Listening Skills
Listening skills are the skills in which these points are important when listening to other person’s words, thinking about what they mean and planning what to say back to the other person. Hearing another person means listening to their sounds.
Listening is known as a skill. It is more than just listening to someone’s words. Listening includes hearing things and then remembering them. To remember what has been said, we need to understand it first. According to some psychologists, people usually remember only about one out of every two thousand things that have been heard in a day! Most of the sounds that come to our ears are not important enough to be remembered, for example the sounds of people talking in crowds, the sound of birds singing, etc.
When we listen, we have to concentrate on several things:
During listening we have to hear the voice, tone and the sounds being made. We also try to catch what has been said. We try to make sense and understand it. We also try to make a judgement of it and then we think and respond to it. For example in the day care setting in which I went to do my work experience I saw the care workers using their listening skills very effectively. They listen to the sounds and the tone that the service user is using for example, one of the care workers asked the service user about his health and he replied in a very sad tone saying “not very good”. The care worker understood from the tone and the words used that he was not fine and he may `have some problem that he wants to share.
There is also effective listening. Effective listening includes the appropriate use of body language, which shows that the person is listening. There should be good eye contact and this is just as important for the listener as for the speaker. The person also uses nodding, smiles and sympathetic facial expressions and will need to concentrate on the speaker’s tone of voice as they should be attentive. The person makes no assumptions and will listen to the main points and context and they should listen and not predict or try to think that they know what is going on in other persons mind and should not interrupt before the speaker is finished. They should ask questions to show that they are listening to the other person. I will give an example of effective listening form my work placement. My second work placement was in a hospital where the nurse asked an elderly woman if she would like some breakfast, but the woman did not hear very well and spoke very slowly. The nurse asked her in a louder voice if she would like some breakfast, but the woman, instead of answering about the breakfast, started talking about her pension. The nurse did not ignore her, but sat next to her listening to her very carefully because the woman couldn’t hear properly. The nurse used nodding and sign language to make her understand what she was trying to ask her.
Listening is a vital skill in different professions like health care and social care work. Listening skills are very important when you have to work with clients and have to communicate with them.
It is necessary to know about the person’s background, lifestyle and personal situation in order to get to understand other people. It is also important to make sense of these things when you start to know them. When you know more about a person, you should be able to show that you have understood them and have an idea of how you are going to react. Understanding this skill will keep developing from the experience of listening to other people. Getting ready to listen sometimes involves ‘switching’ into a store of knowledge as well as understanding. ‘Switching’ on means remembering someone’s name or face: perhaps we recall when we last spoke to them and what they said. Listening skills are also about remembering the important things about people.
Listening is also hard, mental work. We should also think about how some one else will feel when listening to us, instead of just planning to say what we think. For example, if a girl is disappointed about something, we first have to hear their words and then imagine how the other person is feeling. We have to make sense of the things that have been said and then we have to imagine how we would feel if that happened to us. Having thought through what we have been told, we have to think before we speak.
It is important that when you are listening the other person has to keep speaking. Listening can often be difficult, and takes a lot of time because real listening takes time to go through each thing. Almost all the listening skills were used carefully in the care settings I went to. All the care workers and all the nurses had very good listening skills and I have learned a lot by working with them. I always had my book with me so that I could remember all the skills that I want to see care workers and myself using.
Reflective Listening
Reflective listening is listening where the second person repeats what the first person has said to them. This type of listening can be used when you have to keep the conversation going but don’t know the appropriate thing to say. For example, if an elderly person talks about their children, that they have treated them badly, the children may say “when are you going to die? You are a big problem stuck in here". In this case you can’t say that “Ah, so your children don’t like you then?” The person has made the situation clear – it would be insulting to get the question wrong. It would be possible to go silent too. Silence could be good but not going silent in this time might show that you didn’t understand what has been said. You could just repeat the words that have been said but in the right tone, in the tone in which you are expressing that this is an awful situation.
