Assessment of the communication and interaction skills

Write an essay on Assessment of the communication and interaction skills.

At the time of on-to-one interaction session I have extensively implemented the communication cycle. I have used various parts of communication channel i.e. encoding, decoding, sending message as well as formulating feedback in an effective fashion. I have applied careful listening skills during the interaction (Barnett et al. 2012). In addition to that, I have been able to use appropriate language for the communication. I have emphasized on having a professional tone of voice, pace, proximity as well as body language at the time of interaction.

There are several factors which have been proved to be most influential in the context of effectiveness of the communication. First of all, the proximity as well as friendly attitude greatly helped us to effectively conduct the one-to-one communication in the health and social care. The easy tone of voice greatly helped to make the other participant most comfortable (Aveyard 2014). In addition to that, noise has hindered the effectiveness of the communication significantly.

Describe the hazard	Explain why it is a hazard. What harm may be caused and to who? Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	What are staff expected to do in order to minimise the risk?
Unhygienic food	The unhygienic food is very critical hazard where the health and social care is concerned. As the health and social care deals with the treatment of various patients, the unhygienic food can cause major hindrance to their health.	They need to maintain the standard of food with a critical supervision. They must adhere with the Health and Safety Act at Work, 1974.
Manual Handling	In order to transfer the patient with mobility disorder problem the care giver sometimes does not use proper equipment. These raise the chance of potential damage to their health. Therefore, it can be considered as the major hazard in health and social care context.	The caregiver always needs to maintain proper equipment at every time so that the service user does not experience any hindrance to their health.
Contact with blood borne pathogens	Often the contact with blood can cause the risk of HIV as well as other infectious diseases. This is a major hazard for both employees as well as users of the healthcare setting.	The caregiver and health professional need to make sure that no one can be exposed to the bloods of others. It will evidently reduce the hazardous situation.
Describe the hazard	Explain why it is a hazard. What harm may be caused and to who?	What are staff expected to do in order to minimise the risk?
Contact with hazardous chemicals	Sometimes the health professionals are exposed to the hazardous chemicals within the health and social care. This can occur a severe damage to the exposed individual, thus can be considered as hazard.	The staffs need to maintain proper safety as well as security in the chemical department.
Stress	Tremendous pressure can create extreme stress which is considered as major hazard for the both service user as well as care givers within the health and social care (Brach et al. 2012).	The employees need to maintain friendly as well as comfortable environment within the workplace. Moreover, the service users as well as carer both need to arrange possible chances of entertainment for users.
Accidents	The accidents can occur any time to both of the service users as well as caregivers. For example, one individual can slip at the time of hurrying.	The healthcare setting must be ready for any kind of accident so that the damage cannot be extreme.

The health and social care organizations need to follow the legislations related to health and safety in UK for ensuring the safeguarding of staffs and care users. One such legislation is Health and safety Act 1974; it ensures that the health and social care workers are taking their responsibilities properly. The data protection act 1998 ensures that all the private and personal data would be secured by the care givers and no misuse would be done with these. The manual handling operation regulations 1992 helps the workers to eliminate manual handling errors in patient’s services and thus providing safety (Great Britain Department of Health, 2012). The Control of substances hazardous to health regulations (COSHH) civil contingencies act 2004 ensures that the organizations are running with safe and secure practices by avoiding physical, chemical or biological hazards.

For safeguarding the staffs and care users, a number of schemes are invented by ISA like vetting scheme policy. It helps to ensure the compliance of the health care staffs with the legislations and organizational policies. The main focus is to safeguard the children and elderly patients. To promote patients safeguarding, advanced staff training, CPD, POVA policies are useful (Cowles 2012).

While analyzing the legislations and regulations, the policies and procedures should also be analyzed. The major policies in health and social care organizations include waste disposal policy, risk management policy, food safety policy, safeguarding policy, accident and incident reporting policy and fire evacuation policy. The health and social care workers are committed to meet the satisfactory standards in their work, the risk assessment help to reduce risk and thereby motivating other staffs to complete this activity (Edelstein, Keller and Schroder 2014). The basic norms in the organization should also be followed by all the staffs and care users like keeping the premises clean, keeping calm, contributing in harm reduction by assisting the care providers. The staffs should be committed to provide the best quality care service. On the other hand, the National Health Service trust, WHO and local authorities should be responsible to review the overall performance and issues of the organization.

Evaluation of the influential factors of the interactions effectiveness

To promote patient’s safety in the health and social care practice, the awareness of the policies and norms should be distributed throughout the health and social care settings. There are various ways through which the awareness can be promoted. The posters, guest speakers, meetings, workshops, promotional activities in awareness days can be useful. The organization should establish a quality control or performance review team who would review the compliance of staffs towards the health and social care policies and norms. It would promote safety of staffs and care users by provision of high quality care services (Kongstvedt 2012).

