books.google.co.in/books?
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Khanna, S. (2017). Effective Communication Skills-A Road Map for Success. Available at
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abstract_id=3090256