Exploring perceptions of listening, empathy and summarising in the
health visitor–parent relationship

Seal, Joanne

Abstract

The ability of health visitors and their teams to engage and build effective relationships with families is fundamental in working together to reduce health inequalities and achieving positive outcomes for children and their families. In order to intervene early and deliver the Healthy Child Programme (Department of Health, 2009), the health visiting service needs a workforce that has the necessary qualities and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain effective working relationships with parents. For early intervention to be successful, it is vital that the parents’ perspective is heard and that practitioners are given the opportunity to equally prioritise parents’ needs in conjunction with organisational and/or policy agendas. Within a health visiting service in the South West, a study was undertaken to explore workforce listening skills with a specific focus on the quality of empathy and summarising skills, from the perspective of parents, practitioners and an independent researcher. A range of practitioner qualities was found to be vital when working with parents, as well as the ability to listen and remain empathic. Practitioners appreciated the opportunity to discuss their performance following observations, and were keen to build and develop their communication skills.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Sep 29, 2013
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2013
• Journal: Journal of Health Visiting
• Print ISSN: 2050-8719
• Electronic ISSN: 2052-2908
• Publisher: MA Healthcare
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 226-232
• Keywords: exploring perceptions, listening, empathy, summarising, health visitor, parent, relationship
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/933321
• Publisher URL: http://www.journalofhealthvisiting.com/cgi-bin/go.pl/library/article.cgi?uid=98135;article=hv_1_4_226_232
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of Health Visiting, copyright © MA Healthcare, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://www.journalofhealthvisiting.com/cgi-bin/go.pl/library/article.cgi?uid=98135;article=hv_1_4_226_232.