The role of communication and interpersonal interaction in Health and Social Care

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Health and Social Care National Extended DiplomaTabitha Roxburgh Unit 1

The role of communication and interpersonal interaction

in Health and Social Care.

Theories of communication.

When it comes to communication there are two main theories that were discovered by Michael Argyle and Bruce Tuckman.

Bruce Tuckman discovered that there are 4 key stages when it comes to communicating as group. These 4 key stages are called Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. It starts off with forming, this is where there is a little agreement, an unclear purpose, and given guidance and direction. This involves bringing the group of individuals together to form a team. The members usually have positive expectations about how it all might go, although they may have some anxiety about other members. At this point it is all about building relationships within the group and initially individuals behave independently. It then goes on to the second stage which is storming, in this stage there is conflict, power struggles but a clearer purpose is revealed. During this there will be evidence of internal conflict and it can cause a simultaneous dip in team morale. They will have to become more supportive, and better at decision-making. They also need to prevent any conflict from getting out of control and poisoning relationships between team members. The third stage is then the Norming stage. In this stage there will be agreement, clearer roles and responsibilities and facilitation. This is where the members are learning more about each other and how they can work together, and are also developing skills. They begin to have feelings of cohesion, mutual respect, harmony, and trust. The team will start developing a sense of team pride, and will see increased productivity as skills develop. Then in the usual last stage there is performing. In this stage there is now a clear purpose and a good focus on the goal achievement. The team members are now competent and able to handle the decision-making process as a group. Morale is high and the general atmosphere will be positive. Team members are confident about the outcome, enjoy open communication, show high energy, and whereas disagreement is expected and is dealt with appropriately. Sometimes there is an additional stage called Adjourning, this is where the task is now completed, and there were recognition and good feelings associated with their achievements.

In Argyles theory there are 6 stages, the first is the aim. This is how they want to communicate, what they share and what they want the receiver to do with that information. The second is encoding, this is considerations such as social influence and language used. The next stage is transmission, and this is a vital stage for successful communication as the sender needs to consider such things as distractions and format. Then there’s the receiving stage, this is where information actually reaches the receiver. The fifth stage is the decoding stage. This where if the sender has transmitted the information correctly then the message and aim should have been received clearly. And lastly, in the final stage there is responding. This is where the receiver has got the and now has a chance to ask question about what has been said and gives the sender time to realise if they have missed anything out.

Communication adapted to a health and social care setting.

The first form of communication that I logged was in the form of talking and verbal speech was used. I had a conversation with my 5 year old nephew, Cole, and we spoke about a game called Minecraft. This took place on the 23rd September ‘15 when I had gone over to visit my sister and her family. Our conversation included him demonstrating what keys do what actions as a character, and also how to open your chest with all of your objects in. There were no other means of communication apart him demonstrating with actions. Although him being a younger child I made sure he could understand what I was saying and also made sure I acknowledged what he said without sounding patronising.
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Cole: “So this is how you do it.”

Me: “Do what?”

Cole: “Jump out of the water, you double click x, look like this.”

Me: “Oh Yeah, I see. That’s cool!”

Cole: “And then this is the chest, you click this button (demonstrating button y) and it comes up, here now you try.”

If this was in a health and social care setting then for example Cole could’ve been being visited by a social worker and he was upstairs playing minecraft. A social worker would’ve asked him what he was doing on the ...

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