When I was taking part in the one to one interactions and group interactions, there were some factors that influenced the effectiveness of each interaction which I will be explaining and talking about below. In my one to one interaction, one of the factors that made my interaction effective was the way I talked to the service user, speech. This is because of the way I was talking to the service user, I used a slow tone of voice, made my voice clear when talking and using formal language so they could understand better. When I was talking I had to pronounce words carefully and clear so that the service user didn’t get confused with the words I was using as well as making it easier for the patient to understand.
Time was also another key factor when having the one to one interaction, this allowed the service user to understand me better when I was communicating with him as well as not making him feel uncomfortable, if I spoke fast he would get confused and start to get aggressive as he wouldn’t understand what I am saying. By talking to the patient slowly and taking my time also allowed me to dig in deeper, he told me things that he would not normally say to other staff members. He told me quietly that some of the staff that look after him are rude and do not listen to him, he obviously wouldn’t say this to the staff because they would feel embarrassed about themselves and I think he also wanted to keep his opinion to himself, but when I had a conversation with him, he must of felt that he can trust me to keep a secret as he must of thought I was a good person and he now has someone with him that would listen to his opinions and thoughts and someone who he can rely on. Noise was also another factor in my one to one interaction, whilst having a conversation with the service user there were many noises that I could hear, they were the sound of the TV, radio and staff member communicating loudly. When these noises were being heard, it made it difficult for me to communicate with the service user as he couldn’t hear me, this could lead to him being confused and misunderstanding me and if he thinks I said something bad about him, then he will act aggressively towards me. On the other hand, when communicating with the service user, I showed my full interest, looked interested and paid attention to what he had to say to me, this hopefully showed him that I was listening to him and not focusing somewhere else. The strength of doing this was that he gave me more information about his life than he normally to a normal staff member, this is properly because he thought I was a nice person as well as having some trust in me because when communicating with him I was constantly listening to him.
By giving me this information, I could also help him and improve his situation by talking to the staff members and telling them to spend more time talking to him and stop ignoring him as it makes him have negative thoughts about the staff members. One weakness of my one to one interaction was me having to repeat what I said to him as he couldn’t hear it because of his dementia illness, this could have probably made him feel frustrated, confused and judging by the way he spoke to me when I told him what I said again, he sounded abit frustrated and aggressive, this could have made him think that I thought he was stupid because he didn’t hear me the first time. If I could go back and improve this, I would have given him more time to take in what I have said to him as he might still be figuring out what I had said, if he still doesn’t say anything, then I would act as if I didn’t ask anything or ask him again. In my group interaction, I felt that one factor that made my interaction effective was my communication skills, the way I communicated (formal) with the family members and the service user was very effective as they could understand me, this allowed me to feel comfortable with them as normally when you meet someone new you don’t know what to say. One strength in the group interaction was having very good eye contact with members of the family, this showed that I was listening to them and they were listening to me, this also allowed us to express our thoughts and feelings just by looking at them. My body language was also key in the group interaction, this is because it showed that I am presenting myself professionally and cared for the service user. During the group interaction, when I was singing to them and having a conversation with the service user ; family, I made sure that I stood up straight when talking, I also added in some gestures that aided me, for example hand gestures such as thumbs up and thumbs down and head gesture by nodding my head when I agreed with something. I feel that by doing this it made my group interaction effective as they could understand me abit more.
In the group interactions, I also feel that I made communication ; interpersonal skills effective by asking questions to get to know the family members better as well as the service user. When I started to understand them, it became easier because I knew what kind of things they like, dislike etc. By doing this it allowed me to think before I said something so that I do not hurt them or doing something that will affect their health. Using a clear voice also made interaction effective, it helped the service user ; family members to understand me clearly so that there wasn’t any misunderstanding. There are ways I could have improved the group interactions, one of the ways is talking slower, this would allow the service user and family to not misunderstand me because during the conversation the family members kept telling me that I spoke fast like every children do nowadays, I told them I’m sorry but they said it ok they can understand what I’m saying, they told me it was just an opinion of theirs as they told me people back in the days didn’t speak that fast. Another way I could have improved the group interaction is by sitting down when talking to the family members, when talking to the service user I sat down on a chair as there was only 1 chair left from 3 as two family members took the other 2.
To improve this, I could have brought in more chairs so that I could sit down and communicate more comfortably with the service user ; family members.