The other way of repeating the same thing could be like, ‘Your children are not bothered about you; are they are fed up of the responsibility?’ When you use your own words it almost becomes a new question. In this way you can test your understanding of the client’s message. This type of reflection is known as paraphrasing.
When you sum up what another person says it becomes summarising. Summarising and paraphrasing are types of reflective listening and usually putting things into your own words rather than just repeating it is better. This shows that you think about what has been said, it shows that you speak in your own way, you don’t just repeat what has been said. It also shows that the other person has to think more to make sure that you understood what they meant. They are more likely to keep talking after this extra thinking as well, so you can use this repeating technique more often because using your own words sounds more caring and sociable.
Therefore, for keeping the conversation going, repeating is the better technique. However if the right non-verbal messages are used and the words make sense to the other person, then repeating things is just like holding a mirror in front of them. Thoughts and feelings can be seen by them in the mirror that the words have created.
For example a person may say ‘I have no friends, no one here wants to be my friend’. So using the technique of effective listening, you could respond in this way: “You have no friends at all?” By listening to that, the person might have to say more, such as, “Well, you are, you care but no one else does”.
From this mirror the person has now started to think things a little more it is not that ‘no one wants to be your friend’ here you are providing emotional support so ‘you care’. This could be very important.
Care Value Base
Care value base is a kind of positive mental checklist that a practitioner can use to evaluate their own performance. Values that are communicated in the caring situation can be demonstrated by establishing and maintaining the relationships positively, for example treating the service user with respect and in a friendly environment, etc. This is done by knowing the service user, using a sensitive manner and sharing experiences, for example touching the service user appropriately if they are sad, by telling them some stories of your life or asking them some stories to make them happy etc. It can also be done by being aware of their needs, for example giving them the right food according to their health because there are people who could be vegetarian or might be suffering form diabetes etc.
The person should use a positive manner to promote a persons identity for example by calling the service user by their name and treating them as an individual etc. The person should respect individual differences, such as treating each individual the same and with respect, etc. They must also respect the worth of the individual in all interactions by including personal dignity, as well as listening to what they say by accepting their opinions and treating them fairly. This can also be done by considering their choice and preference for example letting them make their own choices in different activities or choice of food. The person should encourage independent support by encouraging them to do things by them-selves. This could be done also by keeping the confidentiality of any information and discussion by not letting the information of service users leak out and keeping the information just within staff access. The service user should be allowed to have access to their information and reports. Also the effect of praising the service user whenever they do well encourages them to do more things and take part in different activities.
Empathy and Empowerment
According to Heinemann GNVQ (Health and Social Care second addition General Editor: Neil Moonie), empathy is a conscious effort to try to see the world as another person sees it. Empathy is an attempt to gain a closer understanding of another’s feelings for example comments such as ‘it sounds as though you are unhappy about that’ or ‘you seem to find the idea of surgery quite frightening’, indicate that the listener appreciates the speaker’s feelings and viewpoint. Empathy building statements that begin with phrases such as ‘You seem to be…..’ or ‘it sounds as though….’ indicate empathy but also leave a room for the person to correct any misinterpretation or misunderstanding. According to Wikipedia (the Internet encyclopaedia), empathy is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself, a sort of emotional resonance. In my work placement I saw my supervisor as well as care workers showing empathy with service users. They were asking each of the service users about how they were feeling and sharing their feelings. Some of the service users, when they are not in a good mood, do not answer if asked any question. They show that they are sad and then the care worker shows empathy by guessing what is wrong with them and finally the service users begin to share their feelings.
According to (Collins Health and Social Care Mark Walsh) empowerment is the process of enabling, authorising or giving power. When interacting with service users the care workers use communication skills effectively, empowering care is also included in effective communication. Being sensitive to what other people are saying, thinking and feeling, treating them with respect and protecting their dignity and rights, are all features of empowering care practice. The same applies to a group. Empowering marginalised people is merely working toward helping the marginalised people to gain the kind of control of their lives that the rest of us enjoy. To do this, they have to work for themselves – although with external help for a while.