Service user group: 5-19 years children with disabilities

Address visited: Local leisure centre

Potential Hazard	What type of harm can be caused?	Who is at risk?	Likelihood (L)	Risk estimate S x L	Controls needed	Responsible Agency
Risk of fall	Physical injury	Child having movement impairment	4	5 X 4	Giving wrist alarms	The care home and short break service
Difficulty in understanding instructions for outing	Physical harm	Children having learning difficulties	3	3 X 3	Use of ICT technologies	Care home and school of disabled children
Food contamination	Biological and physical harm	All children	3	4 X 3	Ensuring hygienic food provision	The food providers and short break service
Cleaning chemicals on floor	Chemical hazard and physical injury	All children, especially the younger ones	3	4 X 3	Visiting the site prior to outing for hazard analysis	The leisure centre and the short break service
Inhibition of participation in outing events	Psychological hazard	Children having hearing impairment	3	3 X 2	Providing leaflets and training staffs to communicate with symbols	Care home service

Hazard severity	Hazard likelihood
5  Major	5  Will definitely happen
4  Very serious	4  Will probably happen
3  Serious	3  May well happen
2  Slight	2  May happen
1  Minimal	1  Unlikely to happen

The risk assessment activity would help to assess the current risks for the particular client group. It has been analyzed that the children have several disabilities which are the hindrance of their outside visit. Therefore, it is very important to control all the hazards from which the children can get harm. The risk assessment program identified five hazards for the children for the children. The hazards include biological, physical, chemical and psychological hazards. The common risk factors were identified and reviewed (Ingleby 2012). It helped to identify the control measures. The critical control like HACCP guidelines and related legislations should be followed for reducing these hazards.

To reduce these hazards, a number of recommendations can be provided. These include:

Enhancing awareness by leaflets- Providing leaflets to the children would help them to understand and memorize the rules throughout the outing. It would help to enhance their self-esteem and reduce the risk of harm.

Using ICT tools in classroom- These tools are very helpful for the children having learning difficulties. It would help them to be aware of self-management through innovative process and encourage them.

Providing advanced training to staffs- Advance staff training can empower care workers along with the enhancement of their ability to handle disabled children in a different context. Thus, care workers can be able to provide outing guidelines to the children more efficiently (Brüggemann 2012).

Providing packaged food- Providing packaged food can help to reduce biological hazards including food contamination, thereby ensuring healthy outcomes of children.

Reviewing the leisure centre before planning outing- Reviewing the site is an important aspect while planning outings for disabled children. It is because, if any kinds of hazards are identified, prior control measures could be undertaken to make the place safe for the children before taking them to that place.

Hazard Identification and evaluation

Providing wrist alarm- The child who uses a wheel chair due to having a movement disability, should be provided a wrist alarm or wheelchair alarm for safety. It will help the child to address and inform the care workers immediately after addressing a hazard.

With the help of examples, the responses and priorities during emergency situation can be discussed. One such incident was addressed in a junior school premises. A child was running through the corridor and hit a book shelf. Immediately the book shelf dropped onto the child. At this situation, the supervisor was nearby. The supervisor was nearby and saw the incident. His immediately priority was to lift up the book shelf. He saw a deep cut on child’s forehead with massive bleeding (Brüggemann et al. 2013). The immediate priority of the supervisor would be calling ambulance and calling other staff to take the child in a safe place. The next priority would be ensuring that other children are away from the place. After informing the higher authority, the staff should immediately inform the child’s parents. The child should then be taken to nearby hospital for his fast-aid and medical needs. The staff should ensure that the child should not receive more hazards during hospital transfer (Almgren and Lindhorst 2012).

The next incident happened in a hospital where there were emergency patients along with less severe patients waiting for receiving doctor’s treatment. In this situation, a patient came who was in experiencing severe condition with severe injury. He waited for long 2 hours but, the doctor did not considered the serious condition of patient. While waiting, the patient passed out. A nurse rushed to the floor. It was an unethical practice which was done by the doctor. The doctor must assist the patient who was in the emergency situation. The first priority of the nurse is to immediately inform the doctor and the entire medical team to assess the patient. Immediately after the assessment the emergency decision should be made by the health care team about the patient’s health care plan (Glasby 2012). The top priority at that moment is to save the life. The incident should be documented and reported to the higher authority along with the negligence of the doctor.

Therefore, analyzing these two situations, it can be responded that maintaining respect and dignity is required while working in health and social care sector. The staffs should be aware of how to deal with abuse, what is the need of first aid, reporting of accidents and follow ups. Working in partnership can help to reduce these kinds of risks (Gottlieb 2012).  

