Verbal Communication
- Verbal Communication is the interaction between people. It is a way people communicate face-to-face. The key components for verbal communication are speaking, language, sound and words.
- In the case study the verbal communication used is raised voice, using a lot of medical terminology and generally speaking.
How this will affect the patient:
This will affect the patient by making them feel uncomfortable because of the raised voices. This may cause the patient to feel stressed; therefore she may not be receiving the full health care service she needs.
Solution:
To prevent the patient feeling uncomfortable the nurse should remain calm and try to help her patient in the best possible way.
Visual Communication
- Visual Communication is communication with visual aid. It is a way of transferring information that can be read or looked upon/ viewed. This includes images, graphs, signs, illustration, drawings, body language etc. It also includes electronic resources such as email and texts.
- In the case study the visual communication used is nodding their heads and looking slightly bewildered.
How this will affect the patient:
Nodding their head could interpret that they understand, this would lead to confusion because the patient does not understand.
Also in the room there were lights flickering this would lead to a visual communication barrier.
Solution:
To help the patient understand better the service provider could use images and do something about the flickering lights. This could lead to a better understanding for this service user.
Language Communication
- Language is a form of communication that is written or spoken. It enables people to communicate information in a way that people understand. It is a system for encoding and decoding information.
- In this case study there is a language barrier where the patient speaks minimal English. This will make it difficult for an English service provider to help a non English service user.
How will this affect the patient:
This will affect the patient in a way that will stress them. They will feel frustrated because the information is not getting through to them.
Solution:
There would need to be a translator present in the group discussion. In order to help the patient the service provider would need to stay calm and try and put as much information as possible across to make the patient feel less frustrated, this will enable the patient to have a better understanding.
Identify how the communication needs of patients/service users may be assisted, including non-verbal communication (P4)
There are a number of ways the case study could have been improved to improve the communication difficulties, so that Mr & Mrs Singh would be able to understand and respond in an appropriate way.
In the case study support services could have been provided such as translators. A translator translates written text from one language to another. Also a advocate could have been provided. An advocate is someone who speaks on your behalf. There are also a variety of support services available such as:
- Interpreters
- Councillors
- Befriends
- Volunteer
- Psychologist
- Also Speech therapist
In this case study there are a few support services which could have used to come to a solution and also could have made it easier for Mr & Mrs Singh to understand what they were saying. To improve communication you can provide support service. For example in the case study Mr and Mrs Singh do not know how to speak English. To overcome this it may be useful for the MDT team to provide them with an advocate, interpreter or translator this is depending on which one is needed in this situation. An advocate is someone who would be speaking on the behalf of another individual. For example in a legal context a lawyer will speak for the client. In the case study a family member or a friend could have the advocate to argue the point. The couple would have understood clearly what is going on if someone was with them at the time the meeting took place.
Translators should have been present in the meeting as they would have translated everything to Mr & Mrs Singh, as there was known English was not their first language.
Also a befriender would have made Mr & Mrs Singh feels more comfortable. As Mr & Mrs Singh would be able to discuss everything with the befriender and also ask them for their opinion.
Interpreters are people who listen to you speak and then in one language covert the words so you understand them. Translators are people who put forward ideas and concepts between the languages in a written format. An example of this would be in French they would say “the pencil is yellow”. Interpreters are there to help people in health and social acre who do not understand. This relates back to the he case study because an interpreter could have been used here so that the patients could have understood the medical terminology that was being used by the MDT, they could have broken down the words.
Non Verbal communication is talking with out words. It is based on facial expressions, hand gestures, using our eyes, the tone of our voice and also our body language. There are also other ways to assist a patient or service user and that is by non verbal communication. Non verbal is sending messages using our eyes, facial expression also tone of our voice. Non verbal communication is based on:
- Reflective listening
- Speech
- Posture
- Also Silence
To make an improvement it would have been better if they changed their postures. The way they were sitting showed a lack of interest.
Mr & Mrs Singh sat down in lower chairs compared to the MDT, proximity was not organised this made them feel intimidated.
Reflective listening is when you listen and understand a person’s emotions just by looking at them. As we know this was not present in the case study because if reflective listening was present then the MDT would have known Mr & Mrs Singh were confused and did not understand what they were saying clearly. They did not understand the communication cycle very well.
