Effective Communication and Collaboration in NHS Healthcare Setting

This report examines the crucial role of communication and collaboration within the National Health Service (NHS), focusing on multi-agency working and its impact on the well-being of adults with learning difficulties and mental health issues. It highlights the benefits of collaborative efforts, such as improved access to specialized treatment, opportunities for personal growth, and enhanced staff development. The report also emphasizes the importance of effective teamwork, highlighting qualities like reliability, adaptability, and obedience, while referencing Belbin's Team Roles theory to illustrate the diverse roles individuals play within a successful healthcare team. Furthermore, it discusses the responsibilities of health and social care workers in ensuring clear and accessible communication with patients, stressing the use of active listening, empathy, and positive body language. The report concludes by underscoring the significance of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing to enhance the quality of care provided to vulnerable adults within the NHS framework. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

COMMUNICATION AND
COLLABORATION IN
MANAGING THE
PROFESSIONAL
ENVIRONMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
How multi-agency working contributes to well being of patients and staff...............................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Importance of operating in a collaborative way and being an effective team member..............3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
Health and social care worker's roles and responsibilities in ensuring effective communication
and collaboration.........................................................................................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
Demonstration of ability to transfer good practice to others.......................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Communication refers to a crucial procedure within health and social care organisations
which is associated with acquisition as well as provision of several important information within
and outside an association (Yoder-Wise, 2014). On the other end, Collaboration means the
process followed by organisations of different orientation in which they pool their resources
together and integrate their efforts in order to effectively provide better and effective care to
patients. The report below is based on National Health Service (NHS) which is one of the most
effective public service organisation within the UK and it covers how multi-agency working can
support well-being of adults with learning difficulties and mental health. Furthermore, it includes
importance being an effective team member and role of health and social care practitioner and
responsibility to ensure effective communication takes place when working with patients.
Additionally, the report covers demonstration of how good practice may be transferred to others
when supporting patients.
TASK 1
How multi-agency working contributes to well being of patients and staff
Multi-agency working refers to integration of organisation and management of work
across them in order to provide effective services to individuals with multiple needs. In addition
to this, the agenda of such working across organisations is that individuals suffering from
learning difficulties and mental health acquire a range of services through collaboration of
various types of associations (White, 2016).
Multi-agency working could be effectively contributing for supporting adults with
adverse mental health and severe learning disabilities. Organisations like NHS work with several
other organisations like Care Quality Commission (CQC), to effectively providing a range of
effective services and support adults with such medical conditions. In addition to this, as far as
multi-agency working is considered, the organisation is member of Hertfordshire Learning
Disability Partnership Board, which is associated with supporting adults through including a
range of organisations to provide them with an effective multi-agency treatment. As for the
benefits are concerned, individuals with learning disabilities and adverse mental health receive
effective benefits from multi-agency working of organisations like NHS. The first and foremost
benefit in this context is that adults with such medical conditions receive quality treatment from
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specialists of different orientations. This would further broaden the scope of their effective
treatment. Another benefit experienced by them is that their condition could be improved by
intervention of various different organisations. For instance, learning organisations associated
with health and social care organisations like NHS effectively work towards indulging these
adults in several activities which allow them to increase their health state and would help them in
utilising their full potential, which could actually bring in improvements. Opportunity to work
and get paid is also another benefit which these individuals receive from multi-agency working.
There are several cases where a person is good in performing an activity despite of having
learning difficulties and medical conditions. Thus, in such scenarios, multi-agency working
could help in providing these people a platform to lead a normal life (Regan, Laschinger and
Wong, 2016).
In addition to this, there are certain benefits of multi-agency working in context with the
staff of the organisation as well. For instance, with better coordination and integration of
services, staff would be able to work with better equipments and would effectively access the
opportunities in terms of professional growth. Furthermore, shared expertise and knowledge
which employees access within the organisation through multi-agency working help them to earn
effective respect and further provide appropriate healthcare facilities to adults with Learning
Disabilities and mental health. Moreover, multi-agency working allow these professionals to
effectively indulge themselves in training and development programmes which make them more
competent enough to handle complex situations and be better at their leadership and medical
capabilities. Multi-agency working also helps organisations in sharing appropriate, accurate and
contributing information about patients suffering from Learning Disabilities and Mental health.
This provides them with the opportunity of providing such adults with effective care and
treatment which ensure their engagement with the organisation and more people indulge
themselves with the organisation, which is beneficial for them and their professional career.
