Gestures- There are a variety of gestures which are all used in conversations. There are many people hard of hearing and use sign language to send messages across to each other. Certain gestures have different meaning in different cultures an example is making a circle with the thumb and the middle figure means ok in the UK but in Japan it means money. Other gestures are nodding, greeting, ok, don’t know, handshakes ect. Body orientation/ posture, the way the body is positioned when in a conversation. Gestures are effectively used at my work experience this helps the children be more engaged with what the staff is saying to them.
Body orientation -setting around the people communicating can alter the way in which the body orientation is perceived. In a formal setting if both people are standing/sitting in a face to face situation it can represent disagreement whereas in an informal setting it can represent affection. If a person has an openly body position they will appear more confident whereby, if they shrink their body they will appear unconfident. If any person in a conversation leans away from the other person/people then it can show a lack of interest. If the person leans forward in a conversation it can show they are interested in what’s being said. If someone sits or sands at a slight angle it can show they are relaxed.
Touching is again another non verbal way of communicating. Again there are cultural differences in the way a person touches the other person. If someone is upset and a person touches there shoulder the person upset will feel cared for (Class notes). When children at my workplace hurt/ injure themselves its appropriate for the staff to hug the children. In other care settings like a residential home it would be inappropriate to hug.
Proximity- is about how close you are to a person whether your invading their personal space. If a person invades a person’s space by standing too close they will make the other person feel uncomfortable. At my work experience the staff are close to the children but they do have a certain distance that they have away from the children.
Sign language- Is making visual signs, gestures and symbols with your hands. This is effective for people who are deaf as they cannot communicate verbally. Sign language is effective in health care settings like in a special needs school or a residential care home.
Verbal communication is through sentences, phrases ect.
The tone of voice whether talking aggressively or calming can determine if the patient feels valued. If someone is talking in a very aggressive it can make the other person feel on edge. They won’t want to continue with the conversation. By being spoken to like the person won’t feel respected it may even lower their self esteem. Whereas if a person is talking in a calm soft voice the other people/ person will feel valued. They will feel valued as they will feel respected. In a hospital when the client or their friends and relatives are worried a calm gentle voice can make them feel calmer. This internally will help the nurse to help the client or the friend and relatives understand what’s going on.
The speed or pace a person speaks can put people off from listening to you. They will be put off because their trying to keep up with the speaker but are unable to, so they will place their attention somewhere else and ignore the speaker. If the speaker talks in a very steady pace they will make the listener more interested in what they are saying. At my work placement, the staff talk to the children clearly and slowly so the children understand better. In a residential home there may be people hard of hearing so if there spoken to slowly they will be able to put up easier what’s being said avoiding repetition of the same thing being said.
Open/closed questions can also change the perspective of the patient in whether they feel valued or not. By asking them open questions you are showing you are interested in listening. If you ask them closed questions they may feel the listener is uninterested in what they’re saying. In counselling settings the counsellor will ask a lot of open questions to help the client open up more. This will make the client feel listened to where they will open up more. This can be effective since opening up helps the counsellor understand where they can then give the client the help they need(cengagesites.com page 4).
Written communication- Another way to communicate is by witting to either a group of people or an individual. Good written communication. In written communication spelling, grammar and punctuation needs to be correct otherwise people will be thinking about the mistakes instead of reading what is said. In every healthcare the is some form of written communication either hand written and/or emailed (skillsyouneed). Counsellors use written communication in a email form. At my workplace the staff also use emails to maintain contact between the manager and the children’s parents.
At my work place the staff follow all of the CVB they don’t discriminate other people they also stop children discriminating other children. They keep information confidential so that the children and the children’s parents remain safe. The nursery respects the right of the children, other staff and the children’s parents. They also value the children through communicating effectively. When they talk to the children they go down to their level except when the children are sat at the table eating then the staff talk to them whilst stood up. The staffs maintain eye contact with the children but don’t hold the eye contact for too long. The same goes for the other staff members and the children’s parents. Around the children the staff use restricted codes e.g. they say ow my goodness instead of ow my god. The staff at my work place show good communication through facial expressions. They frown if the children do something wrong this is effective as the children don’t even have to get shouted at they just look at the staffs face and stop what they’re doing. One of the staff members however pulled a few annoyed faces behind a Childs back. The staff member kept rolling her eyes this is not effective as the child may see or other children copy and start rolling their eyes at other children.