The care workers who are doing the empowering should help the group as much as possible, particularly in the tasks which they cannot yet do for themselves. In time, they can learn how to do many of those tasks on their own. Help should not be provided to the people who can do the tasks themselves. If it were, it would not be empowerment. In my placement there was a good use of empowerment as the care workers help the people who are unable to take part in activities and encourage others to do the activity by themselves. Some of the service users do not help themselves even when they are capable of doing it, they always asks for help, so the care workers encourage them to do things independently and so empower them.
Barriers to communication
Barriers to communications mean any social, emotional and other factors that restrict or limit the effectiveness of communication.
Appropriate non-verbal behaviour is the type of behaviour in which body language is used to interrupt the conversation going on, for example, if you are talking to some one and the listener doesn’t concentrate on what you are saying and looks here and there as if they are ignoring you, that is called a non-verbal barrier to communication.
There could be many cultural barriers in communication like failure to understand other cultures. People are not always familiar with all cultures; this could be the barrier to the communication. There could also be language differences which can be a barrier as well. For example, people who are new in this country do not know how to speak English and struggle a lot. In my placement there was no problem with languages because there were care workers from different countries and they were managing very well with the service users in explaining and understanding. There was no problem with cultural differences because workers were very familiar with every body.
Haste is when some one rushes when speaking. If the care worker uses haste, then this could be a very big problem for service users. Most of the elderly people struggle to understand when we speak very quickly and so this could be a barrier to communication. Even a young person cannot understand the rushed language and people need to hear the words clearly to understand them. In my placement there was no problem with haste because every worker was very good in speaking and was well trained in communication skills.
Lack of self awareness is when people are not very aware of themselves, in the way they react and show inappropriate non-verbal behaviours. For example some people don’t mean to, but do things that are not appropriate. Some people listen to everything that has been said to them, but their behaviour shows that they are very careless as they don’t give good eye contact and they are totally unaware of this. In my placement I tried to control my self because I have a lack of self awareness. I make silly faces when I am not in the mood to hear something and I did control them when I had to listen to some conversations which I found boring when talking with older people.
Emotional barriers are the barriers which stop people wanting to understand the other person because of any fear or dislike. This could probably happen in the schools or a home when the child does something wrong and knows that if any body knew about it then they would be in trouble. This can cause them not to speak in confidence which can end up in them disliking people and developing emotional barriers in communication. This can also lead to an aggressive behaviour with others the person may dislike. In my placement there was no such a problem because I liked everybody there and I was fully confident while speaking with the service users.
Environmental barriers could be the barriers like noise, lack of privacy, interruptions, distractions and invasion of personal space. These types of barriers stop the conversation that is going on in two or more people. These types of barriers are also usually in schools and can also be in the care homes. If the teacher is speaking and children are making noises in the background, this can be a barrier in the conversation. If someone comes into another person’s personal space without any close relationship, this could be another barrier because touching some one or sitting close to some one is not always acceptable as people from different countries have different cultures and religions. In my placement I was totally aware of the personal space, such as when I sit next to some one or if I help them in doing things. To overcome these barriers you can check that the lights are bright enough to see clearly, reduce the noise by closing the door or asking people to keep quiet and check the seating arrangements so that every body is comfortable.
Sensory is the barrier which stops the conversation when some one cannot hear clearly or see clearly. This could be a barrier in care settings because most of the old people are not very good at hearing and some are not good in seeing as well if they are not wearing their glasses or hearing aid. In this situation the care worker had to speak loud and clear and sometimes the care workers have to provide them with special facilities like big playing cards, so they could see them properly. In my placement I did not see this problem because I spoke loudly and clearly to the people, especially those have hearing problems and I was helping the people who do not have very good eye sight with their activities. To overcome visual disabilities you can use language to describe things for example to describe a book you can say that the book is something that has pages in it on which we could write notes, etc. You can also assist people to touch your face this could help them in recognising you, check if they can be able to see a bit better with glasses on or check what people can see because some people can see different shapes and colours. To overcome hearing disabilities you can speak slowly so that people can lip read you, don’t shout, but speak slowly and clearly. You should make sure that your face is visible to them and show them pictures to understand things or write messages to check that the technological aids are working.