However, there are several policies which provide benefits to care staff as well as
patients. For instance, a policy highlighting multi-agency working is that Common Assessment
Framework for Adults (2010) (NQSW resource - Outcome statement 10: Multi-agency working,
2019). It effectively became became a beacon for development within multi-agency working and
ensured testing of health and social care services. This allowed individuals suffering from
learning disabilities and mental health to best quality care and treatment. Moreover, it helped
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staff to work in a culture where they are required to appropriately enhance their skills,
competence and improve their medical practice effectively.
TASK 2
Importance of operating in a collaborative way and being an effective team member
Collaboration, in context with health and social care refers to the process which is
undertaken by professionals to interact with other experts of the same field in order to attain a
common objective. Furthermore, it also refers to partnerships between association as well as
professionals from diverse and distinct backgrounds to provide appropriate health and social care
services to patients who require such assistance (Pirkkalainen and Pawlowski, 2014).
In health and social care sector, it is highly important that individuals indulge in effective
collaboration in relation to provide effective and essential services to adults suffering from
learning disabilities as well as mental health. Collaborative working requires professionals to
form appropriate and effective teams in order to perform at their best and fulfil the medical
requirements of adults with learning disabilities and mental health.
However, there are several qualities which must be possessed by professionals to work as
an effective team member and in collaboration. As an example in order be effective in working
collaboratively, it is essential that the professional is highly reliable. Trust is an effective and
necessary factor in order to effectively enhance the scope of collaborative teamwork. Another
quality which must be possessed by individuals is adaptability. This is because multi-agency
working requires professionals to work in different work environments and under different work
cultures. Thus, in order to work effectively in a team, an individual must be quite adaptive of
different methods and procedures which are adopted under collaborative working. In addition to
this, obedience is another quality which must be possessed by individual to effectively work
collaboratively. This is because, there are times of emergencies where immediate instructions are
followed by these professionals, which require high level of obedience (Arnold and Boggs,
2019).
Collaboration is quite important in dealing with as well as supporting individuals
suffering from learning disabilities and mental health issues. Reason for the same is that, with
collaborative working, new and innovative ways could be suggested by team members which in
turn would provide individuals with more insight on how bet the treatment and support be
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provided to the patients. Moreover, with additional mind sets, an appropriate and different
approach could be adopted by professionals. Furthermore, collaborative working also reduces
chances of stress among the professionals along with reduction in chances of errors within health
and social care. There are several care practices and values within collaboration in health and
social care services to ensure proper care for adults suffering from mental health issues and
learning disabilities. For example, a basic value within collaborative working is promoting truth
throughout with utmost sincerity and ensure working towards effectively accomplishing medical
needs of patients. Another value and practice reflecting this care is supporting open and mutually
respected teamwork as integral in relation to provide effective healthcare to people suffering
from learning disabilities and mental health issues.
To effectively reflect on the nature of working in teams, it is essential to back the same
up using theories. One such theory which could be applied in this context is Belbin's Team Roles
theory, which focuses on several roles which individuals belonging to a team could play. This
framework allows professionals within health and social care to provide effective care to
individuals suffering from health issues like learning disabilities and mental health issues. For
instance, members within a team could be shapers where they shape the operations in order to
improve them. Moreover, they could be implementers, were they plan practical strategies. In
addition to this, they could be finishers, i.e., they could impose quality controls to deliver the
quality of healthcare been provided. Furthermore, they could be coordinators, where they could
integrate efforts of one another within the team and could act as a resource investigators, where
they could consider external application of ideas and work of teams. They could also creatively
solve the problem by acting as a plant and monitor performance of each other team member to
enhance the quality of services. Another role which they could play is being a specialist by
sharing effective knowledge that could promote the health and social care services for people
suffering from learning difficulties and mental health issues.
TASK 3
Health and social care worker's roles and responsibilities in ensuring effective communication
and collaboration
Communication is the act by which individuals within health and social care
organisations easily share information associated with the health of patients regarding learning
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disabilities and mental health issues. Within teams formulated in organisations like NHS to
support these patients through collaborative and multi-agency working, it is very important that
communication is treated as a crucial practice within the overall process (Pines and. et. al.,
2014).
Within teams, good communication is utmost necessary. Its importance could be
showcased through the fact that good communication is quite important as it helps in facilitating
harmony within the organisation. Furthermore, there are times where it is required that each team
member works effectively with respect to provision of various services. This requires the leaders
to communicate with them and enhance their morale in functioning effectively (Moss and. et. al.,
2016). Moreover, within multi-agency working, it is highly likely that conflicts rise while
handling and treating patients with mental health issues and learning difficulties. However,
communication is necessary as it helps in clarifying the confusions and come at an effective
solution, which further enhances the productivity within the support provided to such adults.