There a times again where the children do something wrong. The staff always use a stern voices and say Emily (this is not her real name) that was very naughty what do you think you should say. This is effective because for 1. The children aren’t getting shouted at so there self esteem won’t be lowered 2. There saying the behaviour was naughty so they weren’t calling the children any names so again there self esteem isn’t lowered and 3. The staff get the children to respect the other children or staff by reminding them to say sorry and they are getting the children to think. Another example of when the children are encouraged to think about their actions is when they’re messing around when they’re eating. The staff say someone on this table isn’t going to get there biscuit because there being silly Does anybody know who’s not getting there biscuit? The child being silly thinks about how they were behaving and then they know it’s wrong. The other children also will think about what behaviour is acceptable or not.
There are many other health care settings that follow the CVB through effective communication. These are some examples counsellors, doctors, nurses, dentists, residential homes, hospitals ect. Each of these health care settings keep the information of clients confidential on a database on a computer. Counsellors will put information either from the client themselves or what they have recorded after the session away in a file. The counsellor and the clients are the only ones to see the information. In places like hospitals, dentists and doctor information about the clients is kept on a computer data base, this is kept confidential otherwise the client could be in danger if there address is seen by others. Each of these health care settings treat each person equally in order for the clients to receive the best health care possible. Each of these health care setting show they value clients through effective communication. They look into the clients eyes. Doctors, Dentist and counsellors have relaxed open body postures which calms the clients who are anxious and worried. This will then make the clients experience better
There is a communication cycle There are a number of barriers to effective communication which can distract a person from listening to what is being said. Barriers are things that prevent of stop effective communication taking place.
Physical factors A physical factor could be light if its constantly flickering it can be distracting to both of the people talking and listening. If a person who is talking is constantly breaking eye contact to look at the light the person listening may feel uncomfortable or even thing that person is lying. If the person listing constantly breaks the eye contact the person speaking may feel like that person isn’t listening to what they are saying. If the lighting is very dull it can be also be a barrier as both people won’t be able to read body language properly and it can be confusing. The dull room can put both the people in a bad/ dull mood effecting communication from verbal communication. If they talk in a dull voice it can make the other person uninterested. If the lighting is too bright where it blinds people then will lose eye contact. background noise can be another physical factor that can come from a number of things inside the building and outside. Inside can be noises from computers, the television, radiators outside noises can be from builders, traffic. These factors can make it difficult to hear what the other person is saying to you so messages between two people can be misinterpreted (class notes ). Physical barriers in my workplace include lots of big colourful pictures and toys around the room. The room in the nursery was too warm which made the children feel tired so they weren’t listening to the staff. There was a time when the children were listening to a story but someone parent walked in to collect their child. This barrier stopped the children from listening and they started to play with toys in the room. In other health care setting like the dentist the dentist assistant can be a barrier as the they are moving around a lot. This distracts you when you are trying to listen to the dentist.
Language can be a barrier as some people can’t communicate through verbal communicatation. There are some people whose first language isn’t the one being spoken so may not speak the language correctly causing confusion to the person listening. There are people who are hard of hearing and the way language is said can prevent them from hearing the words. There are also people who have learning disabilities where they can’t pick up language. Another language barrier is from people using slang and jargon is people can misinterpreted what is being said and then get confused where they will become side tracked form what the speaker was saying. Some of the children at my work placement can’t pronounce words properly so you can’t understand what they are saying. This is a barrier because the Childs message isn’t being passed on properly causing confusion. Which can make the child feel unvalued because they don’t feel listened to. A way to overcome the fact people are hard of hearing and have disabilities to learn language is to use sign language.
