Report on Communication Strategies in Health and Social Care

This report delves into the critical role of communication in health and social care settings. It examines relevant communication theories, essential interpersonal skills, and methods for effective communication. The report analyzes how cultural values influence the communication process and explores the impact of legislation, characters, and codes on communication within health and social care organizations. It also assesses the effectiveness of existing systems and policies in promoting best practices and suggests ways to improve communication processes. The report covers topics such as communication barriers, the use of ICT, and the importance of patient feedback. The report also highlights the importance of staff training, the setting of standard operating procedures (SOPs), and the use of translators to overcome communication barriers. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of communication channels, cultural sensitivity, and strategic approaches to enhance the quality of care provided to service users.

COMMUNICATION IN
HEALTH AND SOCIAL
CARE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Relevant theories of communication in the context of health and social care......................1
1.2 Communication skills in health and social care....................................................................1
1.3 Methods of dealing with appropriate interpersonal communication between individuals in
health and social care settings.....................................................................................................1
1.4 Use of strategies for improving practice to support users of health and social services
having specific communication needs........................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
2.1 Communication process that is influenced by values and cultural factor.............................1
2.2 Impact on communication process in health and social sector due to legislation, characters
and codes.....................................................................................................................................2
2.3 Effectiveness of firm's systems and policies in promoting best practices in
communication............................................................................................................................3
2.4 Ways of improving communication process in health and social care setting......................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Covered in poster........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In any kind of business firms or organisation one of the basic requirement that it is having
is that it should have proper communication channels as well as communicating skills present
there. It is important for both growth of the organisation as well as providing assistance to its
clients. Health and social care units is one such kind of organisation where they deal with
numerous people and it becomes important for them to have proper communication mediums.
This report highlights the ways in which different communication channels have been installed
as well as the ways in which inter personnel skills helps to provide better assistance to patients. It
also gives the idea of the theories that is relevant in this context. It also provides the knowledge
as to the ways in which communication process is being influenced by the values and culture. It
also explains the codes, policies, legislations that an organisation embeds so as to promote good
practices in communication. It also provides the idea of standard ICT packages that supports in
health and social care units.
TASK 1
1.1 Relevant theories of communication in the context of health and social care
Covered in brochure.
1.2 Communication skills in health and social care.
Covered in brochure.
1.3 Methods of dealing with appropriate interpersonal communication between individuals in
health and social care settings.
Covered in brochure.
1.4 Use of strategies for improving practice to support users of health and social services having
specific communication needs.
Covered in brochure.
TASK 2
2.1 Communication process that is influenced by values and cultural factor.
Communication process or mechanism is influenced by many factors within an
organisation. Most important things that needs to be considered while evaluating the influence of
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culture is the the elements through which culture is made like customs, ideas and social
behaviour of the society. As a health care worker they have the duty to serve the patients in a
best possible way where we respect background, beliefs or people culture (American Speech-
Language-Hearing Association, 2016). When any cultural aspect of people are ignored it makes
them unsatisfied and there reaction is generally negative i.e. in the form of anger or anxiety. In
this case study it could be seen that patient was not treated in a proper manner. Being from
different kind of culture nurse did not attended the patients and remarked the condition to be
disgusting. In any communication design the role of culture becomes important as the British
culture of receiving and helping anyone is very polite. The whole communication system of the
health care centre was designed so that no patients becomes uncomfortable. Value of the society
shapes the personalty of individuals who work at these health care units as it is been said that
what individuals leans from the society his personality becomes the same (Antheunis, Tates and
Nieboer, 2013). In this case study it can be seen that nurse behaviour towards the patients was
not acceptable as she immediately did not provided patient with what they wanted and asked the
patient to wait for a minute. These emotion less behaviour comes from culture and value in
which an individual have grown up in.
2.2 Impact on communication process in health and social sector due to legislation, characters
and codes.
There are several factors that effect the communication mechanism at any health ans
social care organisation. Some of them have a very significant impact on it. Legislation is
considered to be as the set of laws that are made by the government of UK which regulates the
ways in which people live as well as improve their life style. One such legislation is the Data
protection Act 1998 which controls the ways in which data is made available for the use
(Betancourt and et. al., 2016). No service provider is allowed to misuse the personal data of
communication and must follow the principle of data collection. At my workplace there is no
such practice that breaches any such law. We follow Confidentiality law which states that
informations regarding any patient facing any kind of situation must not be disclosed at any
place without the consent of the patient. Character and codes underlines the practices or
approach that a medical staff must follow while dealing with the patients. In this case young
nurse did not followed that procedures that needs to followed like what is reminded by her
mentor i.e. duty of care. These character and codes signifies the behaviour of staff that he/she
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needs to follow. Any kind of poor understanding of legislations regarding this can lead to
discriminatory practice while dealing with different kind of patients. These legislations formalise
the practice and any breach of it will be dealt with proper actions as it is matter of patient's life or
health. It sets the guidelines which needs to be followed for setting up the communication
system. As a health care worker we must obey the laws as well as set the policies that supports
the best practices in the health and service care organisations.
2.3 Effectiveness of firm's systems and policies in promoting best practices in communication.
In any organisation there is legislative framework that have been made comprising of the
laws, characters and codes that help in bringing out best possible practices in the organisation in
the business of health and social care. These governance system must protect the interest of
patient and well the users of this service. This includes environment creation in which health care
can fulfil their health obligations. Every professional working in these type of firms should be
able to follow these. This can be monitored, checked at several times which was also done in this
case where mentor took the responsibility of examining the behaviour of young nurse. There
must be a proper information strategy in order to get proper information at the right time. Thee
must be information strategy that helps in getting appropriate informations at the desirable time.
There must be proper compliant channels using which patients can report of any practice that
they did not liked and remove the fear and barrier from the minds of the patients so that they can
report easily (Boulware and et. al., 2016). The nurse and the staffs should provide essential
informations so that the patients do not have to wait for hours. There are many cases in which
patients privacy is important in order to safe guard their respect in the society which is ensured
by confidentiality policy applied by the health and social care organisations.
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2.4 Ways of improving communication process in health and social care setting.
It is important for organisations in the sector of health and social care to improve their
communication process. There are several ways to communicate to service user this may be
through verbal and non verbal methods:
 Use of sign and picture languages: This can be helpful for the patients who have any kind
of impairments or belongs to the society whose language cannot be understood by the
people who belonging to UK.
 Interpersonal skill development trainings: In order to increase the interpersonal skills
trainings can be highly beneficial. Staff members should get the access to such trainings
on regular basis (Cooper and et. al., 2012).
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sources 1: Elements of effective communication