Different cultures could also be one of the big barriers in communication. There are many people in this country who come from different countries, different cultures and different backgrounds in this situation. It is very hard to understand all the different cultures and this can lead to cultural barriers in communication. People also speak different languages and struggle when they first come here so this can also be a barrier whereas in some conditions people don’t understand each other and all of these things can be counted towards a cultural barrier. In my placement I was familiar with most of the cultures but not with most of the languages, but there were workers who can speak different languages. To overcome this barrier you can use pictures or diagrams to make the other person understand you, use signs and clear speech and re-word your messages to find different ways to make your speech simple and clear.
Gender and age difference are the barriers that can occur in schools, offices, care settings and many more situations. As we know that different people have different beliefs and are from different cultures and some cultures have different rules on gender, so this could be a barrier sometimes. In my placement I didn’t have any problem with gender and age differences. I was friendly with everyone in an appropriate way.
One to one interaction
I went to a day care centre for my work experience. I chose to work with elderly people. I enjoyed working with them and learned a lot from the care workers as well as the job I did. In my placement there were people of different ages, countries and ethnic groups. I experienced a lot from working with people, not just those from the UK, but from all around the world.
Generally I was trying to interact with as many people as I could so I could have an idea of interacting and using my communication skills at the same time. I was using the information that I have been given from my teacher about the communication skills and I watched the care workers when they interacted with the service users as this helped me a lot in using more communication skills.
An example of this is when I interacted with an old woman called Lisa (the name is changed for the reasons of confidentiality). I asked her closed ended questions to make her familiar with me, for example I asked her “Hello! Did you enjoy your lunch today”? Then I told her about myself and explained to her that why I was there so that she knew who she was talking to. I had an interview with her when I asked her about herself and her family. At this point I used some open ended questions and she got soon began talking to me. I was fully aware of the communication skills that I had to use during the conversation, such as me having good eye contact while speaking and listening to her so that she felt that I was interested in the conversation. I had a good use of gestures and my supervisor said that I had a gentle approach with the service users. I tried to have a gentle approach with the service users and so I have succeeded to some point. I also tried to keep the self awareness when interacting and working with the service users so that they could feel comfortable while speaking and interacting with me.
As well as this, I was dressed sensibly; my supervisor said that I was dressed smartly all the time. I think I have used verbal communication very well while interacting with the service users like using nonverbal communication which was also quite good because I tried my best to keep all the types of communication skills in me and I tried to treat people sensibly. Listening skills are the ones that I struggled with because I am a bit poor in listening. There are many things that we have to be aware of while listening to someone. However, when I spent more than two days with them I started to get used to using these skills as I was noticing everything that the care workers do in the centre. The use of prompts is something that I am good at and I have used prompt very well while interacting with the service users. I think I am not very good using body language because when I am tired or upset I don’t tend to listen to people and use all the listening skills, but because I knew that this what I should be taking care of while interacting, I tried to control my body language.
