Importance of Communication in Health and Social Care: An Essay

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles of communication within health and social care settings. It emphasizes the importance of effective communication, highlighting the use of the Gibbs Reflective Cycle for systematic analysis. The essay explores various types of communication, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, public, and mass communication, and their relevance in healthcare. It discusses the impact of poor communication, using the Baby P case as an example of the consequences of ineffective communication among healthcare professionals. Furthermore, the essay introduces the Shannon and Weaver model of communication and its application in healthcare, as well as the theory of Proxemics. The paper underscores the significance of communication skills in establishing strong relationships with patients and colleagues, and the importance of overcoming communication barriers. The essay concludes by advocating for the adoption of effective communication strategies to improve patient outcomes and prevent critical failures in healthcare settings. The essay is a valuable resource for students studying healthcare and social work, offering insights into the practical application of communication theories and models in the field.

Essay

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Communication......................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The essay lays emphasis upon the fundamental principles of communication which play
an important role within the relationships that exist in professional relationships. Besides the
importance of communication reflective model of writing has been focussed. The selected
reflective model is the Gibbs Reflective-cycle. It enables a systematic approach to be followed
for each level of experience. Also, the effects of poor communication has also been discussed by
highlighting the case of Baby P whose death occurred because of ineffective communication of
the staff-members from every agency.
Communication
Communication plays a substantial role in the life of each and every individual where it is
regarded as one of the most requisite skill that must be possessed to succeed in both personal and
professional lives. It largely enables the individuals to actively interact with one another and
interpret things in a more precise manner (Gallan, Jarvis, Brown and Bitner, 2013). An effective
presence of communication is referred to be an imperative life skill that duly qualifies people to
have a better understanding of things where it also tends to connect with the surrounding bodies.
Apart from this, it together permits the individuals to create a respective and trustworthy work
environment by resolving any divergence and reinforcing the work environment.
It is however done with certain prosperous measures of problem solving, with care,
affection and creative set of ideas. It is important for the individuals to have some pertinent skills
of communication with a special consent of representing these at their professional context of
work (Glasby, 2017). It is mainly due to a fundamental fact of communication where it is often
reflected as the heart of almost all sorts of organisations irrespective of their type and nature of
services. The below essay is based upon a similar consideration of communication with a special
context of health and social care (HSC) organisations.
The key concept of communication is laid under the fact of its distinct context where
there exist five common types of communication. It is with a foremost existence of intra personal
communication that usually tends to involve a single person in it and is thus referred as self-talk
(Hether, 2014). Herein, an intra-personal communication can be either affirmative or pessimistic
and makes a direct impact upon the way of perceiving things where it also enumerates the way
one reacts to different situations and communicate with one another. This sort of communication
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with a special context of intra personal is duly influenced by the native and cultural background
of an individual that directly shows their carried thoughts and belief's as well.
Another leading context of communication is laid under the field of interpersonal
communication where it generally tends to include two individuals. It is at this stage where the
intensity of their interaction may range from distinct perceptions and may reflect either an
intimate, personal, impersonal or formal set of communication among them (Millar and Hall,
2013). Group commination is yet another leading context of interaction that involves more than
two different set of individuals representing a team where it together represents a dynamic
procedure. However, it is also aforesaid that the larger the group is, there are more chances of
breakdown in smaller proportions where generally, the group members range from 3-8 in
numbers.
Public communication is yet another potent context of communication where a single
individual acts a representative by talking to the entire group of people. It requires the speaker to
make continual interaction with all group members by engaging the audience in the carried
session of discussion (Shortliffe and Cimino, 2013). It however depicts an equivalent form as
that of a group communication with a dissimilar dynamics with distinct rules of communication.
In this particular situation, the group often tends to put off the speaker. Another leading context
of communication is mass communication that is also reflected to be a contemporary tool of
mass media in today's contemporary world of business. This particular measure greatly assists in
interacting with a large group of individuals with a prime assistance of varied technical and
multimedia tools.
It is however on depicting the role and goal of communication in HSC organisations
where diversity is the key element over there. It is a factual term that communication is
impossible to occur in isolation. Herein, such vital set of interaction in HSC represents the
context of interpersonal communication where it is further based upon five other constituents
(Yarber, Sayad and Strong, 2013). A psychological context is with a foremost existence where it
showcases the content of interaction in terms of representing the factual needs, values, desires
and personality of the participants. Another principle set is of relational context where here it is
duly concerned about the acquired reactions of one other. Situational context defining the psycho
social state of communication among the individuals where it depends upon the place in which
the discussion is being carried among two or more individuals that in turn outlines the intensity
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of the discourse. Baby P case was an example of the carelessness as well as lack of
communication skills with the HSC sector. People in the case of Baby P were found out to be
imposing the responsibilities upon each other because of which miscommunication occurred.
This should be avoided to much greater extent so that proper discussion could be effectively
carried out by the professionals within the health and social care so as to initiate effective
communication.
