GEN62 Collate and communicate health information to individuals

Overview

This standard covers collating and communicating health information to individuals, their family or significant others in response to queries or as part of health promotion and giving advice. Examples include providing information regarding the reported success of a particular treatment; significant news; giving advice following a diagnosis or clinical intervention and associated record keeping.  This will include both verbal and written communication. This standard is applicable to a wide range of health contexts and roles in emergency, primary and secondary care. Users of this standard will need to ensure that practice reflects up to date information and polices. Version No 1

Knowledge and Understanding

You will need to know and understand:

1. The principles of effective written and verbal communication
2. Your own role and responsibilities and how to get assistance when situations are beyond your competence and authority
3. The ethics concerning  confidentiality, and the tensions which may exist between an individual’s request for information and the organisation's responsibilities within information governance 
4. The available sources and types of health information and the relative value of each to the situation and individual need
5. The importance of using secure sources of information
6. The importance of using reliable evidence based health information sources
7. The importance of communicating with individuals and relevant carers in a manner that is consistent with their level of understanding, culture, background and preferred ways of communicating
8. Difficulties that can occur when communicating with individuals and family members/significant others in stressful situations and how to manage these
9. Risks that can arise when providing information to individuals and/or family members/significant others and the need for tact and diplomacy when exchanging information of a potentially stressful nature
10. National and local policy and guidelines for accessing, updating and maintaining individuals' health records and confidentiality in accordance with information governance
11. Your responsibilities and accountability in relation to the current European and National legislation, national guidelines, local policies, protocols and information governance concerning the collection and provision of information

 

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do the following:

1. work within your level of competence, responsibility and accountability and respond in a timely manner to meet individual’s needs in accordance with clinical governance
2. identify the purpose of the communication and needs of the recipients
3. adhere to legislation, protocols and guidelines particularly those relating to giving/sharing information, confidentiality and record keeping in relation to  information governance 
4. communicate with the individual and relevant carers or family at a pace and level appropriate to their understanding and identify any barriers to communication
5. use relevant secure sources to  access the required health information
6. ensure the health information is:
   1. evidence based
   2. accurate and reliable
   3. timely
   4. up-to-date
   5. relevant to the stated requirements
7. present the evidence base health information in a format that is consistent with the individual’s  level of understanding, culture, background and preferred ways of communicating
8. actively listen to the recipients’ reactions to the information you provide and take steps to clarify issues in a manner that is consistent with the individual’s  level of understanding, culture and background
9. confirm that the information needs of the recipient has been met
10. record the nature and outcome of the communication by updating records in line with information governance

 

Additional Information

This National Occupational Standard was developed by Skills for Health. This standard links with the following dimension within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (October 2004): Dimension: Core 1 Communication This standard has replaced EC_27, EC_29, HCS_NC12, HCS_AP2 and HCS_AP3.