Unit 10 Personal Professional Development HS Care Work

This is aPersonal Professional Development HS Care Work assignment that describes about personal and professional development in health and social care work concept and ideas.

Introduction

LO1: Understand how personal values and principles influence individual contributions to work in health and social care settings

A health care system is an organization of people, institutions, groups, etc. that try to meet the health needs of the people by delivering health related services. Health system should not be expressed only in terms of components but also on its inter dependencies. In today’s time, there are different types and varieties of germs, followed by diseases, found everywhere. There are some diseases that are of course a gift of our lifestyle. We here, in our case are dealing with infectious diseases.

Infectious diseases are those that are contagious. In other words, a person having an infectious disease has a high probability of transmitting the disease to another person coming in contact with him (Langmuir, 1980). Different diseases have different incubation time.

Now, talking about the value system, a value system of a person is the body of beliefs and notion that a person acquires as he grows. The value system of a person is very subjective and varies from person to person depending upon the situation he is in or the circumstances he is put into. For e.g. a person, who is not married, is willing to take more risk as compared to the people, who are married and have kids, their spouses and parents depending on them. A legendary example was Mother Teresa, who considered delivering her services her priority. Even today, the society is divided into different classes. Some of the castes are still considered inferior, depending upon the place and the family you come from. Thus a value system is affected by all these factors, whether it is your school, your family or the society you are raised in.

Given the scenario, I being a very religious person, believe in cleanliness and consider infection as a sign of carelessness or rather lack of cleanliness. My personal experiences have shown me that it is better to stay away from an infectious person. I was brought up in a very protective environment and I am the only son of my parent. I come from a nuclear family. These things have framed a narrow framework in my mind. I prefer to stay away from such a person or would take up some other responsibility to avoid this scenario.

One cannot serve others if he himself is at stake. Hence, it is pertinent for anyone in this line to understand the importance of this. It will not be a shame if we take proper prevention before getting into this. Avoiding the circumstance is rather never a solution here. We need to face it and also tackle it with utmost care. It not only involves the life of the care worker or the patient but also the many people who are associated with them (Lee &Pierskalla, 1988). Also, it is very important for me as a care worker to know and understand the laws and the rules that cover my role as a care worker. Ever state has their own laws and legislature. For e.g. there are laws that every employee be given hepatitis B vaccine. There are jurisdictions that ensure that the employees are vaccinated against influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, etc. These measures undoubtedly give a sense of security and do imply that our protection is taken care of.

This definitely needs to be taken care of. There are ways that can help us with this. Some of the ways are mentioned below:

I will make sure I do not go near my family until and unless I have washed my hands and cleaned myself after coming from the health centre.
As it is said “Prevention is better than cure”, so I will get my kids vaccinated for some of the major diseases.
I will make sure that basic level of hygiene is maintained at home and also the workplace.
Even at the workplace, there should be proper check and monitoring at times to check the level of hygiene.
I will make sure that I am properly vaccinated and immunized before I get in this.
Co-ordination among the care workers is also required while dealing with it. It is equally important that each one of us understand the value of this and take proper steps.

If there is any situation of conflict or tension among the workers, it must be dealt with calmly and patiently. We need to identify the problem and come up with possible solutions. In such cases, it is again very integral to understand that each one of us have separate value system and thus is likely to behave in a different way under same situation. It will not be an exaggeration if we say that understanding this itself will solve half of the problem. Thus, we need to understand this difference and take proper measures to keep our family safe. At the same time perform our duties well.

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LO2: Be able to produce, monitor, revise and evaluate plans for personal progress in developing the skills and abilities required of a health and social care practitioner

We are in a competitive environment. Effective service delivery is the key, especially in a high contact industry like heath care, where the service provider is always in constant touch with the client. The need for self-improvement and development is critical in order to stay ahead. In the light of this here are some goals which every medical practitioner should follow:

We must keep our skills and knowledge up to date and even upgrade when there is a change in technology throughout the working life.
We must be thorough and familiar with all the relevant guidelines, developments and procedures that directly or indirectly affect our work.
We should make it our prerogative to improve ourselves and regularly participate in educational programs and activities that will preserve and further develop our competence and performance.
We must keep ourselves updated and respect, the codes, rules and laws of relevant to our practice and our work.