Evaluation
In my one to one interaction I interacted with the lady who was old but was able to speak and hear very well. In my interaction I tried to use all the communications skills that I could depending on the conversation we had. In my interaction I have not used body language very well as this is what I always struggle with. For e.g. when I was listening to what she was telling me about her life I felt a bit bored but I still kept my eye contact and every thing but my body language started going bad at the end. This is because I show what I feel using my body language. I can improve my body language if I start trying it in my daily life and always be aware how the other person feels when I do that. I have used prompt very effectively in my interactions for e.g. I paused after asking the question to give the chance to the other person to speak. I used nodding at the correct time while speaking to the service user. I had a good use of empathy while interacting with the service users as I understood her feelings by looking at the way she was speaking and was telling me her life story. Empathy is very important when speaking to the person because it tells you how the person is feeling for e.g. if I ask the person “how are you?” the person could say me “I am fine” but it does not means that the person is actually fine and we can guess this by the way person uses the voice tone, understanding the feelings is called empathy and I can do very well in that. Because the lady I was talking to was very well at listening and speaking, she didn’t need any technological aids for helping her interact with me. Whereas I have seen other service users using technological aids to help them speaking as well as listening or communicating with other person. I mirrored my care workers as this helped me in the way they encourage the service users to speak. Mirroring the care workers have helped me a lot because this taught me how to react when the service user get very emotional, how to react if the service user is aggressive and also how to appreciate if the service user have done something very well. I was not very confident when at the beginning of my placement but as the time passed and I was more familiar with the service users as well as the care workers I was more confident. I planned the interaction with my supervisor before I did my actual interaction as the supervisor told me all about the old lady so that I can be aware of certain things. Things like asking so many personal questions or asking the question that hearts the service user when answering should not e asked as this can end up in depression. This could also give a very bad affect on the individuals’ health. . I discussed the interaction feedback book with my supervisor as she was ticking it while I was interacting and she was supervising me. I discussed the book because this will give me idea of what things I should take care of and also remind me of using all the communication skills. I have used the care value base as much as possible. I kept my self aware of all the things that are include in care value base for e.g. I was using self awareness while interacting so that the person feels comfortable communicating with me. I was aware of the touching as touching should be used appropriately and it also haves many meanings as there were people from different countries and religions and every body have different point of view of touching.
Group interaction
I did my group interaction in the Manchester Hospital (hospital’s name changed for confidentiality reasons) where I spent most of the time with the nurses. I was working with elderly people who were ill and had different health problems. I did my group interaction when most of the patients were taken to the dining room for their lunch. The room where I did the interaction was not very quiet because I was doing the group interaction and the nurses were working in the dinning room preparing the food and making it ready to serve. The room was bright and I was seated at front of the patients so that everyone could see me properly. Before lunch the patients filled in a list in where they ticked the food that each person likes. I introduced myself to them in case any of them did not know me. I was dressed smartly and I had an apron on because I was in the dining room and I was helping to serve the food into patients. I was reading the names of different dishes that were made that day and then I was asking each of them to give me the recipe of that dish if they knew it. All the service users were giving me different recipes and sometimes different ways of making it. I found it a bit hard to make them speak and the hardest thing was to understand what they were trying to say. However, I understood that the patients in the hospital were older and most of them had problems with speaking and listening.
I was supervised by the supervisor there and she was helping me in the communication as she told me about the people who cannot hear very well, so I spoke a bit louder and nearer to their ear. There were some people who cannot speak and my supervisor was translating for me, for example some of the patients when they like to have tea, they call it p p p pea so my supervisor talked to them using sign language and asked him if he is saying tea. The patient then nodded their head but sometimes they didn’t and the nurses had to understand by themselves that they definitely wanted tea. I find this bit hard because I was not as experienced as them. After working there, I am more experienced and have gained more knowledge than before.
After this, I took the list of the foods that were available that day and asked each of the patients in the group to tell me what they would like to eat. I read the list out to them and then after doing that, I filled my book in to see if I had used all the communication skills.