Environmental context with another logical context of culture are other two leading
components of an interpersonal communication that mostly takes place in HSC organisations. An
environment context defines about the physical existence of the interaction where it is taking
place. Lastly, the culture context of communication includes the scholarly behaviour of
individuals that tends to influence the interaction among them (Glasby and Dickinson, 2014).
This is for instance to outline a substantial consideration of people's diversified background
where they often belong to a different society with distinct societal norms. It is therefore
important to represent an effective communication skill with a key context of HSC organisations
where it duly assists in establishing an impelling relationship with the peers and other
organisational associates. It is with a fundamental context of handling the upcoming number of
patients who are often arriving with a vulnerable situation with a hope of acquiring effective
treatments.
Herein, effectual skills of communication is assistive in provisioning liable set of
information as a way of monitoring the health of individuals by interrogating in a sensitive way.
This in turn defines a prompt requisition of effective communication skills in the simplest form
where an HSC person can professionally treat and handle the identified issue of the patients
(Haith-Cooper and Bradshaw, 2013). It together creates a vital sense of improving the health of
the individuals by recognising the steps that are required to be taken up for their well-being.
However, there together exists certain barriers of communication while referring to interact with
one another where it is usually caused due to certain barricaded factors like a deficit level of
understanding among the individuals. It is where they may together have an erroneous
information and certain cultural or language barriers that duly hinders their communication. The
ineffective delivery of messages led to the rising miscommunication in the case of Peter. The
adverse effect of this led to the death of Baby P.
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For which, it is important to adopt some vital strategies of communication as a way of
reflecting a professional way to communicate and interact with one other in HSC establishments.
A foremost theoretical abstract in this context is Shannon's and Weaver model of communication
that can be duly instilled in the HSC workplaces where it hereby comprises with five leading
elements (Hockenberry and Wilson, 2014). It is the primary source of information called sender
who represents the individual who is referring to transmit a message to another person via a
selected medium or channel for the same. Encoder is the secondary element of this model where
it usually depicts a transmitter with a third component of channel that reflects the medium that is
being used to send the message. Decoder being the fourth component of this model where it is
basically a machine that is used to convert signals into a pertinent message that is understandable
for the receiver.
Receiver is the subsequent component over here where it is the destination in which the
message is supposed to reach as a way of generating liable feedback from the receiver. However,
the last element of this model is noise that is referred to any bodily disruption in the surrounding
environs of people that does not let the information to further pass on to the receiver (Narain and
Katz, 2016). It is usually termed as a mathematical model with different levels of communication
problems that generally arises in accordance to the founder of this communication model. These
are technical, semantic and problem of effectiveness where a technical issue occurs when the
opted channels are creating some sort of problem. Another issue called semantic exists when the
meaning of sent message and the received message largely differs from one another. Apart from
which, the problem of effectiveness takes place when the message causes unexpected reactions.
The HSC enterprises are thereby suggested to implicate this particular model in their
adopted measure of communication as a way of effectively treating their respective clients and
users. Into which, they can hereby refer to make a considerate interaction with one another with
no negative implication of any sort of misunderstanding among the participant communicators
(Liaw and et. al., 2014). This Shannon Weaver Model is together composed of some leading
benefits where its enclosed concept of noise largely supports in making an effective
communication by destructing the issue of noise after finding out its factual cause. Along with
which, this model is also referred to be a two way process of communication as a result to which,
it can be duly applied to the general context of communication as an quantifiable postulation
upon its users.
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It is mainly with reference to HSC organisations where they are largely associated with a
large number of service users who comes from different socio- cultural backgrounds and are
often representing a vulnerable situation that needs speedy treatment in an effective manner. In
this context, the care representatives are also required to deal with their family members and
other accompanied bodies of the service users as a way of treating them with an expertise team
of individuals (Shannon and Weaver Model Of Communication, 2017). The preceding model of
Shannon Weaver is hereby evident to support with distinct channels of communication as a way
of commencing an effective interaction among the care providers, services users and other
affiliated bodies of HSC. There together exists yet another conceptual theory of Proxemics that
basically aids them to interact with nonverbal tools of communication. It is based upon three
leading elements that are geographic territory, personal space and body angling. All these
measures are referred to scrutinize the space that is being used by the communicators while
interacting with one other. It is therefore with a special context to the care providers in HSC
where they should aptly know about this pertinent method to comfort the person with whom they
are communicating to obtain a liable set of information.
It is however on referring to the case of baby P and Victoria Climbe where they faced the
most horrified incidents of child abuse. It was however due to an unattended behaviour of their
respective child protection centres where they were duly unable to assist them in a requisite
manner. It was with some prompt detection of certainty operational and systematic failures that
ultimately led to the decease of both the child's. In both the cases, a deficit communication was
found to be a substantial issue that eventually obstructed the child to clearly communicate their
ongoing issues to their respective parents that ultimately led to a terrible death of both.
