Assess the role of effective communication and interpersonal interaction in health and social care

Good communication and interpersonal interaction is vital in health and social care as the professionals need to have good communication with their colleagues but also the professionals and their patients need good communication so they can clearly understand each so the patient can receive the best possible care. Without good communication and interpersonal interaction there could be very serious outcomes, for example with the case of Victoria Climbie. She was being abused by her family and even though she visited her GP several times nobody noticed and because there was no communication she ended up dead. I think Multi-agency work could have saved Victoria’s life because if all the different services had come together they might have noticed something was wrong before it was too late. As a result of nobody noticing the health care services got blamed for a lot of what happened and this then caused the introduction of the children act 2004 which I think will save a lot of lives and make the lives of young children a lot better.

In my opinion multi agency working is a very important form of communication in health and social care as it gives everyone a chance to come together and discuss ideas. This could also link to Tuckmans theory of communication where they first discuss ideas, then disagree and find common ground and they would have then worked effectively as a team to find a solution to whatever is being discussed. I also think that one to one communication between colleagues is extremely important in Health and Social care because the employees need to be fully aware of their patient’s needs. If they don’t have good communication with each other they could end up giving their patients the wrong treatment. For example if the staff hand their patient over to another member of staff after their shift without telling or writing down that they have already given the patient their medication then they could end up being given it again which could again result in death and this would all be down to bad communication. I think Michael argyles theory of communication is the most important in a health and social care setting because without somebody could easily be told the wrong thing or could be misdiagnosed.

When you go to the doctor you always have an idea of what you want to say and you think about how you are going to say it before you actually say what your symptoms are. Once you have spoken the doctor will have noticed you have spoken and will have listened to you. They will then begin decoding what you have said before thinking of a reply which would be what he thinks your problem could be. If there isn’t good communication between the professional and the service user you could diagnosed with the flu when really you could have something much worse.

I believe that communication is one of the most key components in a health and social care setting as it allows everyone to get good quality personal care as the professionals will be able to have a good understanding of their patients need and will be able to give plenty of vital feedback. If there was a lack of communication the health outcomes of patients would be at a much higher risk and the quality of care would be much lower so therefore I think it is extremely important for everyone to have good communication and interpersonal interaction between one another.