10. Advocacy, mooting, and professional communication

Author(s):  
Scott Slorach ◽  
Judith Embley ◽  
Peter Goodchild ◽  
Catherine Shephard

This chapter focuses on advocacy, mooting, and communication skills. It first explains the term ‘communication skills’ and then discusses their application in presentations, advocacy, mooting, face-to-face communication, and communication by telephone. The section on advocacy skills considers the preparation and use of skeleton arguments and case bundles.

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaele L. Morrow ◽  
Shane R. Stinson

ABSTRACT In this case, students assume the role of new accounting staff tasked with the preparation of a personal income tax return and supporting documentation for a client of their firm. Students are provided prior year work papers and client communications, a copy of the prior year's tax return, as well as a letter and supporting documents from the client for the current year. To complete the case, students generate questions based on the initial information provided, meet face-to-face with the client, and roll forward a set of electronic work papers before submitting a complete current year engagement file for senior review. This case adds work papers and client interaction to the traditional tax compliance case to reinforce both the technical and communication skills valued in professional practice. The formulation of questions for the client also allows students to practice discussing technical topics in a non-technical manner and underscores the required balance between attitudes of client advocacy stressed in professional tax practice and legal requirements for “good-faith” tax return reporting. This case is appropriate for an individual income tax course at either the undergraduate or graduate level, and can be easily adapted to increase or decrease difficulty.


2021 ◽  
pp. 009862832199543
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Reich ◽  
Lara J. LaCaille ◽  
Katherine E. Axford ◽  
Natalina R. Slaughter

Background: Although undergraduate psychology curriculum should cultivate performance-based skills to prepare students for helping professions, little work to date has addressed this standard. Objective: This research replicates the methods used in a previous study by examining pre-post changes in empathic communication skills and perceived communication competence across two applied psychology courses: Basic Helping Skills and Internship. This study extended this work by also exploring learning gains from different formats (i.e., face-to-face vs. online), internship types (mental health-related vs. not mental health-related), and the longevity of learning gains. Method: Psychology students ( N = 171) completed a measure of communication competence and provided written empathic responses on a vignette-based performance measure at the start and end of the semester. Results: Students perceived their communication skills as improving over time; however, only students in the Basic Helping Skills course showed improved empathic communication skills, especially when the instruction was in a face-to-face format. Students with previous skill training maintained their learning gains over time. Conclusion: Student empathic communication improves most with face-to-face instruction in Basic Helping Skills rather than an internship experience. Teaching Implications: For the development of empathic communication skills, prerequisite requirements for Internship and instructive scaffolding for the application of skills may be recommended.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. e001024
Author(s):  
Xavier Losfeld ◽  
Laure Istas ◽  
Quentin Schoonvaere ◽  
Michel Vergnion ◽  
Jochen Bergs

Context and objectiveThe negative consequences of inadequate nursing handovers on patient safety are widely acknowledged, both within the literature as in practice. Evidence regarding strategies to improve nursing handover is, however, lacking. This study investigates the effect of a tailored, blended curriculum on nurses’ perception of handover quality.MethodsWe used a pre-test/post-test design within four units of a Belgian general hospital. Our educational intervention consisted of an e-learning module on professional communication and a face-to-face session on the use of a structured method for handovers. All nurses completed this blended curriculum (n=87). We used the Handover Evaluation Scale (HES) to evaluate nurses’ perception of handover quality before and after the intervention. The HES was answered by 87.4% of the nurses (n=76 of 87) before and 50.6% (n=44 of 87) after the intervention. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the validity of the HES.ResultsThe original factor structure did not fit with our data. We identified a new HES structure with acceptable or good fit indices. The overall internal consistency of our HES structure was considered adequate. Perception of nurses on Relevance of information showed a significant improvement (M=53.19±4.33 vs M=61.03±6.01; p=0.04). Nurses also felt that the timely provision of patient information improved significantly (M=4.50±0.34 vs M=5.16±0.40; p=0.01).ConclusionThe applied intervention resulted in an improved awareness on the importance of Relevance of information during handovers. After our intervention, the nurses’ perception of the HES item ‘Patient information is provided in a timely manner’ also improved significantly. We are aware that the educational intervention is only the first step to achieve the long-term implementation of a culture of professional communication based on mutual support.


Author(s):  
N. Basko

The article is devoted to the role and possibilities of using phraseology in teaching professional communication skills in Russian to foreign students. As an example, phraseological units are discussed that are used in professional communication in the field of economics and business. The article contains such linguistic characteristics of phraseological units in the economic discourse as semantics, stylistic properties, etymology, communicative value. Teaching professional communication with the use of phraseology assumes acquaintance of foreign students with the main linguistic characteristics of phraseological units, i.e. with their grammatical properties, lexical and syntactic compatibility, features of functioning in speech. Control tests are aimed at mastering the semantics of phraseological units, at developing the skills and abilities of using phraseological units in professional speech. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the use of phraseological expressions in teaching professional communication allows to consider phraseology as one of the linguistic resources that contributes to the formation of communicative competence in the professional sphere among foreign students.


