Excellent communication skills are the gateway towards success under diverse workplace settings (Angouri 2014). Effective communication also holds a promising significance in health and social care (Moorhead et al. 2013). Effective communication between patient and the health care service providers is important in order to establish and maintain a positive understanding with the patient and their family members. This further helps in implementing person centred care plan and overall improvement of the quality outcome of the patient care (Webster 2013). However, the nature or the approach of communication varies between person-to-person. Moreover, in order to procure care in a culturally competent manner, the health care professionals must have culturally diverse communication skills (Paniagua 2013). The following report mainly highlights the important factors that influence the communication process in health and social care. In explaining the process and the nature of the communication the report aims to throw light over the influence of culture, values, legislation and organisational system over the development of communication skills.
Cultural diversity in health and social care is defined as the difference in languages, eating habits, spiritual values and moral norms. The role of communication in health and social care is important because communication is the most useful medium in accessing patient’s requirement and current health status (Betancourt et al. 2016). So in order to provide effective and optimal health care service, in health and social care, the health care professionals should be aware of and respect different cultural values, rituals, traditions and ethics of patients from diverse cultural or demographic background (Betancourt et al. 2016).
Every aspect of global communication is influence by cultural differences. Not only this, the choice of the medium used for communication also plays in important role in cultural overtones. For example, industrialised nations rely on electronic technology and give importance to written messages in comparison to oral or face-to-face communication. Countries like United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany follow this trend. However, third world countries like Japan still relies on face-to-face interactions in comparison to written mode of communication in spite of having access of latest technology. Thus the determining factor in the medium of mode of communication preference is not related to degree of industrialization but on whether the country falls into high-context or low context culture (Goman 2011). Gender is another dimension of the culture which influences communication style. Men and women are naturally equipped with differences and the same is reflected in the manner in which they indulge themselves in the process of communication. Thus a different communication style must be adopted while addressing different gender. The same is true in the domain of age and ethnicity. For example, communication with elderly should be done via taking a different perspective in comparison to youth. Moreover, each nationality also have different approaches for communication like few verbal or non-verbal communication techniques is suitable for one culture while it may sound rude to another culture. Like in European countries body language holds prime importance in communication styles (Schiavo 2013). So the style of communication must be understood in order to prevent miss-interpretation of information.
Health and social should be aware of these differences in communication style while addressing patients from diverse cultural background. One of the principal aspects of understanding the difference is to be an active listener. Active listening not only helps in earning the trust of patients but also helps the healthcare professionals to understand the actual physical or mental health concern from patient’s perspective (Weger et al. 2014).
Communication styles in health and social care is also influenced by the existence and stipulations provided by legislations, charters and codes or practice (Nursing and Midwifery Council UK. 2015). The main code of conduct, which frames the communication style of the healthcare professionals, is mainly guided by The Code of Professional Standards of Practice and Behaviour for Nurses and Midwives. The first code of conduct emphasise over “prioritise people”. Under this code, the healthcare professionals are require to treat individuals with kindness, respect and compassion in order to uphold their dignity, individual choice and diversity. The code of conduct also promotes active listening while encouraging people to contribute in the decision making process. Thus it is the duty of the healthcare professionals to not only listen to the concerns and needs of the service users but also inspire the individual in taking active participation in the decision making process. The nursing professional code of conduct in UK also promotes respect to patient’s privacy and confidentiality. Thus the care givers must practice their communication skills in such a way that they share the required information with the other healthcare professionals or the concerned agencies only when the main interest of patient safety and overall public health protection significantly override the requirement for confidentiality. Moreover, the healthcare professionals must share the information about the patient’s health prognosis in a manner in which they can understand and that too, with person over whom the patient have opted complete trust (Nursing and Midwifery Council UK 2015). As per the European Convection on Human Rights, an international treaty, healthcare of social care workers must take reasonable steps in order to satisfy the service users’ language and communication requirement. This is done via using a range of the verbal and non-verbal communication methods while taking active consideration to the cultural sensitivities (Nursing and Midwifery Council UK 2015).