Influence of legislation, policies and procedures relating to health, safety and security upon health and social care settings

While addressing the emergency incidents or accidents as mentioned above, the number of safety concerns develops. Here, in the first case, the safety for the children raised in the school premises. It is important to ensure that children are being kept in a secure place. One concern for the necessity of a health care team was there. Secondly, the children should be kept at a place where they can easily get freedom to play and run, the premises should be appropriate. The book shelf was not situated at the right place (Haugen and Musser 2012). It was a major concern. In the next incident, the patient underwent unconsciousness due to the negligence of the doctor. The medical worker should always give the priority to a patient having severe health issue, especially if the patient is having fatal consequences. From this incident, the need of training of the medical staff has been raised. On the other hand, the doctor should gain penalty for his unprofessional and inhuman behavior. Thus, the incident should be reported immediately to the higher authority for taking strict action. Implementing improvements for reducing these kinds of hazards in future is another priority (Heginbotham 2012).

On response to the previously mentioned incidents, some responses have been raised. These include minimizing risk, maintaining respect and dignity towards the patients, working in partnership, reporting accidents and following up reviews. For an example, while handling a mental health patient with severe anxiety and having a past history of domestic abuse, the health care worker should show respect and attempt to establish a trustworthy relationship to reduce risk of harm (Hughes and McCririck 2012).

Infancy (0 to 3 years)

Physical: The baby will have several inborn primitive and temporary reflexes. The baby would be able to rotate hands. The baby would be able to give a rooting expression and a grasp expression. When the baby would be held up, they would try to talk, known as walking reflex.

Intellectual: The baby should interpret and create sound.He or she would identify sounds and the vocabulary aspects would enhance.

Emotional: The Gradual development of emotion is being seen. The baby would develop different emotional stages for happiness and sadness (Kim et al. 2012).

Social: Baby will be habituated to routine. The baby starts to copy his parents or relatives living nearby.

Childhood (4 years to 10 years)

Physical:  The child can grow more rapidly. The motor skill development is enhanced in this stage. Children at this age gains about 3 kg weight and around 6 cm height every year.

Promotion of individual’s safety through health and safety legislation, policy and procedures in health and social care settings

Intellectual: The child will be able to make conversation with a adequate vocabulary. The child becomes able to communicate with others along with the sense of right and wrong decisions. At this age also brain development is very fast.

Emotional: The child will be able to develop a greater range of emotions. The emotions bare enhanced through the enhanced real life experiences as the child begins to go to school and meet more people.

Social: The child will learn how to share with the others and siblings. The child starts to go to school and starts to make more and more friends which make him socialized.

Adolescence (11 years to 18 years)

Physical: The men and women will gain a different kind of physical attributes. During this age group a transition in life cycle is identified. The boy or girl develops the signs of being a man or woman respectively. This phase is called puberty.  A girl starts her menstruation cycle. The breast starts to develop, hips are widened. In case of boys, broadening of chest, wet dreams, voice breaks, hair development in sexual organ’s periphery are noticed (Saccavini et al. 2012).

Intellectual: The individual can construct abstract thinking. Due to the hormonal changes, their thinking patterns change. They become able to judge good or bad thing independently.

Emotional: The hormones can be highly effective for change of mood. Usually, children at this age can change their moods very frequently and become more judgmental and hard to convince.

vidual become more independent. The young adults are more likely to be subjected to drugs, sex, alcohol or other age-related changes in social life.

Adulthood (19 years to 65 years)

Physical: The young adults are their highest peak of physical fitness. At the age of 18 to 28 years, the growth is highest. With aging, strength and physical stability are decreased. With aging loss of teeth, whitening of hair, changes in skin are seen.

Intellectual: The adults are able to develop new skills. With aging the intellectual capabilities are decreased and the self-esteem is decreased also.

Emotional: The adults are able to behave with more maturity. However, with increased age, due to loss of dear ones and reduction of engagements, people start to feel lonely and mental condition weakens.

Social: The adults are able to be responsible for others’ well being. With aging, the social interaction decreases, as people become unable to work properly after certain age and the self esteem is lowered.

Risk assessment activity

Pregnancy

It is the stage in women’s life when they are able to give birth to a new life. After sexual intercourse with the male partner, the female gets pregnant and carries the child in her womb for approximately 9-10 months. At this period, all the organs are developed and growth is accomplished until the fetus becomes capable of surviving alone in the earth.

There are five different life factors on individual development. These are genetic, environmental, socioeconomic, biological and lifestyle. The exact life factors are Down syndrome, pollution, employment status, infections during pregnancy and substance abuse.

Down syndrome- Physically the disease changes the physical appearance and brain development of the child. The child gain below average weight with flattened nose with increased skin creases. Intellectually the child will have delayed development and learning disability; low self concept would be the sign of emotional change (Sato 2012).

Pollution- It is a common problem. Physical effects include respiratory problem, lung cancer and growth restriction. Intellectual effect includes lower cognitive ability and emotional effect is depression and anxiety.