Evaluation
In my group interaction I interacted with the people from different backgrounds, different countries and different religions. They were elderly people and were also not with a very good health. I did my work experience in the hospital so the service users there were all patients. There were about 8 people in the group. I asked them to give me the recipe for the things they have chosen to eat at lunch time. While interacting with the service users my body language was the one I was concentrating the most on because I am very bad at keeping my body language good. This is because I start showing how I feel using my body but not speaking for e.g. if I am very happy I will start jumping and showing that I happy. And when I am bored I show it in my body language. Group strategies are the one which I was good at the strategies were also made cleared to me by my supervisor. I asked them all types of questions for e.g. the open ended questions and the closed ended questions. I am good at using the question techniques because in my last placement I practised on it a lot and was much better then before. Reflecting listening is not what I was very good at. This is because I forgot that there is something called reflective listening I usually keep the list so that I can use all the communication skills while I am interacting. I have used prompts very affectively I paused after speaking to give the other person chance to speak. I wait for the other person to think before they answer. Empathy is the thing that I have learned from my last placement. In my last placement I practised a lot by looking at the care workers using empathy while they speak to the service user. I spoke to the person knowing that they are ill and are not able to speak a lot and I was familiar with their medical condition as my supervisor helped me in understanding each of the service users in the placement. Mirroring I mirrored the nurses and talked to the service users as they do they show a lot of care when they speak to the service user showing them that they care about them and will not harm them. I tried to mirror them and was successful as well. Some people sis use technological aids when interacting for e.g. Some people are not able to her very well when they get old and ill so they use hearing aid which helps them hear the voices clearly. People in the hospital used many kinds of the aid to help them walk, talk and also feed. I planned the interaction that I was going to carry out with the supervisor and she advised me to use this lunch list to start communicating with them. I am very aware of the confidentiality of the service users as I have not used their real names as well as the placements name in my report.
One to one interaction
I have done two one-to-one interactions in the hospital. I went to the hospital to do my work experience and I carried out three interactions because in my last work placement I only did one interaction. I was working with elderly people as before but the difference was that I was in the hospital this time and I was working with patients instead of healthy and fit older people. I was dressed smartly and was observing the nurses working in there. I interacted with the man called Dirk (name changed because of confidentiality reasons). He was 75 years old and had no hearing problems but he had glasses on because his eye sight was weak. He was in the hospital because he had an accident years ago and he got half of his left leg cut off because the disease that he got could have spread all over his leg. He has Diabetes as well and that is the worse thing for his legs. He already has wounds on his legs and they don’t seal because of the Diabetes problem. I introduced myself to Dirk so that he was comfortable talking to me. I asked him about his health and then I asked him about what had happened with his leg. Dirk is a very friendly person and felt comfortable very quickly. He told me the story of the accident and I concentrated on the communication skills that I had to use. I looked him in his eyes while he was talking to me, I nodded my head where it was appropriate and I also asked him short questions during the conversation so that he knew that I was listening to him and to make him keep going with the conversation. I also asked him about his life before the accident and he told me how happy he was when he used to walk on his own feet. Dirk was there for physiotherapy which would improve his walking and will make him walk with the help of a walking frame. After all this conversation I said thank you to him and then asked him to have rest as I filled my notes in the book.
One to one interaction
I did my third one to one interaction with a lady called Danielle (name changed for confidentiality reasons). This interaction took place in the Manchester Hospital (hospital name changed for confidentiality reasons). Danielle is overweight and was unable to walk or get on or off the bed herself. Danielle was crying and I asked her what was wrong and why she is crying. She said that they were not giving her the bed that she wanted. I asked her what bed she wanted and then she started telling me about her problem. Danielle knew me when I first came so she didn’t need any introduction and she was comfortable talking to me as she knew that I was there for work experience. Danielle was about to get discharged from the hospital and was getting her house sorted with a new bed and a care worker visiting her every night to put her to bed and every morning to take her out of bed. Danielle went home to have a look at her new bed but. She says that her bed is very high from the floor and that’s why she has difficulty watching television. The other problem was that the timing of the care worker to put and take her out of the bed was not as Danielle wanted. She told me that she was very depressed because of this matter.