Personal development plans (PDPs) or a personal learning plan (PLPs) is a part of the concept of continuing professional development (CPD). PDPs are a meant to identify professional and educational needs and to record and hence reveal that need has been addressed. The aim of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) is to produce a structured snapshot. It tells us where do we stand and what we must do to better ourselves. It does show by:

Setting goals: The main aim of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) is to set goals. These goals need to be realistic and achievable. The main rationale behind the goals is that the planner must define a timescale in which he must achieve these goals.
Recognizing areas of improvement: Personal Development Plan (PDP) critically analyses every part of the person. It helps is determining and recognizing the areas of improvement. It finds the holes which need to be plugged and also provides the solution of how to plug these holes. It recognizes the areas of educational requirement and also plan to take actions to address these needs.
Providing Evidence: A Personal Development Plan (PDP) keeps tracks of the various accreditation and certificates of a healthcare practitioner. It produces “documentary evidence of education and reflection - a 'Portfolio of Educational Activity' - to meet requirements of reaccreditation” (Munn-Giddings & Winter, 2013). Thus, it helps the individual to keep track whether all of its certificates are up to date or not.
A bigger purpose: “Personal development plans (PDPs), when gathered together, form part of the Practice Professional Development Plan (PPDP), identifying common goals and needs, and facilitating group approaches to meeting them” (Munn-Giddings & Winter, 2013)

In this rapidly evolving environment, where technology especially in medicine is changing at a rapid pace. It is important that we as health practitioner keep ourselves updated and follow the tide. In order to provide the best service we can to our patients. We can do that by following good medical practice. Good medical practice follows providing exemplary service to the client and maintaining good relationship with all the parties involved in the service delivery chain. It is done by maintaining good medical practice and a professional practice which includes always delivering your best. It includes nurturing relationships with the patients as to gather a further understanding of the condition plaguing them. It also makes the patient feel more comfortable and co-operate with the examination. Relationships with other practitioners are also important as we sometimes a set of fresh eyes help and also building a rapport helps when we need outside consultation. We must be a student as well as a teacher. We must impart our learning to others and as well as learn from others, training and teaching is an important aspect of self-growth. Finally, we should curious we must probe and question everything and anything we find suspicious great diagnosis is those which find the problems which we were not looking for. There many ways for doctors could learn both formally and informally. Some of the ways are:

Appraisal: Appraisal and annual feedback is a report card which provides us how others have view our performance. It is a great tool for introspection and to understand the areas in which we are lacking.
Medical Journals and Seminars: Medical journal and seminars are held periodically to discuss the new developments in the fields of health and social care. Attending these seminars and reading the journals help to broaden their horizon and provide better service to the patient.
Shadowing others: Not all people are same. Practices and habits differ from person to person. Sometimes shadowing other doctors could help in determining a better way to practice medicine and provide service to the patient.
Becoming a mentor: Taking more responsibility also improves learning. Mentorship programs or becoming part supervision gives power. Other subordinates may come up and ask question or need help with the diagnosis in such situation we must be on top of our game. Responsibilities help as a motivator to instigate more learning.
Multidisciplinary team meetings: Sometimes doctors are told that they need to update themselves. Old practices were crude and harmful to the patient with technology safer methods have come up thus we need to update ourselves. If we do not then it is the job of these committees to instruct us or we can lose our license.
Learning from patients: Learning is a 360 degree process we learn from everyone and everything we just need to keep our eyes open. Patients also teach us a lot, a difficult patient teaches us how manage a difficult client and service with a smile. Thus, learning is a constant process.

Making a Performance development plan is not enough we must have an effective system in place to keep our goals in check. We must use SMART techniques to see if we are on track or not. “Our goals must follow these principles:

Specific - specified learning activities, not general statements.
Measurable - possible to assess whether they have been achieved.
Attainable - possible to achieve.
Realistic - within the doctor's capability.
Timed - agreed time for achieving and reviewing” (Brandtstädter, 1999).