Emotions if a person is feeling angry or upset ect they might not be able to concentrate on what is being said. They may be thinking about what caused them to feel that so they might not listen to the speaker. If the person speaking in the conversation is angry or upset themselves they may sound angry or upset when they talk. The person listening may notice this type of emotion in their voice and be thinking about that instead of listening. When the children at my nursery are angry at angry they tend to ignore everyone around them including the staff who are trying to communicate with them. The staff however ignore the child that is throwing the tantrum and tell them they aren’t listening until that child calms down. In other health care settings like a hospital clients who are angry try to be awkward with the professionals by ignoring them. This is a barrier as the professional might need to say something important but the client is making it impossible.
Lack of knowledge- There may be a topic in which the speaker has little knowledge about. They may not be able to articulate the subject topic clearly making it difficult for the listener to understand, which may cause confusion. If the person listening has little knowledge in what the speaker has said they could reply with something that doesn’t even make sense. If the listener then changes the conversation because they don’t know what is being said they can be seen as not listening. The speaker then won’t feel valued and may be confused. At my workplace there are children try to tell the staff information but they don’t know the information fully and then get the staff confused. In a healthcare setting like a school the teacher may provide important information that might come up in the exam and if the student doesn’t understand the information they could lose marks.
Cultural differences- People from other countries may not be able to speak English very well. This is a barrier as people especially in health care settings won’t be able to communicate without their being confusion. It also may be difficult for the health care professions to use gestures as they mean different things in different cultures. One way this issue could be solved is by having an interpreter translating the language and health care professions could find professionals that can speak that language. In my work placement there is a parent who can’t speak much English so the parents child has to translate what the staff and his parent is saying. ().
Conclusion- overall the staff at my work placement follow all of the CVB. They keep information confidential, they respect the children’s rights and teach them the responsibility to the right. The staff treat the children as equal unique individuals, they promote an anti discrimination practice and teach the children to not discriminate against other children. Lastly they effectively communicate with the children to make them feel valued. They do this through verbal, non verbal and written communication they eliminate as many barriers to effective communication as they can. In other health care settings that I’ve been to, follow all of the CVB in order to improve the clients quality of life by making them feel valued by treating them equally.
Chapter 2-my interaction
My first interaction was a role play where I was a GP. My interaction lasted around 3-4 minutes. During my role play Holly from my class was pretending to be a patient who came to me for help + advice. Before my interaction I asked Holly if it was okay if she did the interaction with me this was to respect her rights. The patient, Holly (which is not her real name for confidential reasons) had a sore throat which she thought was tonsillitis. The interaction was in another classroom where my teacher was observing us at this time. This effected my interaction as it wasn’t in a real setting and my teacher observed us which made me conscious that she was there so I wasn’t really thinking about communicating effectively with holly. I could also see that Holly was uncomfortable as she kept laughing nervously; this made our interaction feel a bit awkward cutting the amount of time I interacted with her. The person I did my interaction with isn’t someone who I normally talk to so I felt a bit stupid whereas if I knew her more I would have made the situation longer and seem more believable.
problem with my interaction was the environment we were in, it wasn’t the real setting. From this diagram you can see we were squashed into a little corner. We used a small desk and a computer that was in the far corner of the room leaving us with a small amount of space. AS the door was open during my interaction I could hear people talking down the corridor, and I kept looking every time someone walked passed. I could also see another teacher across the hallway which stopped me concentrating as much on what I was doing. In real life I would have genially been concerned for the patient which would have made Holly feel valued. A barrier in my interaction was all the paper and books on the table left me with little space and I kept breaking my eye contact because I kept looking at it. This would have made holly feel undervalued. As you can see from this diagram I was facing Holly which I believe was the best position I could have been in as it shows I have full attention on her
The conversation then ended quickly because I felt uncomfortable which stopped me from thinking of anything else to do or say. I looked up at the teacher as if to say were done now. If this was a real situation I would have been more confident, where I would have made Holly feel valued through verbal and non verbal communication. During my interaction I don’t think my communication was effective. I did however, follow the CVB through showing respect towards holly as I maintained eye contact even thought our interaction was awkward. I also showed her I respected her by smiling even thought I only smiled at the end. A good thing I did in my interaction was nod at holly when she spoke to show “compassion” (nursetogether.com). This improved her self esteem because she felt listened to, she would have felt like I understood what she was saying I noticed this because she smiled at me.
