Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings

What Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings covers

Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings is examined in Unit AS 2, Communication In Health, Social Care And Early Years Settings — compulsory for every award. It covers the range of people staff communicate with, verbal communication, non-verbal communication and body language, written and electronic communication, the purposes of communication in care settings, confidentiality and privacy in communication, physical and emotional factors that support communication, practitioners' communication skills, barriers arising from sensory impairment, illness and disability, barriers arising from mental health, language and culture, Overcoming barriers to communication and team communication and reflecting on your own practice.

The 12 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The range of people staff communicate withService users and their families, colleagues in the same team, practitioners from other disciplines and outside agencies, and how the purpose and register of the communication changes with each.Open →
• Verbal communicationVerbal communication, how the pace of speech affects understanding and leading question.Open →
• Non-verbal communication and body languageNon-verbal communication, gesture used deliberately in a care setting and what Albert Mehrabian's research is often said to show.Open →
• Written and electronic communicationFour rules for writing in a care record, four kinds of electronic communication used in care settings and two limitations of videoconferencing compared with meeting in person.Open →
• The purposes of communication in care settingsNegotiation between a care worker and a service user and exchanging information between shifts.Open →
• Confidentiality and privacy in communicationSharing information on a need-to-know basis, breach of confidentiality and difference between confidentiality and secrecy.Open →
• Physical and emotional factors that support communicationFour physical factors that affect communication with a service user, four features of a physical environment that support good communication and four emotional factors that positively affect communication.Open →
• Practitioners' communication skillsActive listening, prompt in a conversation with a service user and difference between a prompt and a probe.Open →
• Barriers arising from sensory impairment, illness and disabilityBarrier to communication, sensory impairment and difference between conductive and sensorineural hearing loss.Open →
• Barriers arising from mental health, language and cultureHow depression, anxiety and psychosis affect a person's ability to take part in a conversation, what a language difference requires beyond translation, and the cultural expectations that shape what a person will say and to whom.Open →
• Overcoming barriers to communicationFour special resources that help overcome communication difficulties, communication passport and british Sign Language.Open →
• Team communication and reflecting on your own practiceHandover, records and case discussion as the means by which a team stays coordinated, what makes each of them fail, and how a worker reviews their own communication honestly after an interaction.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Simply hearing what a person says vs Active listening

  Simply hearing what a person says: registering sound and no more. Active listening: attending closely, checking meaning and showing the speaker they have been understood.

• Empathy vs Sympathy

  Empathy: understanding a situation from inside the other person's experience. Sympathy: feeling sorry for them from outside it.

• Confidentiality vs Secrecy

  Confidentiality: sharing information only with those who need it for a person's benefit, and recording why. Secrecy: it means withholding it from everybody, including those entitled to know.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Name four groups of people a care worker communicates with in the course of a shift.

   Model answer

   A care worker communicates with service users, the families and carers of those service users, colleagues on the same team, and a range of professionals from other services.

2. 2

   Why does a care worker need a different manner with a service user than with a visiting consultant?

   Model answer

   A service user needs plain language, time and reassurance, while a visiting consultant needs a concise factual summary, so the same information is shaped differently for each.

3. 3

   Name four professionals a residential home for older people would communicate with regularly.

   Model answer

   A residential home communicates regularly with general practitioners, district nurses, pharmacists and social workers.

4. 4

   Name four professionals a day nursery would communicate with.

   Model answer

   A day nursery communicates with health visitors, speech and language therapists, social workers and the special educational needs staff of the local Education Authority.

5. 5

   Why are families and carers treated as partners in communication rather than as visitors?

   Model answer

   Families and carers often know a person's history, preferences and early signs of illness better than any professional, so a service that excludes them loses information it cannot get elsewhere.

6. 6

   Give two reasons a care worker communicates with an ancillary worker such as a cook or a cleaner.

   Model answer

   A cook needs to know a resident's allergies and swallowing difficulties, and a cleaner needs to know when a room must be avoided or given extra attention after illness.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings revision questions

What does Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings cover in CCEA A-Level Health and Social Care?

12 subtopics: the range of people staff communicate with, verbal communication, non-verbal communication and body language, written and electronic communication, the purposes of communication in care settings, confidentiality and privacy in communication, physical and emotional factors that support communication, practitioners' communication skills, barriers arising from sensory impairment, illness and disability, barriers arising from mental health, language and culture, overcoming barriers to communication and team communication and reflecting on your own practice. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Communication in Health, Social Care and Early Years Settings organised?

By the CCEA 0003 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.