Читать книгу Communication and Interpersonal Skills - Erica Pavord - Страница 7

INTRODUCTION

HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THIS BOOK

This is the second edition of this book and it has been revised and updated since the first edition was published in 2008. Two chapters have been replaced by new ones, one has changed significantly and the other chapters have been edited to accommodate the changes. We hope that you continue to find it a useful companion to your studies.

The book itself does not profess to be the definitive text – it is far too small to be that – but what it does do is present and explore some of the key issues and theories that surround effective communication. It explores what happens when communication goes wrong and outlines some possible solutions that you can put in place to limit the consequences of poor communication and to develop more successful communication systems. Good communication is the key to effective care and we hope that you enjoy developing and practising the skills presented here.

We envisaged that our readers would all be students new to the areas of study that surround health and social care and that they would be involved in working across a broad range of health and social care facilities and with a broad mix of people. The authors, who have an interest in the teaching of communication and interpersonal skills, have developed an introductory text that explores communication as a ‘skilled behaviour’ for students working with people and is based on real teaching and learning activities that have been tried and tested in the classroom.

WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?

This book is primarily written to support students undertaking study in any field of health and social care. You may be studying single modules aimed at developing your communication and interpersonal skills or you may be studying a full course for health and social care practitioners such as a Degree course in Nursing and Midwifery, a Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care, a course in Social Work, a course designed for practitioners working in the Hospital and Emergency Care Services, and so on. Regardless of which programme of study you are undertaking, this book is written to provide you with a valuable introduction to the fascinating field of Interpersonal and Communication Skills and it will help you to meet the learning outcomes of your course.

WHAT DOES THE BOOK COVER?

Like many books in any subject it begins by offering definitions, and then explores the meaning of what it is to be a skilled communicator. We explore simple everyday issues such as courtesy and protocols and what can happen when we forget to apply these in practice. It will introduce you to two theories of communication and give you examples of how the theories relate to practice.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of what is to come. Like most academic texts the book begins with an examination of definitions and then introduces you to some of the incredibly complex phenomena that surround communication and interpersonal skills.

Chapter 2 deals with intrapersonal communication and self-awareness; in order for us to understand how to communicate more effectively with others, we need to know ourselves and know why we might respond in different ways to different people. This chapter will encourage you to reflect on who you are, what values and beliefs you have and how these might impact on your communication with others. You will be encouraged to become reflective practitioners, having the ability to reflect on your practice in order to improve your interpersonal skills.

Chapter 3 takes you on to focus on some of the key issues involved in communication with others. It focuses on interpersonal communication. It looks at the kind of communication that happens both verbally and non-verbally and it explores how different environments can communicate to the people in them and how environments can impact on the way that practitioners and service users communicate. The chapter then discusses the issues relating to intercultural communication and how age, gender, ethnicity and religion affect how we interact with others.

Chapter 4 focuses on a psychological perspective of intrapersonal communication and interpersonal skills. It introduces the work of Eric Berne and uses Transactional Analysis as a working theory to help you understand your own intrapersonal communication processes and the communications that you have with others.

Chapter 5 introduces the skills needed to ensure that we are listening in an active and empathic way to the people that we are caring for. Effective communication is largely dependent on our ability to really listen to people and show them that they have been heard and understood. It will describe the Rogerian, person-centred qualities of empathy, acceptance and genuineness and show how to use active listening skills to communicate these qualities to those in our care.

Chapter 6 encourages you to think about how we communicate with our colleagues and other professionals and touches on the other modes of communication that you will have to use like record-keeping, email, text, mobile phone and social media.

Chapter 7 gives you a detailed case study which will help you to reflect on the experience of care. It shows the problems involved with dealing with difficult people and gives useful advice on how to manage these situations.

STUDYING WITH THIS BOOK

The writing team recognises that personal review, self-awareness and reflection can act as a powerful tool in the process of learning and you will be encouraged to reflect on a series of situations and then project the principles learned through these reflections onto your own working experience.

You will then be invited to explore different aspects of interpersonal communication and think about how you can develop your interpersonal skills to ensure that you are working ethically and communicating effectively. Where possible we have provided details of relevant online resources, taking care to include those aspects that relate to the nature of the work that you do and recommending only bona fide websites for downloads.

As you read through each chapter you will be invited to supplement your reading with a variety of activities. There are a number of different types of activity in this book.

READING ACTIVITIES

Reading activities may involve you looking for and accessing a specific document or text relevant to your place of work or subject area of study. If the reading activity requires you to access detail from the internet we will provide an online web address. We may also encourage you to follow links provided via that address but, again, this is subject to your area of interest. We recognise that some of your supplementary study will be very specific to the area in which you work and the nature of the people you will be working with. To meet your needs we have, where possible, provided alternative online web addresses for you to select from. Sometimes these web addresses change but it is usually possible to find a document by putting its title into a search engine.

REFLECTIONS

Reflecting on what you already know or have had experience of can be a powerful tool in helping you identify what you did and why you did something in a given situation. Reflection on your actions and reflection during your actions can help you to integrate new learning and enable you to become more effective in what you do. Reflective activities may also involve you being asked to imagine something relevant to the topic and to work your way through the same as if it were a real event. Chapter 2 will introduce you to two useful reflective models that will support your learning.

WRITING ACTIVITIES

For writing activities it would be helpful to have a pen and paper to hand to jot down notes or make lists to refer back to at a later point. Writing activities may also be involved in reading and reflecting activities. Some of the activities detailed above may invite you to share your thoughts and ideas with other people and have discussions about key elements of the subject being studied.

Whatever activity is suggested it is completely up to you as to how you study that particular concept. The text and information on these pages will come alive only when you interact with them. So, welcome to this book and enjoy your study of Communication and Interpersonal Skills.

Erica Pavord and Elaine Donnelly