Other legislation, charters and code of practise that help in shaping up the communication styles are highlighted below in the table
|
Legislations |
|
Equality Act 2010 |
|
Data Protection Act 1998 |
|
Charters |
|
Care Quality Commission (CQC) |
|
Voices into Action |
|
Department Health Information Charter |
|
Codes of practice |
|
Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Proficiency for Social Workers |
|
Caldicott Principles |
In order to engage the health and social care providers in effective and efficient communication practices, one factor that must be taken into consideration is organisational systems and polices. These systems and policies help in shaping communication activities while making it more meaningful and appropriate. One of the important styles of communication as proposed by the organisation is communication channel. The communication channel is a pipe through which the message is conveyed either via telephonic channels or via emails or through computational channels like medical record. The nature of the messages is also divided in several sub-types depending upon the severity or the urgency of the information. Like urgent information is communication verbally or in face-face mode while information that do not hold prominent urgency are communication through mails or fax. Moreover, communication polices can be formal like clinical handover or discharge reports and informal communication include daily meetings with the family members of the patients in order to discuss the disease progression or recovery (Cresswell et al. 2013).
Other organisational policies that help in framing appropriate communication styles via motivating in the process of quality care procurement is whistle blowing policy, zero tolerance for the workplace bullying and promoting equal opportunity of work. This polices help to highlight the discrimination among the staffs while promoting equitable access and treatment to every team members. Such approaches decrease staff turn-over and thereby helping to increasing active participation of the health/social care professionals in the care process via adopting proper communication styles (Norton, Zacher and Ashkanasy 2014).
However, in order to improve the communication across a complex system in a healthcare settings where everyday urgent information is being communicated, there must be a definite point-of-contact in different healthcare teams such that the there is no loss of information during the hours of emergency (Fernandez and Pallis 2014). The proposed system of the integrate communication model is highlighted below:
Figure: Possible Communication Pathway under Hospital Settings
(Source: Fernandez and Pallis 2014)
This integrated system of communication will promote active sharing of information and thereby helping the healthcare professionals to take prompt actions as per situational urgency (Fernandez and Pallis 2014).
Another important style of communication that will be helpful in the context of the given scenario is active listening. Active listening will help the service user to feel that her voices are being noticed and thereby encouraging her to participate in informed decision making process also to co-operate with the staffs in the process of care and flow of information (Tyagi 2013).
Conclusion:
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that information and communication technology offer a powerful medium for restructuring the service quality of health and social care. The style and the approach of communication differ by cultural background, ethnicity, gender, age and education. So it is the duty of the healthcare professional to practice as per the required standards in order promote quality health and well-being among the service users. It is also the duty of the healthcare or social care professionals to abide by the legislations and code of conduct while communicating with the service users and their family members. Under legislation and code of conduct, the important criteria include protection of service users privacy, confidentiality while influencing the service users to participate in the decision making process. In executing such guidelines and norms of effective communication, organisations polices must be activity framed along while making specific division in the type or nature of communication depending upon urgency.
References:
Angouri, J., 2014. Multilingualism in the workplace: Language practices in multilingual contexts. Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. pp. 1 to 9
Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., Carrillo, J.E. and Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I.I., 2016. Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.
Cresswell, K., Majeed, A., Bates, D.W. and Sheikh, A., 2013. Computerised decision support systems for healthcare professionals: an interpretative review. Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics, 20(2), pp.115-128.
Fernandez, F. and Pallis, G.C., 2014, November. Opportunities and challenges of the Internet of Things for healthcare: Systems engineering perspective. In Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare (Mobihealth), 2014 EAI 4th International Conference on (pp. 263-266). IEEE.
Goman, C. K., 2011. How Culture Controls Communication. Forbes. Access date: 18th June 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2011/11/28/how-culture-controls-communication/#2183b3d8263b
Moorhead, S.A., Hazlett, D.E., Harrison, L., Carroll, J.K., Irwin, A. and Hoving, C., 2013. A new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(4).
Norton, T.A., Zacher, H. and Ashkanasy, N.M., 2014. Organisational sustainability policies and employee green behaviour: The mediating role of work climate perceptions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 38, pp.49-54
Nursing and Midwifery Council UK. 2015. Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses and midwives. Access date: 18th June 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/nmc-code.pdf
Paniagua, F.A., 2013. Assessing and treating culturally diverse clients: A practical guide. Sage Publications.
Schiavo, R., 2013. Health communication: From theory to practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Tyagi, B., 2013. Listening: An important skill and its various aspects. The Criterion An International Journal in English, 12, pp.1-8.
Webster, D., 2013. Promoting therapeutic communication and patient-centered care using standardized patients. Journal of Nursing Education, 52(11), pp.645-648.
Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E.M. and Robinson, M.C., 2014. The relative effectiveness of active listening in initial interactions. International Journal of Listening, 28(1), pp.13-31.
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