 Enforcement of law: New communication and behavioural policy needs to be made so
that staff members have the fear of law and must be aware that any breach could lead to
punishment.
 Setting SOP: There is a need of setting standard operating procedures so that there must
not be any kind of laggings in the communication process. These procedures are set up by
evaluating the best practices in the industry and are according to the cultural and social
barriers of the society.
 Use of translators: There must be hiring of staffs that act as a translator if there is
communication barrier in between the patients and doctor.
 Installation of cameras for monitoring: There must be a monitoring system in the
organisation so that each and every activity can be monitored like the behaviour of staffs
with the patients etc.
 Feedback forms: There must be a feedback form that should be presented to the service
users so as to receive the view on the services. It can be used for making essential
changes (Coulter and et. al., 2014).
TASK 3
Covered in poster
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CONCLUSION
From the above based report it can be concluded that communication is an important part
of the operation of health related firm. There are several issues that have been illustrated by the
two case studies that arises in the operations of the firm. There are several theories that has been
given in this context. There must be a proper communication channels that needs to be installed
within the organisation so that there should not be any laggings in providing assistance to the
service users. Communication mechanism followed by the organisation is influenced by the
culture and values prevalent in the society. Use of ICT makes the process easier, efficient and
effective. Proper training of staffs, making of communication policies as well as strategies can
help in embedding the best possible process in the industry.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Betancourt, J.R., and et. al., 2016. Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for
addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.
Boulware, L.E., and et. al., 2016. Race and trust in the health care system. Public health reports.
Cooper, L.A., and et. al., 2012. The associations of clinicians’ implicit attitudes about race with
medical visit communication and patient ratings of interpersonal care. American journal
of public health. 102(5). pp. 979-987.
Coulter, A., and et. al., 2014. Collecting data on patient experience is not enough: they must be
used to improve care. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 348.
Cunningham, F.C., and et. al., 2012. Health professional networks as a vector for improving
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Glasby, J. and Dickinson, H., 2014. Partnership working in health and social care: what is
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Griffiths, F., and et. al., 2012. Social networks–the future for health care delivery. Social science
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Kitson, A., and et. al., 2013. What are the core elements of patient‐centred care? A narrative
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of advanced nursing. 69(1). pp. 4-15.
McCormack, L.A., and et. al., 2011. Measuring patient-centered communication in cancer care: a
literature review and the development of a systematic approach. Social science &
medicine. 72(7). pp. 1085-1095.
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Moorhead, S.A., and et. al., 2013. A new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses,
benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. Journal of medical
Internet research, 15(4).
Moule, P. and Hek, G., 2011. Making sense of research: an introduction for health and social
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Reeves, S., and et. al., 2011. Interprofessional teamwork for health and social care (Vol. 8). John
Wiley & Sons.
Sheldon, B., 2011. Cognitive-behavioural therapy: Research and practice in health and social
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Siminoff, L.A. and Step, M.M., 2011. A comprehensive observational coding scheme for
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Singer, S.J., and et. al., 2011. Defining and measuring integrated patient care: promoting the next
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Thornton, R.L.J., and et. al., 2011. Patient–physician social concordance, medical visit
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Online
How social care staff can improve their communication. 2017. [online]. Available through :
<http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2012/07/26/how-social-care-staff-can-improve-their-
communication/>. Accessed on 10th October 2017.
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