Author(s):  
Е.В. Богомолова ◽  
О.И. Ананьева

В статье описано, каким образом можно решить проблему сущности профессионального общения и путей его эффективного формирования. На основе проведенного анализа определены методологические основы исследования, даны авторские определения понятий «парадигма образования», «профессиональное общение», «готовность к профессиональному общению». Обосновано и доказано, что формирование готовности современного специалиста к профессиональному общению на базе комплексного использования личностно ориентированного и синергетического подходов, персонолизированного обучения, синергии форм, методов и средств обучения обеспечивает целостность и системность подготовки, достижение высокого уровня компетентности в сфере профессионального общения. The article focuses on the essence of professional communication and on efficient ways of developing professional communication skills. The investigation enables the authors to define methodological foundations for research. The authors provide their definitions of the following concepts: “educational paradigm”, “professional communication”, “readiness to professional communication”. The article maintains that to ensure modern specialists’ readiness to professional communication, to secure systematic and comprehensive training, to guarantee the quality formation of professional communication, it is essential to integrate personality-oriented and synergistic approaches and to ensure personalized education and synergistic relationship between forms, methods and means of education.


Author(s):  
Yih-Ruey Juang

Much research has shown that the blended learning can effectively enhance the motivation, communication skills, and learning achievement compared with teaching in a single form. However, a crucial issue in blended learning is how to integrate each blended format, media and experience into a coherent learning model, and then to keep interaction between teacher and students either in or outside the classroom. This study introduces a highly interactive strategy for blended learning that incorporates web-based and face-to-face learning environments into a semester course through answering the warm-up questions before class, interactive teaching in class, and review and exercise after class. By the empirical study in a ‘Data Structure’ class, most students made progress in learning achievement and gain more motivation and interaction within the class.


Author(s):  
Stephen Mattucci ◽  
Jim Sibley ◽  
Jonathan Nakane ◽  
Peter Ostafichuk

Abstract – Giving and receiving feedback is a necessary, but often difficult skill for young engineers to acquire. We developed and piloted the delivery of a feedback model as part of the first-year engineering experience at the University of British Columbia. The approach is based on recognizing feedback as a form of professional communication, and that it requires practice to improve. We wove different aspects of communication skill development through two large newly-designed first-year introduction to engineering courses, building towards face-to-face feedback through a staged series of communication experiences. The full feedback model highlighted the nuances of face-to-face communication, and was called the "3×3", since it includes the three components involved in face-to-face feedback (sender, message, and receiver), each with three associated aspects. The sender uses appropriate words and body language, ensures proper interpretation, and is empathetic; the message is objective and non-judgmental, sufficiently detailed, and contains suggestions for improvement; and the receiver remains open and listening, acknowledges to the sender that they are listening, and clarifies to ensure understanding. Students applied what they had learned through an activity reviewing poster presentations from a major course design project. In the activity, they each had an opportunity to craft a feedback message before delivering the message face-to-face to a peer. Students then reflected on the feedback they received by summarizing the message, recognizing how the sender delivered the feedback, and identifying why the feedback was helpful. Student reflections were analyzed for themes from the 3×3 model. Students found feedback from peers particularly helpful when it was delivered in an appropriate and courteous manner, checked for proper interpretation, provided clear suggestions for improvement, and was coupled with praise of something that was done well. Providing students with a structured model allows them to follow a process in both providing effective face-to-face feedback, but also better appreciate why receiving feedback is beneficial in helping them improve.  


Pharmacy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Neeltje P. Duijm ◽  
Karin Svensberg ◽  
Casper Larsen ◽  
Sofia Kälvemark Sporrong

As the pharmacy profession evolves, good communication skills are vital for securing the safer and more rational use of medicines. Currently there is a lack of qualitative studies researching European student pharmacists’ and their experience with communication skills training (CST). This qualitative study aimed to fill this gap by exploring Danish student pharmacists’ attitudes towards, and experiences of, CST. Focus group interviews were conducted with a heterogeneous sample of Danish student pharmacists in 2016. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed inductively. Fifteen students participated in three focus groups. Five categories identified as key aspects were: professional communication vs. normal conversation, motivation to engage in training, how to learn communication skills, experience with CST and universities’ role in teaching communication skills. In conclusion, there were both positive and negative attitudes towards CST among the participants. However, they had little experience with CST. Bloom’s taxonomy of the affective domain and Kolb’s experiential learning model appear to be useful in understanding students’ attitudes towards CST. Pharmacy educators can use this study to structure and improve their CST curricula by knowing what influences students’ attitudes towards CST.


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