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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Elaine Donnelly, before her retirement in 2011, was a Senior Lecturer in Health, Social Care and Psychology at the University of Worcester. Much of her teaching was within the field of nursing and she had previously worked as a mental health nurse in a variety of mental health facilities including elderly care, acute psychiatry and the community. As a registered mental health nurse she was always interested in what makes people behave as they do. Her first degree was in Psychology and she then undertook a Master of Science degree in Health and Social Care. Her research and teaching interests include communication and interpersonal skills, supporting student learning, psychology, psychological development, caring for dying people and their families and supporting the bereaved. As a teacher she had a facilitative style in the classroom,
