What is the effective communication with patient and caregiver?

Answer 1

Verbal

Childcare practitioners may not see every child's parents every day and also may not even have the chance to talk to them. However 2-3 minutes is all that is needed in able to say how the child's day has been and what they have done in the day that the child may have particularly enjoyed. They may want to tell the parents what they are going to do the next day if it is something like getting their child involved in cooking. It is good to keep talking to the parents when you're working in somewhere like a nursery as it shows the parent's you are a willing person in your job.

I have taken my little sister a few times to her nursery and have also picked her up. The people who work there don't talk to you that much but they do take you over to one side to tell you if they have done something like cooking. The last time I went to pick my sister up she had cooked and decorated a biscuit throughout the day and so she needed to collect it from the kitchen with me. While we were collecting it one of the members of staff said how well she had co-operated within the activity and how she was very enthusiastic throughout.

Written

It is good to keep parents updated in a written form like a letter. It is useful to the parent and also to the members of staff who work in the care setting. It is useful to the parent as they are more likely to remember what the letter has said because when you read something you normally remember it for a longer time. They could also stick the letter on the fridge with a fridge magnet or somewhere where they always look at notes they keep. It is useful to the members of staff who work in the early year's care setting as they don't have to worry about having to see all of the parents to tell them in person, they can just quickly hand out letters to each parent when they walk out of the door on their way out. It is also good as it is a lot less likely that they will forget to write something in the letter or miss something really important out, whereas if they were telling the parent's face to face they may forget to mention something.

Computerised

Some parent's may find it easier for all information to be sent to their email. For example there may be a parent who works long hours and needs their children or child to be looked after by a childminder, in this case the easy option for their parent's would be to have the information sent to their home Email address in order for them to not worry about the childminder forgetting to give them a letter that was given to all parents in the care setting. This way the parent can also reply to the Email and ask questions if they feel the need to. This may be a bit more effort for the members of staff who work in the care setting. However it is still a very good way to communicate well with the parent's. It is also a good idea to use Emails for anybody who wants to ask about the care setting before letting their child go there and for people in general to ask anything they want.