COMMUNICATION SKILLS
INTRODUCTION
You will have been in situations when something you have said has been misunderstood. This can be embarrassing, funny or simply confusing. In Health Care effective communication is important. How effectively do you communicate? Is it possible to become a better communicator? There are four basic sets of skills involved in being good at working with people. These are: Personal skills Therapeutic skills Educational skills Organisational skills To a certain extent the categories are arbitrary. The key point is that these are skills and so can be learnt or improved. When examining the whole question of “People skills” it is important that we recognise that many skills are mistakenly interpreted as aspects of an individual’s personality. If this were true it would mean that you could not improve how you deal with people. This is wrong. You learn how to interact with people. This lifelong process is so unconscious that most of us do not even recognise that it is taking place. The first step in becoming a more effective communicator is to recognise this as a learning process and then step back and examine what is going on. This unit helps you to do this.
AIMS
This Communications Unit will help you to identify how you communicate now and how you might improve. The unit is subdivided into four sections as follows: Personal skills Therapeutic skills Educational skills Organisational skills
SECTION ONE PERSONAL SKILLS
INTRODUCTION
Section 4 – Core Skills (Communication Skills)
In order to work effectively with others you must first understand yourself. The aims of this section are to help you to understand the importance of personal effectiveness in your interactions with others and how you might improve.
KEY LEARNING POINTS to develop your self awareness so you understand the effect you have on other people to develop your listening skills to learn to recognise and overcome barriers to effective communication to learn to recognise the impact of your emotions on your interactions with others to understand non-verbal communication to understand how others affect you to understand the importance of assertiveness to improve your ability to communicate in other media
SECTION TWO THERAPEUTIC SKILLS
INTRODUCTION A doctor is a therapeutic agent and like all therapeutic agents can be a force for good or harm. In your role of caring for others you engage in talking, advising, counselling and educating. The aim of this section is to identify the key skills involved and to help you to improve them.
KEY LEARNING POINTS to identify the main skills in active listening and improve your performance to be an effective player in the doctor patient consultation to understand models of counselling to understand how groups work and how you can contribute positively to the group process
SECTION THREE ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS
INTRODUCTION
Section 4 – Core Skills (Communication Skills)
Regardless of your clinical ability, if you cannot get to the surgery on time or locate a set of notes when you need them, you will not be an effective doctor. The aim of this section is to help you to fulfil your role as a general practitioner more effectively and efficiently while avoiding burnout.
KEY LEARNING POINTS to understand concepts of time management to understand how to avoid stress and burnout to run effective meetings to effectively manage people to effectively delegate responsibility
SECTION FOUR EDUCATIONAL SKILLS
INTRODUCTION Germane to the role of Doctor is the role of Teacher. Whether you are explaining to a new parent how to manage their febrile child, or presenting a research paper, you will spend part of every day teaching. You will also spend part of every day learning, though you may not realise it. Developing lifelong learning skills is essential to maintaining your ability to practice effective medicine. The aim of this unit is to help you to recognise the importance of your role as a professional learner and teacher and to equip you with some of the key skills involved in doing both jobs.
YOUR LEARNING OBJECTIVES to develop your own system of continuous professional development to understand your role as an educator to develop your own teaching style and educational aids to understand your learning style and become a more effective learner
RESOURCES
Books
Section 4 – Core Skills (Communication Skills)
People Skills by Neil Thompson, ISBN 0-333-63721-6, Publisher Macmillan Effective Communication Skills for Health Professionals by Philip Burnard, ISBN 07487-3312-4 The Consultation by David Pendelton ISBN 0-19-261349-9 Oxford Medical Publications The doctor his patient and the illness by Michael Balint ISBN 0-443-03615-2 Churchill Livingstone What do you say after you say hello? Eric Berne ISBN 0-522-09806-X Corgi Videos Watching you watching me: obtain copies from RCGP (ISBN 1 85775 313 5) The things you say: obtain copies from RCGP (ISBN 2 85775 306 2)
Section 4 – Core Skills (Communication Skills)