I feel that during my interaction my nonverbal communication skills weren’t very effective. This is because I felt uncomfortable with my interaction being fake. My non verbal communication skills didn’t real help Holly feel valued. My facial expressions were the worst non verbal skills out of all the others. Throughout the whole interaction I near enough had the same expression on my face. The reason for this is because I was thinking about what I was doing instead of listening e.g. typing on the computer. This is a barrier to effective communication as in my situation it stopped me thinking about my non verbal communication. I did however, show I valued Holly by smiling at her near the end of our conversation. During this interaction I did follow the CVB. I did this by not interrupting Holly because this would have made her think I wasn’t interested in what she was saying. In my interaction I maintained eye contact all the way through this showed Holly I was listening to her. If she was nervous I made her feel more comfortable with maintaining eye contact.
During my interaction I had a closed body position, I was slouched on my chair with my shoulders pressed inwards. This effected my communication with Holly. Our communication was effected because I was sending messages to her that I shy. I tried to follow the CVB again by empowering Holly because I was asking her many open questions e.g. How are you feeling?. I again tried to follow effective communication in the CVB by not telling her what to do. I advised her to take fluids and to have lots of rest. By advising her I made her feel valued because she has the choice on her own lifestyle and beliefs about how she should take care of herself. I tried to treat her as an individual. In my interaction I never got too close to holly as I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. During my interaction my body language was tense showing I felt uncomfortable with the setting, what could have made Holly feel like I wasn’t listening to her which will internally lower her self esteem. In my interaction i showed a little bit of being attentive to what Holly was saying by actively listening, giving eye contact, nodding my head and also smiling. This probably helped Holly feel valued as she felt I was interested in what she was saying. In my interaction I tried to use appropriate gestures when I was mirroring what Holly was doing. This was to ensure holly felt listened to an example is when she smiled I did.
During my interaction my verbal skills were far better than my non verbal skills. I used that correct and appropriate language which enabled me to “make a good impression and project myself as mature, intelligent, and confident” (appropriate-language.html). I spoke to Holly in a clear calm voice where I avoided using slang, or jargon. This was to avoid any confusion in case she didn’t know what the slang words meant.
This is what was said during my interaction
Me: Hi how are you feeling today?
I asked this question to empower Holly, this made her feel valued as she knew I was ready to listen to what she had to say. This type of question is an open question allowing Holly to talk freely about what was wrong. By asking this question I followed effective communication in the CVB by making her feel respected and valued. During this time we were both sat down behind a desk. The desk was a barrier in our communication which could have made Holly feel less important which will of course lower her self esteem.
Holly: I’m feeling ok but I have a bit of a sore throat I think its tonsillitis
When Holly said this I nodded my head to show I was listening and I was agreeing with her having. When holly said this she was smiling which reminded me that we were being watched. Her facial expression showed she was shy. This effected our communication as I then felt more awkward and felt shyer about pretending to play a fake role.
Me: okay (turning towards the computer where I began typing) you’re names Holly
The computer then became a barrier as my eye contact was broken and she may have felt awkward sat as I wasn’t paying attention to her. This is why when I was tying
Holly: Yea, she then said her first and last name (which I’m going to keep confidential so I can follow the CVB.)
Me: okay ill print of this sheet so you can get some antibiotics
Me: could you please sign there (she signed the paper) I advise you to drink lots of fluids and get lots of rest.
I avoided using closed questions as it could have made Holly feel uncomfortable. Asking closed questions can also inhibit conversations as the client wont saying anything other than yes or no.
Holly didn’t have any special needs, any learning disabilities or any difficulty speaking English, because of this there was no barriers when we were communicating. However if she did have any difficulties whilst communicating I would have used other techniques like paraphrasing what was said.
In every interaction there are barriers which effect communication. The barriers vary from conversation to conversation. During my interaction I uncounted a number of barrier these consisted of physical barriers like the desk, emotions and lack of knowledge. Later on in my report I will be explain how I would prevent these barriers if I did my interaction again.
