Report on Factors Influencing Communication in Health & Social Care

This report examines the various factors influencing communication within health and social care settings, emphasizing the significance of effective communication for patient-centered care and improved outcomes. It explores the impact of cultural diversity, values, legislation, and organizational systems on communication styles, highlighting the importance of cultural sensitivity and active listening. The report also discusses the influence of legislations like the Equality Act 2010 and charters such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on shaping communication practices. Furthermore, it addresses how organizational policies and systems, including communication channels and whistleblowing policies, affect communication effectiveness. The report concludes by proposing an integrated communication model to enhance information sharing and promote proactive responses in healthcare settings, stressing the importance of continuous improvement in communication strategies to ensure quality health and well-being among service users. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar assignments and resources.

Running head: COMMUNICATION
Unit 1: Task 2
Factors Influencing Communication Process in Health and Social Care
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Communication Process, Cultural Factors and Values..........................................................2
Impact of legislation, charters and codes of practice on communication..............................4
Organisational Policies, Systems and Communication..........................................................5
Plan for further improvement in communication in health care organisation.......................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Excellent communication skills are the gateway towards success under diverse
workplace settings (Angouri 2014). Effective communication also holds a promising
significance in health and social care (Moorhead et al. 2013). Effective communication
between patient and the health care service providers is important in order to establish and
maintain a positive understanding with the patient and their family members. This further
helps in implementing person centred care plan and overall improvement of the quality
outcome of the patient care (Webster 2013). However, the nature or the approach of
communication varies between person-to-person. Moreover, in order to procure care in a
culturally competent manner, the health care professionals must have culturally diverse
communication skills (Paniagua 2013). The following report mainly highlights the important
factors that influence the communication process in health and social care. In explaining the
process and the nature of the communication the report aims to throw light over the influence
of culture, values, legislation and organisational system over the development of
communication skills.
Communication Process, Cultural Factors and Values
Cultural diversity in health and social care is defined as the difference in languages,
eating habits, spiritual values and moral norms. The role of communication in health and
social care is important because communication is the most useful medium in accessing
patient’s requirement and current health status (Betancourt et al. 2016). So in order to provide
effective and optimal health care service, in health and social care, the health care
professionals should be aware of and respect different cultural values, rituals, traditions and
ethics of patients from diverse cultural or demographic background (Betancourt et al. 2016).
Every aspect of global communication is influence by cultural differences. Not only
this, the choice of the medium used for communication also plays in important role in cultural

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overtones. For example, industrialised nations rely on electronic technology and give
importance to written messages in comparison to oral or face-to-face communication.
Countries like United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany follow this trend.
However, third world countries like Japan still relies on face-to-face interactions in
comparison to written mode of communication in spite of having access of latest technology.
Thus the determining factor in the medium of mode of communication preference is not
related to degree of industrialization but on whether the country falls into high-context or low
context culture (Goman 2011). Gender is another dimension of the culture which influences
communication style. Men and women are naturally equipped with differences and the same
is reflected in the manner in which they indulge themselves in the process of communication.
Thus a different communication style must be adopted while addressing different gender. The
same is true in the domain of age and ethnicity. For example, communication with elderly
should be done via taking a different perspective in comparison to youth. Moreover, each
nationality also have different approaches for communication like few verbal or non-verbal
communication techniques is suitable for one culture while it may sound rude to another
culture. Like in European countries body language holds prime importance in communication
styles (Schiavo 2013). So the style of communication must be understood in order to prevent
miss-interpretation of information.
Health and social should be aware of these differences in communication style while
addressing patients from diverse cultural background. One of the principal aspects of
understanding the difference is to be an active listener. Active listening not only helps in
earning the trust of patients but also helps the healthcare professionals to understand the
actual physical or mental health concern from patient’s perspective (Weger et al. 2014).

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Impact of legislation, charters and codes of practice on communication
Communication styles in health and social care is also influenced by the existence and
stipulations provided by legislations, charters and codes or practice (Nursing and Midwifery
Council UK. 2015). The main code of conduct, which frames the communication style of the
healthcare professionals, is mainly guided by The Code of Professional Standards of
Practice and Behaviour for Nurses and Midwives. The first code of conduct emphasise over
“prioritise people”. Under this code, the healthcare professionals are require to treat
individuals with kindness, respect and compassion in order to uphold their dignity, individual
choice and diversity. The code of conduct also promotes active listening while encouraging
people to contribute in the decision making process. Thus it is the duty of the healthcare
professionals to not only listen to the concerns and needs of the service users but also inspire
the individual in taking active participation in the decision making process. The nursing
professional code of conduct in UK also promotes respect to patient’s privacy and
confidentiality. Thus the care givers must practice their communication skills in such a way
that they share the required information with the other healthcare professionals or the
concerned agencies only when the main interest of patient safety and overall public health
protection significantly override the requirement for confidentiality. Moreover, the healthcare
professionals must share the information about the patient’s health prognosis in a manner in
which they can understand and that too, with person over whom the patient have opted
complete trust (Nursing and Midwifery Council UK 2015). As per the European Convection
on Human Rights, an international treaty, healthcare of social care workers must take
reasonable steps in order to satisfy the service users’ language and communication
requirement. This is done via using a range of the verbal and non-verbal communication
methods while taking active consideration to the cultural sensitivities (Nursing and
Midwifery Council UK 2015).

