Communication in Healthcare

 Care practitioners use different forms of communication during their working days. These include the verbal communication skills of talking and listening, and various forms of non-verbal communication, such as touch, eye contact and facial expression, outward appearance. A care practitioners needs to utilise both of these forms of communication when they, give or receive information about the care that is being provided for an individual.  They would need to carry out a complete evaluation of a singular's care needs. Verbal communication happens when one individual talks and someone else listens. Care practitioners require a range of verbal communication skills to respond to questions in order to find out about an individual’s problems or needs to contribute to team meetings, break bad news and provide support to others dealing with problems and complaints. The communication cycle shows that powerful verbal communication is a two-way; talking and listening must happen. Listening is much harder than talking and there is something else entirely to this expertise than simply sitting tight for the other individual to quit talking.

Scenarios in Communication Skills

When a nursery nurse is educating a child, it is essential for nursery nurse to grasp the children attention because children have a small attention span especially when their 3-5 year old. They are more likely to become distracted by their surrounding and peers. Teaching children their numeracy and alphabet, the nursery nurse may use hand gestures to the numbers and letters so the children can have visual indication of what she or he is saying and it would be easier for them to remember when older. The nursery nurse would be keeping eye contact with the children to see their facial expression because it would be an indication if they don’t understand or know. Listening to the children say the alphabet and numbers would be another indication to the nursery nurse if the child knows his or her numbers and alphabet. Directly questioning the children with question closed questions would be easier to than open questions when making sure they understand what you taught. Storytelling can be another way for a nursery nurse to educate children. This is because storytelling can increase their vocabulary since the nursery nurse is telling the children a story. The tone of voice the nursery nurse uses can keep the children engrossed. A high pitch voice can tell the children that the character is female and a low pitch, deep voice can indicate a male character. Children can make their own understanding when the nursery nurse tells a story in a thrilling way. Facial expression, gestures and pace of voice can keep the children attention and let them pin point out specific words the nursery nurse may have exaggerated. The child would have understood what the nursery nurse is implying to them by the verbal and non-verbal communication used by the nursery nurse.

When a nursery nurse describes something serious to child their tone of voice would not be cheerful and would be low for only the child to hear and understand. If the child is in trouble, they would know that they did something wrong from the straight forwardness used by the nursery nurse. The nursery nurse would be talking serious to the child and maintaining eye contact with the child to show superiority. If the nursery nurse is telling a child something serious and the child is not in trouble the nursery nurse would speak in a low tone of voice so the child can hear without feeling like they are yelled at or in trouble. They may touch the child’s arm or shoulder to reassure them that everything is alright. Pace is essential in discussing something serious because a slow pace would let the child understand what the nursery nurse is saying. The child would comprehend what the nursery nurse is saying by the tone of voice, pace, eye contact and touch or contact.

In a situation where a nursery nurse is praising or encouraging a child there would be a verbal and non-verbal communication. The verbal communication a nursery nurse may use is the tone and pace of voice spoken by the nursery nurse. The nursery nurse may be excited and enthusiastic about the child’s work effort. The tone of voice may be high pitch to express enthusiasm and delight. Fast-paced talking can express the same things. The non-verbal communication can be as simple as the nursery nurse gesturing his or her thumb up to show they are proud of the child and indicates to the child they have done something right. The child can easily understand the nursery nurse by the simply rising the thumb. This shows how a child learns that they are being praised and not shouted at. Facial expressions such as a simile would show happiness and indicates the child they have done well and have nothing to be ashamed about.

When a nursery nurse is speaking directly to a parent about a child’s progress in the nursery, they would often speak to the parent in way that would make them feel comfortable. If the parent wasn’t comfortable with the conversation they may lose focus on the subject and not comprehend what the nursery nurse is implying about their student. The tone of voice would indicate to the parents if the nursery nurse is telling positive or negative things about their child’s progress. The facial expression can tell similar to the tone of voice. The nursery nurse would be asking open and closed questions to know if the parent understand how their child can improve and what their child is doing. Verbal communication is used more than non-verbal in this case because the parents need to gather spoken information rather than those that aren’t said.

If the nursery manger was writing a letter to the children attending the nursery homes they would need to be formal because informal would make it casual and may result in the parents not wanting to let their children go to a trip that doesn’t sound educational or useful. Formal written letters would help to inform the parents of what the trip is about, where it would be, when it would happen and how they would travel there with the children. The nursery manger would be professional when writing letters in a formal language because informal would make it casual and make them look unprofessional or seem to the parents. Formal would show the parents that the nursery is reliable in caring for their children.

Another similar scenario would be a nursery nurse formally speaking to a nursery manger or child protection officer about suspected abuse. Abuse is a serious topic that involves a wellbeing of a child and so can’t be casually said or assumed by a nursery nurse, it has to be professional. A child is physically, emotionally, socially and maybe be intellectually affected by abuse. So when a nursery nurse speaks to the manger or a child protection officer they would have to be professional and stern about their opinions and facts. They would have to inform the manager and child protection officer about the child’s behaviour by verbally communicating because non-verbal communication, such as touch or contact and proximity would not be necessary for this scenario. The nursery nurse needs to clearly tell the child welfare state and behaviour in a manner that the manager and child protection officer can understand what the nurse is stating without having to read between the lines.

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