Effective communication skills are crucial in all aspects of nursing and midwifery practice - this book will enable readers to communicate effectively and with confidence in their professional practice. It focuses on the communication skills needed for the development of effective professional and therapeutic relationships. It is a 'how to do it' book that relates the theory of effective and ethical communication to the practice of nursing and midwifery and provides a framework for developing communication skills to meet a variety of situations. Helps readers to: ensure respect and dignity; communicate assertively; develop empathy and comfort skills; communicate effectively in a team; deal with difficult situations; and reflect on actual practice Offers an easy to use, attractive 2 colour design throughout. Written in a clear, consistent style to aid comprehension. Further reading and references point to the evidence and knowledge baseAll the chapters have been revised in line with up-to-date literature, professional practice guidelines and research

This paper addresses the use of reflective practice as central to the delivery of two M.Sc. interprofessional practice programmes for experienced practitioners from a variety of disciplines, who work with survivors of intentional and unintentional violence. The principle on which the programmes are founded, and the underlying theoretical framework are discussed. A central assumption is that the ownership and valuing of lived experience is an essential component of reflection and hence practice development. Violence violates boundaries, therefore students' reflective work is facilitated by two lecturers, allowing ‘mutual supervision‐in‐action’ between them. The paper explores the value of supervision for the facilitators' own reflective practice upon conscious and unconscious processes when working with the dark side of the human psyche. The safety provided by supervision enables the growth and sensitivity of the internal supervisor within the facilitators and the students, with resulting transformation of practice.

Domestic violence causes injury and death throughout the world. Women are most likely to be the victims. In the United Kingdom (UK) two women die each week and 30 men each year as a result of this multifaceted and common source of violent crime. It is a sign that children are at risk of abuse too, as they can be directly or indirectly caught up in the violence. A central tenet of domestic violence is power dynamics: the need for the abuser to control their partner and at times the children. Domestic violence is a health care as well as a social, ethical and legal issue. This paper emphasises the importance of professional practitioners being aware of the signs and symptoms of abuse, its frequency, the risk factors for homicide from domestic violence, and the risks to children and the impact on them. It is likely that the violence is known about in the community and by professional practitioners. The paper explores the role of practitioners and how important it is for them to examine their own values and beliefs about domestic violence. It is imperative for responses to be interprofessional and interagency if practitioners are to meet the needs of survivors and their families and work in partnership with them. Fundamental to this approach is effective information sharing and the sensitive co-ordination of services for survivors. It is no longer acceptable to regard domestic violence, a cause of misery and loss of life, as a private matter and not to consider it as a health care or human rights issue. Clients and their families have a right to sensitive inquiry about their situations and the offer of services to themselves and their children.

Traditionally, practitioners working with the survivors of violence have been offered little in the way of formal education to help them understand why violence occurs and how they can collaborate to support survivors in an effective manner. To help address this need, a team led by one of the authors developed an innovative interprofessional course entitled, "Society, Violence and Practice". The course provided collaborative learning opportunities to practitioners working in various health, welfare and human services settings to equip them further to respond to survivors of violence in a cooperative and holistic manner. To generate an in-depth understanding of participants' views of the impact of the course an exploratory study was undertaken. Drawing upon an interpretivist framework, qualitative data in the form of focus group interviews, individual follow-up telephone interviews, emails and course documentation were collected. Data were analysed inductively to generate themes that could explore the nature of participants' perceptions relating to the differing impact of their interprofessional learning. Findings from this work indicated that the course had a number of early effects in relation to enhancing participants' confidence and knowledge of issues linked to working collaboratively with the survivors of violence. The follow-up data suggested that the course generated a number of longer-term gains on the participants' professional and interprofessional practice. The significance of these findings are discussed in relation to the interprofessional education and adult learning literature before conclusions are presented.

The need for effective collaboration when working with survivors of domestic violence is an urgent one. This paper outlines an innovative project that will examine the antecedents of homicide by a current or former partner. The early stages of the project including analysis of closed homicide case records and a survey of police officers' experience of collaboration with health and social care providers is presented. Early findings suggest opportunities where intervention could in future situations prevent homicide.

1. Introduction. 2. Reflecting on Practice. 3.Ensuring Respect and Dignity., 4. Empathy and Comfort Skills. 5. Interview and Assessment Skills. 6. Assertiveness, advocacy and negotiation skills. 7. Communicating where Barriers Exist. 8. Dealing with Difficult Situations. 9. Working in groups and teams. 10 Teaching skills. Bibliography. Glossary. Appendix. Index.

The debate surrounding The Human Rights Act (The Human Rights Act 1998. Home Office, London) and its impact on survivors of violence, has coincided with current political emphasis and UK Government policy on promoting partnership in the development and d elivery of statutory and voluntary health and social services (Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Home Office, London, Making a difference. Department of Health, London, 1999a, Modernising health and social services national priorities guidance 2000/01-2002/03 . Department of Health, London, 1999b, MacPherson 1999 The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Vol. 1 & 2. The Home Office, London. NHS Executive 1998 The New NHS, modern and dependable: a national framework for assessing performance. Consultation document. NHS Executive, London, 1999. Working Together. Securing a quality work force for the NHS. Department of Health, London). Within this social and political arena, staff at City University, London, UK have developed an Interprofessional MSc - Society Violence and Practice. The focus is on the d elivery of expert practice in caring for survivors of violence of all sorts, e.g. rape, child abuse, domestic and road traffic violence. The curriculum has developed in the international arena and is based on the work of Dr Lee Ann Hoff and colleagues fr om the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA. This is a reflective account of the macro and micro group processes which evolved during the establishment of this programme, the first two modules of which have already been offered at BSc Honours level. The enthusiasm and creativity from practitioners and educationalists across disciplines, who supported the development and implementation of this programme, prompted this reflection based on Bion's (1968 Experiences in groups: and other papers. Tavistock, London) theories of effective working groups. The parallel processes evident in practice the human services (Obholzer 1994 The unconscious at work. Individual and organizational stress in the human services. Routledge, London) were also evident the programme's development and implementation. These reflected sound practice, i.e. in the shared interprofessional responsibility when working with survivors of violence, as well as in meeting the needs of a variety of stakeholders. The Course Advisory Board and the Curriculum Management Team at City University, have interprofessional membership and include practitioners and educationalists. Challenges occurred in group processes where boundaries needed to be kept and language needed to be carefully clarified. As this was a new and different programme, School systems did not always match the needs of the course. Changes needed to be negotiated and new systems established. However, despite the challenges, everyone involved worked collaboratively across disciplines, reflecting current British policy emphasising partnership in dealing with the consequences of violent crime (Home Office 1998a) and the Department of Health's (1999a) strategies for care delivery in the National Health Service.