Danielle has no family; she was alone and was facing so many problems. I was listening to what she was saying and my supervisor was watching me interacting with her. I was using all the communication skills by having good eye contact when she spoke to me. I was nodding when appropriate and I was asking her questions like “How high was the bed”? “Whereabouts is the television”? And “Is your room small?” I asked her all kinds of questions, both closed and open ones, to keep the conversation going and to let her know that I was listening to her. My supervisor was also guiding me during the conversation because I was not very familiar with her and did not know what kind of questions would make her emotionally disturbed. As an example, the supervisor told me not to ask questions like ‘Do you have any family?’ or ‘Do you have children?’ because this can emotionally disturb her. I did my interaction in the bedroom and Danielle was sat on the chair. It took place just before lunch time and it was a bright day and the room was also quiet. The barrier to my communication was when the chief nurses came and filled the lunch list in; otherwise there was nothing that stopped my conversation with the patient.
Evaluating interactions
I am going to evaluate both of my one to one interaction. In my one to one interactions I have interacted with a lady and a man who were quite old and had problems with their health. I used my body language appropriately in these two interactions as this was carried out in the first days when I went to the placement I was fresh minded and was also learning very well. I was not bored because the interaction was in the afternoon. I have a good us of questioning that I used when I interacted with the service user and it helped me in keeping the conversation going for the long time. Reflective listening is something that I was still learning and didn’t quite do well in this part of the communication skill. I think I will need to work more on the reflective listening to properly carry out it when interacting with people if I use this skill more often I will be able to know all about it very soon and will also improve my listening skills. Prompts I have used are very good and my supervisor says that I can improve more of I keep practising it in daily life. Empathy is used very well by me. The both service users I interacted with were different so I had to show empathy in two different ways. I tried to understand what the person is feeling when interacting to them and I was guessing the most by listening to their voice tone as for me voice tone describes the most about the person’s feelings. Technological aids were used by both of the service users for different reasons. I planned the interaction with my supervisor as she chose the service users for me to interact with. I was very aware of the confidentiality as no one wants their information to get passed on to every body and I respect this.
Comparing and contrasting the interactions
There was a lot difference in my both interaction as my first interaction was in the day care setting and the second placement was in the hospital. The difference between the two placements was that the service users in the day care centre were not ill but the service users in the hospital were ill. In my both placements I worked as a staff member. In my both placements I shadowed and observed my care workers and tried to use the skills that they had. I have learnt so many communication skills by going to the placements. The service users in both of the placements were elderly people. There was more care taken in the hospital then in the day care centre. The patients in the hospital some times also need some one to feed them where as in my first placement the service users were feeding themselves. There are very little cases like this in the day care centre. The patients in the hospital were all not putted for the exercise classes because of the different health problems but in the day care centre all the service users were asked to exercise if they can. There were many activities carried out in the day care centre whereas in the hospital there weren’t any activities that were carried out. In my first placement I only carried out one interaction which was one to one but in the second placement I carried out three interactions in which one was the group interaction and the other two was the one to one interaction. The difference that I found in all my one to one interactions is that the one to one interaction that I did in the day care centre was a bit harder because it was my first time I carried out an interaction with anybody using all the communication skills where as in hospital my one to one interaction was easier because I knew how to use the communication skills and was already familiar with the care settings. The difficulty that I found in the hospital while doing my one to one interaction is that the service users were patients and had different disabilities for e.g. the disability of speaking clearly as they were old and could be because they were ill and were not able to speak very clearly. I find it hard to understand them when they were not able to speak clearly. But in the day care centre there weren’t many cases like these ones the people there were speaking much more clearly then the patients. the difference between the one to one interaction and the group interaction is that we have to communicate with only one person when doing our one to one interaction and communicating with more then one person when having the group interaction. In my group interaction there were about eight people. I find it hard to communicate with a group then communicating with only one person. In the group I have to be aware of all the things like treating every one the same and am careful what every person is saying I have to use prompts a lot in the group interaction as this is the hardest thing I find in the group interaction. In group interaction the person have to be very careful of what every person is saying.