There are several ways in which practitioners can ensure effective communication when working
with adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues. The first and foremost step
associated with the same is that practitioners must always utilise language which is accessible.
Furthermore, another method through which effective communication could be ensured is use of
different communication tools according to the ease and comfort of adults with learning
disabilities and mental health issues. Moreover, another method of ensuring the same is through
going by their pace, instead of communicating in ways which is too difficult for them to grasp.
There are several effective communication skills which is effective and essential within
the healthcare professionals. As an example, while providing care and support, professionals
must be an active listener, which means they must be attentive in listening to important
information communicated to them. In addition to this, professionals must also empathise with
patients while communicating with them in order to ensure building up of trust effectively. In
addition to this, positive body language while communicating to staff and other members is also
an effective skill, which must be possessed by professionals (Hughes and Tapia, 2015).
However, it is a crucial role as well as responsibility of professionals to ensure effective
communication, for each each professional must use verbal and non-verbal skills to
communicate. As a professional, verbal communication could be used in several ways. For
instance, there are different individuals with different cultural backgrounds which are admitted
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within the organisation in relation to their learning disabilities and mental health issues. Thus,
verbal communication plays a crucial role within the same as it helps to translating the
information being communicated to patient in ways in which they could appropriately
understand. Moreover, it is also used by professionals to ensure a personal touch with patients
which help in appropriately enhancing the effectiveness of treatment.
As for non-verbal communication, it could be used by professionals to formally
communicate within the organisation. Furthermore, another use of non-verbal communication is
to formally inform colleagues about the condition of patients and form effective reports
regarding the same. However, there are several barriers in communication while working with
service user and their families, which could cause hindrances in communicating with these
individuals. The first and foremost barrier is perceptual barrier in these cases. For instance,
people with learning abilities might perceive things differently than what is communicated.
Another barrier which is prominent is physiological barrier. Mental health patients might not
understand what is being communicated to them due to their health condition (Matziou and. et.
al., 2014).
However, to remove such barriers, standard processes must be adopted by professionals
in order to ensure effective transfer of crucial information. For this, professionals must apply a
certain theory like, Argyle Communication Cycle. Within this, the first stage of the cycle is
associated with the idea which occurs within an individual which is required to be
communicated. Further, professionals are required to code the message in which it is decided
what is being communicated and the channel which would be taken for the same. The third stage
is delivering the message to another individual using the same message and channel decided in
the coding stage. Furthermore, the message is received in the next stage. Fifth stage of this cycle
is decoding of the message through effective processing and interpretation based on the channel,
tone, body language and content been communicated. The last stage is the understanding of
message which is fully analysed and processed by them. This cycle would help professionals
within NHS to ensure effective communication within the organisation and provide appropriate
health and social care using multi-agency working (Moss and. et. al., 2016).
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TASK 4
Demonstration of ability to transfer good practice to others
It is very important that good practices are transferred within health and social care
organisations in order to enhance the scope of effective healthcare being provided to individuals
suffering from mental health issues and learning disabilities. Its importance could be reflected by
revisiting the case of Winterbourne View. It was a hospital situated in South Gloucestershire for
autism as well as patients with learning disabilities. It was funded by NHS for the purpose of
providing effective treatment to these patients. However, the staff used to ill treat their patients
and humiliated them completely which was further exposed in 2011. This, is an effective
blowback to the practices which are required to be monitored and eradicated. To further
demonstrate, Gibbs reflective model is used which would describe all the stages of how best the
good practices have been transferred to others (Botha, Kourie and Snyman, 2014).
Individuals with learning disabilities and mental health issues are required to be treated
effectively and with utmost care and respect. All these aspects contribute in a good health and
social care provided to these patients. Furthermore, it is also realised, that to attain the same, it is
crucial that good practices are transferred throughout the organisation which would ensure a
proper standard of healthcare and better practice.
As far as my viewpoints are concerned, I felt it as an utmost necessity that each
individual, regardless of their physical and mental condition, must be treated with respect and
honour. Moreover, each process and procedure followed and implemented within the
organisation must be associated with benefit and safety of patients as well as the staff. Moreover,
I also felt it as my responsibility as a healthcare professional to ensure that all the good practices
which must be adopted for their welfare are transferred in others.