Employment status- Physical effect is stress, tiredness and weight gain. Intellectual effect is change in thinking pattern. Emotional effect is major concern. With achievement happiness comes, failure brings lower self-esteem. Socially the person becomes isolated or more confident.

Substance abuse- Mental health problem, miscarriage, infertility, increased risk of cancer and infections, weight loss, heart attack are physical effects. Lack of concentration, mood swing and depression are emotional effects. People in this category are easily subjected to trouble or abuse.

Infections during pregnancy- Physical effects are reduced growth, visual impairment, hearing problems. Intellectually, the child have delayed development, emotionally, low self-concept and socially, lack of confidence is seen in the child.

The predictable as well as unpredictable life events can be most effective for changing the individual development. The predictable life events are leaving home and starting school. The unpredictable life events are illness as well as relationship changes.

Parting home

Absence of known and dear ones usually has a negative effect upon the cognitive development, especially, if the individual is a child. The nutritional development is hampered.

Beginning of school

The child starts to get familiar with people other than his family. The cognitive development is enhanced positively. The emotional background is also enhanced. The child starts to be socialized.

Accident or illness

It can have a negative impact upon life. Major events can reduce self esteem. If the accident is major, loss of organ can lead to a major change in lifestyle, loss of employment or dear ones can be resulted (Thistlethwaite 2012).

Changes in relationship

Relationship makes people stronger to deal social issues. A lonely person is more vulnerable for domestic violence than a person who lives his life with a family. Change in relationship has a greater negative impact in cognitive and emotional development.

Multidisciplinary teams are most effective for both of the service users as well as health professionals. There are vital advantages of the multidisciplinary teams which are continuing proactive care, 24 hour access to support and information, organized response system as well as providing cost effective as well as coordinated service to the users (Saccavini et al. 2012).

The major example of the multidisciplinary working is working with the foster care in respect to provide the service to child. Another major example is working with a medical team as a nurse or counselor. Working in a multidisciplinary team enhances the experience and quality the of care services provided to the care users.

Reference List

Almgren, G. and Lindhorst, T., 2012. The Safety-Net Health Care System. New York, NY: Springer Pub.

Aveyard, H., 2014. Doing a literature review in health and social care: A practical guide. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Barnett, K., Mercer, S.W., Norbury, M., Watt, G., Wyke, S. and Guthrie, B., 2012. Epidemiology of multimorbidity and implications for health care, research, and medical education: a cross-sectional study. The Lancet,380(9836), pp.37-43.

Brach, C., Keller, D., Hernandez, L.M., Baur, C., Dreyer, B., Schyve, P., Lemerise, A.J. and Schillinger, D., 2012. Ten attributes of health literate health care organizations. Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Brüggemann, A.J. and Swahnberg, K., 2013. What contributes to abuse in health care? A grounded theory of female patients’ stories. International journal of nursing studies, 50(3), pp.404-412.

Brüggemann, A.J., Wijma, B. and Swahnberg, K., 2012. Abuse in health care: a concept analysis. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 26(1), pp.123-132.

Cowles, L.A., 2012. Social work in the health field: A care perspective. Routledge.

Edelstein, W., Keller, M. and Schröder, E., 2014. Child development and social structure: A longitudinal study of individual differences. Paul B. Baltes/David L. Featherman/Richard M. Lerner: Life-span development and behavior. Bd, 10, pp.151-185.

Glasby, J., 2012. Understanding health and social care. Bristol: Policy Press.

Gottlieb, L., 2012. Strengths-based nursing care. New York: Springer Publishing Company.

Great Britain. Department of Health, 2012. Health and Social Care Act 2012: Chapter 7, Explanatory Notes. The Stationery Office.

Haugen, D. and Musser, S., 2012. Health care. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press.

Heginbotham, C., 2012. Values-based commissioning of health and social care. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hughes, R. and McCririck, V., 2012. Integrating health and social care: Workforce perspectives.Journal of Care Services Management, 6(1), pp.10-15.

Ingleby, D., 2012. Ethnicity, migration and the ‘social determinants of health’agenda. Psychosocial Intervention, 21(3), pp.331-341.

Kim, Younsu, and Ryu, Hoyoung, 2012. Determinants of Users’ Satisfaction with Social Care Services.healthandsocialwelfarereview, 32(3), pp.298-326.

Kongstvedt, P.R., 2012. Essentials of managed health care. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Saccavini, C., Mancin, S. and Favaro, A., 2012. Health and social services integration in the Veneto Region. Int J Integr Care, 12(7).

Sato, A., 2012. Does socio-economic status explain use of modern and traditional health care services?.Social Science & Medicine, 75(8), pp.1450-1459.

Thistlethwaite, P., 2012. Health and social services integration at the local level: evidence and transition. Int J Integr Care, 12(7).