Communication And Interpersonal Skills
Assess your communication and interpersonal skills in relation to each interaction. For this assignment, I had to plan, be involved in and review two interactions within health and social care, one had to be one-to-one role play, and the other had to be a group role play. I am going to write a detailed description off the skills I used in the interactions, and explain my strengths and weaknesses of my interpersonal skills that I used in each interaction. One-to-one role play
In the one-to-one role play, I was always giving Student A, good eye contact. I smiled when Student A came in to the room, to ensure that I was friendly, and I was not going to be a threat towards her. When I was communicating with Student A, I made sure I was leaning forward, so that Student A could see that I was taking interest in what she was saying. Also, I made sure that I was facing Student A in a slight angle to ensure a relaxed and friendly feeling. One-to-one role play:
Strengths
In the one-to-one role play, I was acting professionally and I did not laugh, which I thought was good, so I did not mess up my body language and my messages were sent clearly. One thing that I liked about the task was that I remembered the types of interpersonal skills in communication and I used it in the role play without any written sheet in front of me. I think that the type of interpersonal skills I used was suitable and relevant to the situation. For example, when I was listening to Student A, I leaned forward and stayed quiet, listening and taking in what she was saying, and because it was a counselling session, where Student A spoke and I listened.
I did not slouch on my chair or interrupt her when she was talking. Otherwise it would have been seen as rude or meant that I was not interested in what she was saying, which could lead to Student A getting annoyed and may not want to talk to me. Another good thing about this role play was that Student A was reflecting what I was communicating. For example, when I leaned forward and looked like I was showing interest in what Student A was saying, she looked more relaxed and started to express her problems more comfortably. But overall, out if the strengths in this role play, I do think that the interpersonal skills I used were effective and it was relevant to the health and social care setting that I had used. One-to-one role play:
Weaknesses
I do think that I used an easier interpersonal skills, setting, and situation. I could have used more ‘difficult’ interpersonal skills, to make the task more challenging. For example I could have put the situation in a nursing care home, where I am looking after someone who is deaf and I have to use the British Sign Language, to make the task more challenging. I also did not use as many interpersonal skills, and I could have varied the skills I used to make sure that my role play was more interesting to watch.