The Desk- the desk was a barrier because the made holly feel intimidated. This was being behind the desk showed I was of higher importance lowering holly’s self esteem by making her feel undervalued. The desk may have made holly feel uncomfortable due to this reason. This could have hindered our communication because holly may have become reluctant to talk.
lack of knowledge- lack of knowledge was my biggest barrier because it hindered my interaction a lot. If I read up more information on how GP’s communicate with their patients I could of used some of the information in my interaction. I could have found out the ways the GP’s make clients feel valued through communication. I could have used similar open ended questions to empower my service user. If I had knew more knowledge I could have
The computer-the computer was a big barrier because I turned away from Holly and the communication was strained. Even though I spoke to her a couple of times e.g. saying your names..... The communication was still broken. By not communicating fully I wasn’t able to follow the CVB
Emotions- I acted in an inhibited way. I wasn’t able to behave in a relaxed way. This was because I was being too self conscious about being watched. My behaviour was unnatural to the way I normally behave (definition/English/inhibited). This was a barrier because I was unable to think about the way in which I was showing my emotions throughout my role play. As I was nervous I made an awkward king of smile whilst swinging on my chair. This made Holly feel nervous as she began to fidget with her fingers she also started moving her foot up and down. The reason this was a barrier is because I was thinking more about the nervous situation rather than valuing Holly. Our communication then got stopped because I wasn’t able to think of anything to say or do with feeling nervous. When I do my next interaction in a nursery I will be more comfortable with the situation thinking more about what I’m saying which should then help the conversation to continue for a longer amount of time.
My action plan
My second interaction was a group interaction where a read a story to the children. My interaction lasted from 5-10 minutes. Whilst I did my interaction I was observed by a member of the nursery staff. I followed effective communication in the care value base by actively listening to them whenever they spoke. My group interaction was with 4 children 2 girls and 2 boys to avoid discrimination against gender. I chose 2 very familiar books for the children these were little red riding hood and the 3 little pigs. I decided to let the children decide which book I read. The children chose little red riding hood. As the children chose which book was read effective communication was easier as they will be more interested, which helped my communication continue longer. There were 4 children sat on the mat with me whilst the other children were asked to pay. I was able to effectively communicate with the children as I respected each of them the same. Before my interaction i asked the staff member if it was okay to do the interaction with the children she then asked which children wanted to hear a story. I did this to make the children feel valued and also to respected.
The environment didn’t affect my communication with the children. The nursery goes around in an L shape so the other children playing were around the corner so i couldn’t really see the children. I found reading a book to a small group of children was a very effective way to communicate as it made them interested in what I was saying. I respected the children by giving them the same amount of eye contact. When I read the book I asked them open questions like what colour is her hood, where does her grandma live, what is she taking to her grandmas and why is she visiting her grandma. These questions allowed the children to communicate back with me. These questions showed I was ready to listen to what they were saying so they felt valued. These questions also allowed the children to feel empowered because they were having there say. Also without questions it wouldn’t have been much of an interaction just me talking which would have made the children bored and feel undervalued. I made sure I asked every child questions so no child was left out. There was a quiet boy who at first wasn’t answering any questions so I asked a couple of questions directed so only he would answer. Once the children asked the question I nodded and showed I was actively listening this was to show I cared about what they were saying. This again showed I was following effective communication on the CVB. My non verbal skills were effective in this interaction. I changed my facial expressions to make the children interested e.g. when the wolf came into the story I pulled a scared look on my face in which the children imitated. I articulated the story so the children could understand. Before the interaction I positioned myself so I wasnt sitting too close to the children as I didn’t want to make them feel uncomfortable. I tried to improve the children’s self esteem by praising them whenever they got one of my questions right. I did this by smiling, nodding my head and saying well done. When I asked the questions I used restricted codes so I didn’t confuse the children. Whilst reading to the children I made sure they could see what pictures were in the book. I did this just in case they didn’t understand, so they could look at the pictures in the book to get an idea what it was about. Throughout most of my interaction i spoke in different tones, when the wolf came into the story I made my voice deeper louder voice to show anger showing he was a bad character. When little red riding hood came into the story i spoke in a calm, soft voice to show her character was friendly. This was again to make them interested in the book and in what I was saying. I think my verbal skills were better as i changed my voice to which character was in the book. During different times in my interaction i changed the pace i was reading to the children. I sometimes slowed my pace right down to a point where the children could say the word in the book e.g. what big eyed you have all the better to .... the children then said see you with. Other times during the bigger paragraphs i speed up the pace so the children didn’t become bored or distracted. When i asked the children questions i gave them plenty of time to reply without showing i was being impatient.