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Other legislation, charters and code of practise that help in shaping up the
communication styles are highlighted below in the table
Legislations
Equality Act 2010
Data Protection Act 1998
Charters
Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Voices into Action
Department Health Information Charter
Codes of practice
Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Proficiency for Social Workers
Caldicott Principles
Organisational Policies, Systems and Communication
In order to engage the health and social care providers in effective and efficient
communication practices, one factor that must be taken into consideration is organisational
systems and polices. These systems and policies help in shaping communication activities
while making it more meaningful and appropriate. One of the important styles of
communication as proposed by the organisation is communication channel. The
communication channel is a pipe through which the message is conveyed either via
telephonic channels or via emails or through computational channels like medical record. The
nature of the messages is also divided in several sub-types depending upon the severity or the
urgency of the information. Like urgent information is communication verbally or in face-
face mode while information that do not hold prominent urgency are communication through
mails or fax. Moreover, communication polices can be formal like clinical handover or

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discharge reports and informal communication include daily meetings with the family
members of the patients in order to discuss the disease progression or recovery (Cresswell et
al. 2013).
Other organisational policies that help in framing appropriate communication styles
via motivating in the process of quality care procurement is whistle blowing policy, zero
tolerance for the workplace bullying and promoting equal opportunity of work. This polices
help to highlight the discrimination among the staffs while promoting equitable access and
treatment to every team members. Such approaches decrease staff turn-over and thereby
helping to increasing active participation of the health/social care professionals in the care
process via adopting proper communication styles (Norton, Zacher and Ashkanasy 2014).
Plan for further improvement in communication in health care organisation
However, in order to improve the communication across a complex system in a
healthcare settings where everyday urgent information is being communicated, there must be
a definite point-of-contact in different healthcare teams such that the there is no loss of
information during the hours of emergency (Fernandez and Pallis 2014). The proposed
system of the integrate communication model is highlighted below:

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Figure: Possible Communication Pathway under Hospital Settings
(Source: Fernandez and Pallis 2014)
This integrated system of communication will promote active sharing of information
and thereby helping the healthcare professionals to take prompt actions as per situational
urgency (Fernandez and Pallis 2014).
Another important style of communication that will be helpful in the context of the
given scenario is active listening. Active listening will help the service user to feel that her
voices are being noticed and thereby encouraging her to participate in informed decision
making process also to co-operate with the staffs in the process of care and flow of
information (Tyagi 2013).

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Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that information and
communication technology offer a powerful medium for restructuring the service quality of
health and social care. The style and the approach of communication differ by cultural
background, ethnicity, gender, age and education. So it is the duty of the healthcare
professional to practice as per the required standards in order promote quality health and
well-being among the service users. It is also the duty of the healthcare or social care
professionals to abide by the legislations and code of conduct while communicating with the
service users and their family members. Under legislation and code of conduct, the important
criteria include protection of service users privacy, confidentiality while influencing the
service users to participate in the decision making process. In executing such guidelines and
norms of effective communication, organisations polices must be activity framed along while
making specific division in the type or nature of communication depending upon urgency.

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References
Angouri, J., 2014. Multilingualism in the workplace: Language practices in multilingual
contexts. Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. pp. 1 to 9
Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., Carrillo, J.E. and Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I.I., 2016.
Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities
in health and health care. Public health reports.
Cresswell, K., Majeed, A., Bates, D.W. and Sheikh, A., 2013. Computerised decision support
systems for healthcare professionals: an interpretative review. Journal of Innovation in
Health Informatics, 20(2), pp.115-128.
Fernandez, F. and Pallis, G.C., 2014, November. Opportunities and challenges of the Internet
of Things for healthcare: Systems engineering perspective. In Wireless Mobile
Communication and Healthcare (Mobihealth), 2014 EAI 4th International Conference
on (pp. 263-266). IEEE.
Goman, C. K., 2011. How Culture Controls Communication. Forbes. Access date: 18th June
2018. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2011/11/28/how-
culture-controls-communication/#2183b3d8263b
Moorhead, S.A., Hazlett, D.E., Harrison, L., Carroll, J.K., Irwin, A. and Hoving, C., 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).
Norton, T.A., Zacher, H. and Ashkanasy, N.M., 2014. Organisational sustainability policies
and employee green behaviour: The mediating role of work climate perceptions. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 38, pp.49-54