Transitions of values
Positively establishing and maintaining relationships is very important in the people. In my placement I worked with all genders and people from different countries, cultures and religions. In the placement the care workers tries to maintain relationships with the service users and tries to behave the same with every individual. Maintaining relationship is a very good way of communicating with the person as the other person feels free to tell you about their life.
Getting to know the service user in a sensitive manner and sharing experiences is also one of the important things as this allows the person to understand each other show empathy and the service user will be happy to share every thing that could be personal too. By sharing experiences the person feel more friendly for e.g. if the service user is very sad because he have lost his glasses you can tell them your own story by saying that I have once lost my glasses and I was very worried I went home and told my mum she shouted at me and then took me to the optician to get me the new one. By doing this the person calms down and laughs and also feels like you are friend and not a stranger.
Showing awareness of needs is important because in the care settings we are meant to be taking care of the service users. By showing the awareness of needs we make the service user more comfortable with our selves as we respect their needs and do not make fun of them for e.g. if the person cannot walk hear very well we should try to speak in low voice but clear voice and should try to go near their ear when speaking to them so that they don’t feel that they are being shouted and also insulted.
Promotion of a person’s identity in a positive manner is a part of equality and inequality for e.g. if the person is from a different country and different religion they should not be treated different or less fair. Everybody should be treated fairly and equally. My promoting the person identity is also a very good way of making the service user friendly with you.
Respect for individual differences, we should all respect for individual differences, every body is not same every body is different for e.g. the person could have disability and people do not respect them and make fun of them is not acceptable in the care settings. Respecting for individual is very important in the care settings.
Respect for the worth of individuals in all interactions including personal dignity is very important respecting individuals in all interactions make them confident but we should also be aware of personal dignity. By respecting some one and not always ignoring make them more confident for e.g. if the person answers a question and if the answer is wrong we should not ask the person to shut up and do not answer unless you don’t know the right answer. By doing this the person will not have much respect.
Consideration of choice and preference is empowering. When we give people choice it makes them feels good. If the person does not get much choice he feels like he is prison and is not allowed to do what they want rather then what others want. By asking them little things makes the service users feel good for e.g. when they want to play a game they should be given choice in two or three games for example you can ask them if they want to play darts, bingo or puzzles.
Encouragement of independence and support gives a lot of benefit to the service users as this allows them to their work by themselves which will help them when they will be alone and there will be no one to help them. Service users and encouraged to do as much as they can and gets support where they desperately need it so that they can be more independent and do not rely on others.
Confidentiality of information and discussion is very important as no one wants their personal information to be passed on to others. For e.g. if I have interacted with the service user and the service user have told me all about his life and I go home and tell it to my friends is not right. In the care settings we are not allowed to talk about any service user or care worker outside with anyone.
Praise is always an important thing. For e.g. when a little child does something very well every body praises her and when the child gets praised she tries to do it again and much better so that she can get the praise again. It is the same in the care settings if one of the service user for e.g. have sing even when all of us knows that he cannot really sing and is not very good at it we are not suppose to ask him to not sing where as we should praise them so they do better next time and be confident.
Conclusion
I have learnt a lot from my work placement as I am very good at using my communication skills and I am very much aware of every skill. By doing these work experiences I have known how the people work in a care settings and this will be very useful in my future. I have enjoyed all my work placements and have gain a lot of experiences. I have identified what are the things that I am good at and the things that I am bad at. I have also find the difference in group and one to one interaction as this will help me in future for giving interviews. I didn’t work in any care setting before and I didn’t know that there are so many things that we should take care of before doing anything. After my work experience I know that health and safety means a lot in daily life. I am now more confident in communicating with people of different ages and I know how can I make my communication longer and shorter.
Bibliography
12/2006
Walsh et al (2006) AS Health and Social Care: London: C. Collins 12/12/2006
Mark Walsh (2000) Advanced Vocational Health and Social Care: London: Collins 15/12/2006
AS Double Award Health and Social Care: Neil Monnie: Heinemann 2005 Oxford.