Communicating and Working with Practitioners with Rachel Wright

Rachel Wright, a qualified nurse, parent carer, and founder of Born at the Right Time, delivered a webinar for members of the WellChild Family Tree on getting the best out of your professional: Communicating and Working with Practitioners!

In this article, we look at some top tips from Rachel on ways we can work better together, and how to structure an effective complaint.

It is important to remember that typically people are doing the best​ they can, within a system that currently fails both practitioners and families. With that being said, it can be very frustrating and extremely tiring for parent carers to battle services constantly. Here we list seven ways we can try and work better together!

7 ways we can work better together:

1. Don’t shout – Let our perspective and view be the loudest thing, not our words. As soon as our volume rises our views can be dismissed.
2. Email – Keep track of communication and be clear about what you have heard and expect to happen. It can be helpful to follow up an important phone call or meeting with an email clarifying what you heard, expect, and plan to do as a result.
3. Keep your eye on the goal – Don’t get distracted by side issues or minor details. It can be easy to get sidetracked by failings, missed targets or minor frustrations. Focus on the main aim of the communication – what do you want and how are you best going to achieve it without burnout.
4. Don’t be afraid to show emotion – People only know what we tell them, it is ok to show that you are struggling and need help. It is good to show people how failings impact us without getting personal or aggressive.
5. Be specific – Be clear in what you have understood, what your expectations are, what timescales are in place, and what actions you need to take.
6. Assume competence – Recognise that the system has limitations and try to not make it personal. People are generally doing their best.
7. Look after yourself – You are only human, you only have 2 hands and only 24 hours a day. Decide which battles are worth fighting.

Even when you have tried your best and followed the above, there may still be situations that are not acceptable to you, that you wish to make a complaint about.

While making a complaint, it is important to try and bring out the best in the person you are making a complaint to, or about, as this will make your desired outcome more likely to happen.

How to make an effective complaint:

1. Positivity – Start with something you are thankful for, maybe include something that has gone well.

2. Summarise – Give a summary of your current situation and the main issue of the complaint. This includes:

• Timeline– Give more detailed information about what has happened in a clear timeline avoiding any disputed details. Keeping to facts.
• Problem– State what the problem is and what you would like to make a complaint about.
• Impact– Detail what impact the situation is having on you, your child and the wider family.

3. Change – State what you would like to happen and what changes are needed to improve the situation.

4. Timescales – Set your expected timescales for a response and desired actions. Include the consequences (the actions you will take) if expectations are not met.

5. Collaboration – Finalise with a commitment to collaboration –  aware that everyone is working hard and you desire to work together to improve the situation.

If you are attending a meeting to discuss your complaint, make sure you are prepared with the relevant information. You may wish to take a friend or peer as a minute taker with you to the meeting, so you can concentrate on the interaction and ensure you have noted the important information.

As well as being a parent carer, qualified nurse and the Director/Founder of Born at the Right Time, Rachel also is the author of The Skies I’m Under and Shattered and the host of The Skies We’re Under podcast.

If you would like further information on the family support, training, or policy-influencing work Rachel undertakes,  you can contact her via her website here.

If you have any comments, ideas, or suggestions about this article please contact us at [email protected]

Please don’t forget to leave feedback on this article!