Through this process, one of the best aspect which was experienced by me was that each
individual whom I have interacted regarding their healthcare practices were quite cooperative in
relation to clearly being transparent about the practices which they follow within the organisation
and were open to any sort of suggestions which could ensure improvement within the same. I
effectively educated them regarding several good practices within health and social care such as
empathising with the patient to analyse their condition, focusing on hygiene around such
patients, caring about their medications, meals and entertainment activities, etc. These examples
were effectively understood by the colleagues effectively. Moreover, another method which
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worked in transferring the good practices was whistleblowing. This method was used by me to
inform higher officials about any sort of malpractices which were witnessed by me. Corrective
actions were immediately taken related to these practices, which were positive experience
associated with the same (Noland and Mentch, 2014).
However, there are several bad practices which could be brought into control. For
instance, patients were not effectively handled despite communicating the same. For instance,
proper safety measures like monitoring their activities and locking doors at night were not
adopted effectively. Moreover, there were no quality improvement programs and auditing as well
(Davis Boykins, 2014).
Through this, I realised that it is very crucial that good practices are very important for
patients having learning disabilities and mental health issues in order to ensure their safety as
well as appropriately providing them with effective treatment. Moreover, several effective
methods like training and development program must also be adopted for the same.
I could have handled the situation differently and could have urged the management to
appoint team leaders to monitor the practices of each employee. Moreover, a daily check list
could also be made by me in order to effectively enhance the overall treatment of patients.
However, in case this situation arises next time, I would be adopting social learning
theory in relation to transfer good practices to others. Within this theory, there are three factors
through which, learning could be facilitated among individuals. The first factor is operant
conditioning, where a person could learn by repeatedly performing the same activity. Moreover,
another factor is behavioural factors where learning is influenced by skills and practice promoted
within the organisation. Moreover, the last type of factor is the environmental factor where
learning is influenced through social norms. Through these, good practices could be transferred
on to others to ensure effective healthcare practice (Mack and. et. al., 2015).
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded from the information, that collaboration and communication are
essentially important to manage professional environment. It is important to understand multi-
agency working to support well being of patients associated with mental health issues and
learning disabilities. Further, it is crucial to be an effective team member and collaborating with
others while dealing with these patients. In addition to this, it is responsibility of professionals to
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ensure effective communication and remove barriers in order to share appropriate information.
Lastly, self reflection is useful in helping to enhance transferring of good practices in healthcare.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arnold, E. C. and Boggs, K.U., 2019. Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Saunders.
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environment: Knowledge management and knowledge management technology.
Elsevier.
Davis Boykins, A., 2014. Core communication competencies in patient-centered care. ABNF
Journal. 25(2).
Hughes, A. L. and Tapia, A. H., 2015. Social media in crisis: When professional responders meet
digital volunteers. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. 12(3).
pp.679-706.
Mack, O., and. et. al., 2015. Managing in a VUCA World. Springer.
Matziou, V., and. et. al., 2014. Physician and nursing perceptions concerning interprofessional
communication and collaboration. Journal of interprofessional care. 28(6). pp.526-533.
Moss, M., and. et. al., 2016. A Critical Care Societies collaborative statement: burnout syndrome
in critical care health-care professionals. A call for action. American journal of
respiratory and critical care medicine.194(1). pp.106-113.
Moss, M., and. et. al., 2016. An official critical care societies collaborative statement: burnout
syndrome in critical care health care professionals: a call for action. American Journal
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Noland, J. and Mentch, C., 2014. System of providing an internet web site that assists medical
professionals draft a letter of medical necessity or other documentation for transmission
to a third party payer on behalf of a patient and method of use. U.S. Patent 8,712,800.
Pines, E. W., and. et. al., 2014. Enhancing resilience, empowerment, and conflict management
among baccalaureate students: Outcomes of a pilot study. Nurse Educator. 39(2). pp.85-
90.
Pirkkalainen, H. and Pawlowski, J. M., 2014. Global social knowledge management–
understanding barriers for global workers utilizing social software. Computers in
Human Behavior. 30. pp.637-647.
Regan, S., Laschinger, H. K. and Wong, C. A., 2016. The influence of empowerment, authentic
leadership, and professional practice environments on nurses’ perceived
interprofessional collaboration. Journal of nursing management. 24(1). pp.E54-E61.
White, C. M., 2016. Social media, crisis communication, and emergency management:
Leveraging Web 2.0 technologies. CRC press.
Yoder-Wise, P.S., 2014. Leading and managing in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Online
NQSW resource - Outcome statement 10: Multi-agency working. 2019. [Online] Available
Through: <https://www.scie.org.uk/publications/nqswtool/multiagencyworking/
legislation.asp>
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