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Communication And Interpersonal Skills For Professional Behavior

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Communications and Interpersonal Skills. Discuss its importance to
Professional Practice in general and in Podiatry.

This essay aims to show what communication and interpersonal skills are, how they are linked with standards for professional behaviour and, why both are important for individual Health Care Professional (HCP) like podiatrists.

The NHS is committed to quality patient care to the highest standards both clinical treatment and professional behaviour (Department of Health, pp 3-4, 2013). Evidence based guidelines and standards of working practice have been written by NICE (2014) and the HCPC (2014) to allow HCPs to work to this end.

Over the last thirty years the NHS has placed increasing value on multi-disciplinary team (MDT) work to improve the welfare of the patient; the systems of working; and, increase efficiency in costs (Sanders, Robbins & Edmonds, 2010). Reduction rates in major amputations in diabetic patients fell by 82% over an 11 year period following the development of the MDT foot clinic in Ipswich (Krishnan, 2008).

The value placed on multi-disciplinary team (MDT) work brings with it an inherent need for excellent communication skills within the team, with the patient and the wider environment such as the patient’s family. (Street & De Haes, 2013). In managing all the aspects to achieving a positive patient outcome, the team needs to communicate with each other and the patient in order to affect shared-learning, identify obstacles, accept

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