Communication and Interpersonal Skills
What this domain covers
Communication questions test whether you can gather accurate information, keep the resident's trust, and pass information along correctly. Therapeutic techniques include open-ended questions, restating, clarifying, reflecting feelings, silence, and active listening. Non-therapeutic techniques include false reassurance, giving personal advice, changing the subject, judging, asking why questions that sound accusatory, and making promises you cannot keep.
Core concepts
Adjust to the individual: face a hearing-impaired resident, speak clearly at a normal volume in good light without shouting, and lower your pitch rather than raising it. With aphasia, ask yes-or-no questions, allow time, and never correct the resident's speech. With vision loss, identify yourself on entering and describe what you are about to do. Use a facility interpreter rather than a family member for important information, and respect cultural preferences about touch, eye contact, and family involvement.
Protect confidentiality: do not discuss residents in hallways, elevators, or online. Report changes to the nurse, not to other assistants or residents. In documentation, be objective and specific; record what you saw and heard rather than opinions, and quote the resident's own words when they matter.
Traps that appear in questions
- Reassuring with everything will be fine when the resident expresses fear or hopelessness.
- Agreeing to keep a secret about abuse, self-harm, or a medication error.
- Asking why the resident refused care in a way that sounds like blame.
- Answering a question about the resident's diagnosis or test results yourself instead of referring to the nurse.
Rule of thumb
Listen more than you talk, reflect back what you heard, and never promise confidentiality about harm.
Worked example
A resident says quietly that there is no reason to keep living. Correct response: take the statement seriously, stay with the resident, acknowledge the feeling without arguing or reassuring it away, and report immediately to the nurse. Do not promise to keep it between the two of you.