For my one-to-one interview, I am going to go to a local residential home in order to talk to an elderly person on a one-to-one basis. I aim to record the conversation so that I can later assess my own personal communication skills. Although it is called an interview, I intend to ask relevant questions about the home, the persons" history and generally get to know them. Although this will most probably prove to be quite a challenge, it is important to understand how to communicate with people of a different age, circumstance and background. .
Review of communication used (E1 & 2).
Before I went to the residential home, I planned a few questions to ask. They were rather general, about her life and history, without being too intrusive or personal. When I arrived at the nursing home, I was introduced to Betty, an eighty three year old woman who suffers from short term memory loss. I said "hi" and gave a friendly smile. She returned the smile but blocked eye contact by looking away. I sat down on a buffet in front of her but slightly to the left so that it made it less intense and formal. First of all I asked how she liked the residential home, she did not understand what I was asking so I changed the question to a simpler form of "Do you like it here?" She understood this and told me that she "can't stand it" This was quite upsetting so I showed sympathy and listened to what else she had to say. I found reflective listening was a helpful skill because it helped her see that I understood what she was saying and I think she felt comforted by that. I also used a great deal of empathy as I could see that she did not particularly want to be in the home and she was becoming rather unhappy when talking about it. Although I had prepared the questions to be open, she generally gave very short answers which put a strain on the conversation because I had to think of subjects which we had not already talked about to ask her.