The childrens communication in my intraction was very effective because of the verbal and non verbal communication. The children showed they were actively listenening by looking at me when i was speaking to them. The children also showed they were listening by telling me some of the story in there own words. This helped me feel more relaxed during the interaction which in turn helped my concentrate on making my non verbal communication better. With me feeling relaxed in this interaction i made the children feel relaxed. The children would have subconsciously picked up on things like me having an open body posture. I avoided making the children feel intimidated by sitting on the floor next to them indtead of sitting on a higher chair.
A problem that occurred in my interaction was a couple of the children looked at the staff observing me when she moved on her chair. This then showed the children stopped listening to what i was saying. I then decided to say loud and clear can anyone guess whos granny bed (i then pointed to the picture) I thought this was really effective as i grasped the childrens interest back. The were risks of barriers such as other children coming to see what we were doing. There was also a risk of parents coming in to collect on of the children i was talking to. These two possible barriers wernt an issue. There were a few unpredictable barriers in this interaction one being backgroup noise. At one point duing my interaction some children started screaming and laughing this stopped me reading the story as i looked then so did the other children. I was able to carry on with our interaction straight away. Another barrier was the book i was reading. I had to keep looking at the page so my eye contact was broken a number of times.
My action plan for my second interaction
Chapter 3-Evaluation
My second interaction was a lot better than my first the main reason was because my first interaction was false. The false interaction made me nervous to the point where i began to to forget what i wanted to see or even think about my non verbal communication.
I believe my first interaction wasn’t very effective because it was a false setting which caused me to be anxious. Our conversation was cut short due to this fact and Holly (which isn’t her real name for confidential reasons) wasn’t able to develop a lot on what she was thinking/feeling. My interaction didn’t allow for the conversation to flow and be developed more I could have checked to see if the patients symptoms to show I care. I believe my interaction could have been better if I had my interaction with someone older like my teacher; this is because older people tend to be less nervous in situations. So if the older person didn’t show much signs of being nervous I might be less nervous myself where I could have focused my attention more on what I was doing/saying. I also feel that I should have done my role play based on a different health care setting. The health care setting I believe would have made my interaction better is a counselling service. If in my role play I was a counsellor I could have asked more open questions like how did that make you feel? From the answer given I could ask another open question like how do you think the other person felt? I would also be able to have better body language, maintaining eye contact, nodding my head, saying yea, smile more, saying I hear what you’re saying it’s almost like...... this is where I could paraphrase what is being said. If it was a real setting I would have been able to effectively communicate better. When I next do my interaction with the children at my work experience, in a real setting my interaction should be much better. If I did the same interaction again I would pick someone from my class who I was very friendly with. I think this would have improved my interaction as I wouldn’t have felt as embarrassed if it was with one of my friends. I would change the furniture around in the room or chose a different room where I could have still used a computer where I didn’t have a desk between us. In a real GP setting this is how the doctor communicates with their patient. The GP can still use the computer without having the desk as a barrier and also the client can see what the doctor is looking at on the computer. The client can also see if any personal information is being given away. In my interaction I should have organised the furniture so my interaction would have made the client feel more valued. My verbal and non verbal communication skills were very poor. My verbal skills were a bit better than my non verbal skills. This was due to the fact that I wasn’t thinking about my non verbal skills. The way i spoke e.g. calmly and the way I said my words e.g. not using slang words helped my communication. It helped because I avoided confusion by using slang words and by speaking calmly I helped my client feel more relaxed. On the other hand my body language hindered holly from feeling valued. I sat with a closed body position and had tense muscles which in turn made holly feel uncomfortable because she could see I wasn’t relaxed. This is because holly didn’t feel valued and although this was a false setting I could have made her feel better through feeling valued. Overall i don’t think i performed well in my first interaction i think this because my interaction was cut very short with being nervous. This is also because i didn’t real value the client sufficiently. My body language made the service user feel uncomfortable which i could see in her body language. There was an odd time when i smiled and nodded my head to show i was listening which is the only time i know holly felt valued. If holly felt relaxed in my interaction.