The major fault in the case of Baby was that there were existence of several breakdowns
in the communication process. From all the social-workers to the lawyers, doctors as well as
police were found to have a very poor network of communication. All those who were actually
responsible for Peter claimed that someone else needs to be in charge (Baby P 'failed by
incompetent staff from every agency', 2010). And as a result poor communication was there
which led to taking of no action on time thereby causing the baby's death.
The toddler suffered a severely painful death because of a list of failures whose
responsibility was accountable to the all the health care professionals as well the people
associated with the baby. The professionals had no idea about the bruises which suspiciously
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found on his body at 6 years of age. The mother of the child at that time was successful enough
to dupe the doctors about those suspicious bruises. If the doctor had already communicated this
to t he police at that time, this incident of Peter's death would have been surely avoided. They
were not informed about them.
Also, there exists some models of reflection which help in giving effective description as
well as monitoring of a particular situation. Since the situation of Baby P was not effectively
analysed and had ample of misevaluation done from the side of professionals. Gibbs reflective
cycle is the most suitable form. With effective utilisation of prompt-questions at each of the stage
a fully structured analysation of situation could take place. The failing of the health-care
professionals in the case of Baby P stated that how poorly the analysation of situation was done.
Henceforth, to prevent such occurrences in future, professionals of health-care could effectively
make use of this model. It basically involves the following stages :
→ First the situation which has to be taken care of or analysed is described in details. The
professionals in case of Baby P should have analysed each and every aspect of the flaws that
occurred during the process.
→ Then what the individual is actually thinking or feeling regarding the situation. In the case of
Baby P every person was out to impose responsibility upon one another. So in this case, the way
of thinking of every individual associated with Baby P case needed to be done.
→ Furthermore, the experience in context with the situation is evaluated which covers the good
as well as bad factors associated with it. In case of Baby P the professionals could have evaluated
the experience when the doctors first observed the abuses. So all the good as well as bad factors
could be evaluated.
→ The next step takes in consideration the analysation which is going to depict the individual's
capability of making sense from the situation faced (Reflective writing: About Gibbs reflective
cycle, 2017). In reference to the case of Baby P, all the associated professionals as well as
individuals associated to baby could have analysed their responsibilities. This would have
avoided the miscommunication to much greater extent.
→ The next step will allow the individual to make a final conclusion showcasing the alternatives
or final solution that could be taken instead or in addition. The professionals in case of Baby P
case could have effectively analysed the available alternatives to solve the issue and baby could
have been treated on time.
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→ The fin al step will include the action plan to b e made which will be made on the basis of that
if problem rises gain what action will be taken. In case of Baby P the professionals should
formulate a necessary action plan so that in future on arising of this case could be avoided.
This cycle goes on until the problem has been analysed. Also, individuals could
effectively analyse the problem as well as accordingly find the most appropriate solution.
In this context, there exists two more leading models of communication to be
implemented in the context of HSC organisations and are entitled as Argyle and Tuckman's
theories of communication. The Argyle theory of communication is being proposed by Michael
Argyle where it was named as the cycle of communication consisting of 6 reliable stages. Its first
stage represented idea generation in which, a person gets a thought to be shared with another
person (Effective communication skills in health and social care, 2016). Coding of message has
been depicted to be yet another step of this model where the above generated message is required
to be transmitted through a proper channel such as written in language or engrossing it in signs
and symbols, etc. Sending the message is the third stage in which the content is fully articulated
in a chosen format such as verbal or non verbal, etc. The fourth step has depicted the process of
receiving the message with subsequent stage of decoding where the sent message is being
interpret by the receiver as a way of intercepting its actual meaning. The eventual measure of this
model reflects the understanding of content where the transmitted message is anticipated to be
understood by the receiver.
It is after the final stage of the preceding communication model of Argyle that further
depicts yet another conceptual theory of Tuckman's where it is together composed of five
pertinent stages needed to be followed by the delegated care workers of HSC. This particular
theory is specially designed for a coordinated group where its associated individuals are expected
to develop a reliable set of behaviour to reach out a common goal. The foremost stage of this
model entitled as forming is known as an introductory stage in which the members are usually
unfamiliar with one other and are neither clear about their team objectives.
Another stage of storming is referred to intensify the competition among the individuals
where most of them may not concord by each other's perception and may attempt to change it.
Norming being the consequent stage is evident to evolve a collaborative and trustworthy consent
of the team members where they together reach to a common goal of attainment (Proxemics,
2017). The stage of performing is where all team members are hereby evident to carry out their
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distinctly defined roles with a highly moralised outlook towards its achievement within a
stipulated time frame. The final stage of this model known as adjourning is referred to the
completion of tasks where the framed set of groups also tends to disperse with a proud sense of
accomplishment.
CONCLUSION
From the essay it can finally be concluded that poor communication could turn out to be
harmful such that it can cause someone's death as observed from the case of Baby P.
Furthermore, communication is the backbone of organizations in each and every sector. So
professionals in sectors need to understand the importance of communication and effectively
imply these communication principles within their organizations.
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REFERENCES
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