What is meant by communication and why it is important that care workers have good communication skills?

When using verbal communication, you can either ask open or closed questions. Open questions are when you get a more explained answer and closed questions are set answers such as 'yes' or 'no'.

Health and social care workers have to talk as part of their job and as it is such an everyday occurrence, they may sometimes not even realize when they are using different verbal skills. An example of the range of verbal skills needed and used:

* Respond to service users' questions or distress.

* Take a clinical history or ask assessment questions.

* Contribute to a team or group meeting.

* Deal with problems and complaints.

Each of these situations requires that health and social care workers have to be able to maintain effective verbal communication with other people.

Non-verbal communication is when people continuously use their bodies and aspects of their behavior to convey messages to others. This can also be known as body language. The main features of non-verbal communication that are important are the following:

Facial Expression

The human face is made up of dozens of muscles which make it possible for someone to adopt a wife range of expressions which can signal many things such as: anger, fear, dislike, amusement, disbelief etc. Human beings make use of a very wide range of facial expressions and are very able at reading each other's non-verbal communication in this way.

Eye Contact

People's eyes, like facial expressions, are a good indicator of a person's feelings and emotions. The type of eye contact that you make with another person communicates a particular form of non-verbal message. It is important for care workers to be aware that people's use of eye contact is influenced by their cultural background.

Gesture

A gesture is a deliberate movement, usually of the hands, that is used to convey meaning. People send messages through the use of a variety of different gestures. Gestures are also a simple form of sign language.

Posture

This term refers to the way that a person sits or stands. People tend to read each other's posture in order to interpret attitude and feelings. There are two types of posture, one being closed posture which is when people have their arms and legs crossed, and this suggests defensiveness and tension. The other type of posture is open posture in which people have their arms loose and lean slightly forward. This tends to show relaxation and comfort.

Proximity and touch

Proximity refers to the physical closeness between people during interactions. Another term for proximity is personal space. The amount of personal space that people need during an interaction usually depends on their cultural background.

Non-verbal messages are an important feature of communication during interpersonal interactions and health and social workers gradually develop and improve their non-verbal communication skills through training and experience.

Listening is an effective piece of communication in care settings which depends on the ability of health and social workers to listen well. Service user's appreciate health and social care workers that really listen to what they have to say. Listening involves paying attention to:

* The linguistic features of what the person says.

* The paralinguistic features of speech, including the volume, pitch and accent of the person's voice.

* Non-verbal aspects of communication.

Effective listeners tend to be skilled at using prompts and probes to find out what is the matter with the service user. The acronym SOLER was developed by Egan (1986) so listeners can encourage communication.

S quarely

O pen Posture

L ean Forward

E ye Contact

R elaxed

The communication cycle is the sending and receiving of messages. Messages are sent from one person to another through verbal or non-verbal communication. People use their senses to receive the message.

To conclude, communication skills are important for care workers to promote effective listening, understanding and awareness of a service user's feelings. Fluency, clarity and sensitivity are all needed for effective communication within health and social care. For health and social care workers to be effective communicators it is necessary to encourage the skills and processes or listening and speaking.

Katie Shepherd

Health and Social Care

24th September 2004