My second interaction was so much better i was able to communicate effectively with the children. My verbal and non verbal skills were to a good standard but still had their faults. I first started of by asking the staff if it was okay to do the interaction. I treated every child the same i never picked any child to speak to first i just let which ever answer the question first. I gave them each the same amount of eye contact. I made sure they all answered similar amount of questions. I never invaded the childrens personal bubble i sat down first and allowed then to sit where ever they wanted. My non verbal communication was good because i was using geustures for the chidren to imitate and to remember the story better. I was able to follow the CVB expecially on effective communication throught verbal and non verbal communication. I did this by showing i was actively listening by nodding my head and smiling. I was less shy which prevented my mind from going blank. I was less shy due t the fact i had already read books to the children perversely and forgot i was being observed. Throughout my interaction i was nodding my head and smiling this showed i was actively listening. Actively listening makes clients feel “worthy, appreciated and respected” (active-listening-skills) in my interaction i spoke to the children in a calm and friendly voice helping them to feel engaged in what i was saying.
In both of my interactions i smiled, nodded and spoke to the service users in a friendly polite was. This made them feel valued and welcome to talk to me. In other care settings like a residential home or a these communication skills would be effective. Another simliaity in both in teractions was the fact that both had a barrier that caused my eye contact to be broken. In the first interaction it was the computer, in the secnd interaction the book also cause my eye contsct to be broken. Both of my interaction were different in a number of ways. The first was the age difference in my first interaction my patient was someone who was of the same age as me. At the nursery the children were about 4-5.My interactions were both similar for the fact that i didn’t paraphrase in any of them.In my first interaction when my client told me what was wrong with her i could have paraphrased what she said. In my second interaction i could have paraphrased when the children answered one of my questions. When i next do my interaction i will paraphrase because i realised how important paraphrasing is for making clients feel valued. This made a big difference in how effective my communication was in the first interaction with holly being the same age i felt nervous for the fact that i may get judged. In the second interaction with the children i never felt judged because the children were so young. The observer in my interactions made a difference as well because in my first interaction i could see the teacher observing us which again made me nervous. In my second interaction the staff member observing me sat to the side where i couldn’t see her so i focused on the children and forgetting that she was even there. Another difference was where i was sat in my role play interaction i sat on far in the corner on a swivel chair which may have indicated to the service user that i was bored and un interested. In the second interaction i sat on the floor were there weren’t any distractions. I could improve the way i interact with other health care settings by watching and/or listening to my interactions. This way i would be able to see little mistakes in my interaction e.g. seeing if im giving the right amount of eye contact to the service not too much or too less. Before i did my second interaction i thought of ways to minimise the barriers from my first interaction. I made sure that i had enought space to read to the children allowing me to freely use geustures. This time i wasn’t squashed into a corner which helped me feel more relaxed. In turn this would have made the children feel more comfortable during the interaction. I made sure i didn’t use any barriers such as a desk i realised how this effected my communication the first time. In my first interaction i probably made my client feel intimidated because it showed i was of more power, this may have lowered her self esteem. I also prevented my interaction from having an emoutional barrier. A couple of weeks before my interaction i read books to the children to become familiar with the situation. When i read during my interaction i forgot i was being observed because all the other times i read to the children i wasn’t being observed. From this i was able to feel relaxed and although i was thinking about making my body langue seem relaxed i showed this automatically. If i did my interactions again i would improve them in a number of ways the first way for both interactions is by paraphrasing i want to help my clients feel worthy and by paraphrasing i will be able to do so. For my first interaction i would change the health care setting to one i have more knowledge in.
Bibliography
(Heinemann AVCE Advanced health and social care Neil Moonie pages 3+4(2004)
(GCE AS Level single award Health and social care Neil Moonie)
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(Class DVD on effective communication)
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Class notes
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Appendix
Key
Me:
The children:
The staff observing me:
The other staff member:
The tables: