NURS1004 Week 11 Workshop: Listening and Talking as Professionals: Beginning

Course and Code: Interpersonal Communication Skills in Health (NURS1004).
Session Title: Week 11 Workshop: Listening and Talking as Professionals: Beginning.
Institutional Affiliation: Curtin University, Faculty of Health Sciences | Curtin School of Allied Health.
Acknowledgement of Country: - "Ngala kaaditch Noongar moort ki-an kaadak nidja boodja." - "We acknowledge the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation as the traditional owners of this land…We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging."

Establishment of Rapport: Students must demonstrate the ability to establish rapport, which includes providing an appropriate introduction of themselves.
Interview Purpose and Confidentiality: Students must be able to describe the purpose of an interview to a service user and discuss the parameters of confidentiality.
Active Listening Skills: Students must define key active listening skills and apply them to practical clinical scenarios.
Diversity and Sensitivity: Consideration must be given to sensitivity to diversity, critical cultural competency, and intersectionality.

Overview: Participation in Weeks 11 through 13 is designed to build the intake interview skills that will be formally assessed in Week 14.
Pairing: Students will be paired with a partner during the Week 12 workshop ( $6 ext{ and }8 ext{ May}$ ). This individual will be the partner for the duration of Assessment 3.
Interview Component: - Duration: A $10 ext{-minute}$ recorded interview. - Role: The student acts as the allied health professional. - Timing: Conducted during Week 14 workshops ( $20 ext{ and }22 ext{ May}$ ). - Topics (Choose one): - Balancing study and life commitments. - Challenges and successes across the semester. - Submission: Submit via Gradecentre.
Oral Reflection Component: - Duration: A $5 ext{-minute}$ oral reflection. - Submission: Upload via Blackboard by Sunday, $31 ext{ May}$ .
Evaluation Focus: - The assessment focuses on demonstrating interpersonal skills: empathy, questioning, active listening, and sensitivity to diversity. - Important Distinction: The goal is not to solve the person's issues, but to demonstrate the specific interpersonal skills required for the professional interaction.

Week 11: - Receive assessment instructions. - Begin practicing roleplays. - Practice the "beginning" phase of the intake interview.
Week 12: - Allocation of assessment partners. - Practice the "middle" phase of the intake interview. - Attendance is essential.
Week 13: - Practice the "ending" phase of the intake interview.
Week 14: - Record the interview during the workshop. - Submit the interview recording and the consent form via Blackboard.
Week 15: - No workshops scheduled this week. - Record the oral reflection and submit via Blackboard by $31 ext{ May}$ .

Barriers to Listening: Students are encouraged to reflect on what internal or external factors interfere with active listening.
Signaling Active Listening: Identification of specific ways to demonstrate and signal active listening to a client.
Key Tasks in the Beginning Phase of an Intake Interview: - Greeting the client. - Establishing rapport. - Introducing yourself (the professional). - Inviting the service user to introduce themselves. - Describing the purpose and the process of the interview. - Discussing confidentiality and its limits.

Attending Skills: - SOLER: A framework for non-verbal communication. - SURETY: An expanded framework for non-verbal communication based on Stickley (2011).
Following Skills (Active Listening): - Door Openers: Non-coercive invitations to talk. - Minimal Encouragers: Small signals (verbal or non-verbal) that show the professional is following. - Attentive Silence: Allowing the client space to speak without interruption.

The Scenario: A tutor acts as an 'intake assessment officer' at Curtin's Student Wellbeing Advisory Service.
The Client (Bailey): An engineering student seeking support for adjusting to university demands. Bailey is apprehensive and has never sought support before.
Appraisal Objectives: - Observing SOLER and SURETY in practice. - Identifying following skills used (door openers, minimal encouragers, attentive silence). - Evaluating what worked well and identifying improvement areas.

Professional Role: Intake assessment officer at Curtin's Student Wellbeing Advisory Service.
Client Profiles and Dialogue Prompts: - Willow (Commerce Student): - Issues: Struggling with academic pressure, lack of sleep, skipping breakfast, and fatigue. - Prompt A: "I just feel so behind all the time… no matter how late I stay up, I can't catch up." - Prompt B: "I know I should be eating properly, but I just don't have energy to think about it." - Angus (Teaching Student): - Issues: Difficulty adjusting to roommates with different schedules/habits, lack of sleep, and concentration issues. - Prompt A: "I don't feel like I can relax in my own house… it's always noisy when I need it quiet." - Prompt B: "I'm not sure how to bring it up with them without making things awkward." - Luna (Arts Student): - Issues: Living far from home, loneliness, and decreased motivation. - Prompt A: "I talk to my family on the phone, but it almost makes me feel worse afterwards." - Prompt B: "I keep thinking maybe I should have just stayed closer to home."

Roleplay Timing: Each student has $12 ext{ minutes}$ to roleplay the professional, complete a self-appraisal, and receive feedback.
Group Structure: Groups of 3 including: Intake Officer, Student/Client, and Observer.
Self-Appraisal Scale (1-10): Students rate themselves on the following criteria: 1. Ability to discuss the purposes and functions of the beginning phase. 2. Ability to introduce self. 3. Ability to seek introductions from others. 4. Ability to describe the initial purpose for meetings and interviews. 5. Ability to orient others to the process. 6. Ability to discuss policy and ethical factors (e.g., confidentiality). 7. Ability to seek feedback from others.

Cournoyer, B. R. (2016): The social work skills workbook. Cengage.
Egan, G. D. (2018): The skilled helper: A problem-management and opportunity-development approach to helping. Cengage.
Stickley, T. (2011): From SOLER to SURETY for effective non-verbal communication. Nurse Education in Practice, $11(6)$ , $395\text{--}398$ .