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LO3: Understand the application of principles of professional engagement with users of health and social care services.

Health and Social care systems around the world are going through fundamental change. Inspirations for these changes are many and varied but the rationale that is essential to many highlights the need more effectively organize the provision of health care to meet the requirements of patients as well as an economic goal to make optimal use of resources. “Primary health care (PHC) redesign is becoming increasingly central to the change initiatives with growing recognition that effective primary healthcare systems provide the foundation for comprehensive, coordinated health services delivery” (Poulton& West, 1999). More and more stress is given on building and nurturing relationships in order to provide better and effective service to the patient.

When a patient walks in to a hospital, he is scared as he does not know what is wrong with him. He needs someone to console and give him confidence that everything will be alright. A warm smile or a simple question about their life can go a long way in building a rapport. Acts like these helps the patient become more comfortable in the alien environment, it also instils faith that everything will be alright.

Relationships are important in a hospital environment. Hospital is not just about having good doctors; there should be an extra ordinary support staff to back up these doctors in order to provide exceptional health services delivery. The support staff includes team of nurses, orderlies, management team and cleaning staff. All these cogs must come together and work in synchronization for the hospital machinery to run efficiently. The various professional relationships in a hospital context are:

Doctor to Doctor: A hospital generally has an array of specialist doctors, form general physician to heart specialists. When a patient walks in the attending doctor first evaluates him and diagnoses its condition. After that, depending on the severity of the condition a specialist is called in. Thus, there is need of mutual respect and professionalism among doctors. They need to understand they are working together and health care is no competition to prove who the better doctor is.
Doctor to Nurses: Nurses are like sidekicks to the doctors. They administer the medicine doses to the patients as per the doctor’s instruction. They are tasked with the duty of checking in on the patient to make sure the medicines are working. Mutual respect is required among the parties involved. The doctors must acknowledge the work of the nurses and respect them accordingly. A good doctor-nurse combo makes and effective team and also puts the patient at ease.
Nurses to Support Staff: Support staff includes orderlies who clean after the patient. They are in charge of the sanitation and keeping the room as clean as possible. A better environment leads to faster recovery. The clean the bed pans, put in new sheets replace the empty medicine packets. Support staff also includes the general maintenance staff which cleans the hospital and keep it sanitized.

Every role in a hospital is an important one and everyone must acknowledge this fact. Showing a little appreciation goes a long way in building relationship and instilling confidence among the staff. Showing respect is essential for a fruitful relationship. Supporting and promoting the rights of various individuals from the doctors to the maintenance helps instill confidence and motivate to work harder and provide better service delivery.

Whenever a conflict arises it is better to resolve them as soon as possible. Since, there is a hierarchy involved and with power comes arrogance. There must be proper training and support given so as to make everyone understand that each role is essential to the hospital form the doctors to the cleaning staff without one the effectiveness of other will decrease significantly. The various ways to resolve issues encountered in professional relationships are:

Communication: The first and the obvious method is communication in health social care. The parties involved must air their grievances. If they talk about what is bothering them and what is the problem. It might help the other side see its point of view.
Mediation: One of the ways is mediation. Mediation is defined as “a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties with concrete effects. Typically, a third party, the mediator assists the parties to negotiate a settlement. Disputants may mediate disputes in a variety of domains, such as commercial, legal, diplomatic, workplace, community and family matters.”

Mediation allows the parties involved to present their case. It is the job of the mediator to make the parties involved each other points of view. A strong mediator who is respected by both parties should head the mediation for effective control and resolution.

Training: Proper training could eliminate most of the issues at the workplace. If everyone respects each other and their jobs then the conflicts will reduce significantly. The doctors specially need to know the importance of the support staff and respect them for the services rendered. They should be advised to be friendly with the support staff which will motivate the support staff and produce effective service.
Disciplinary Committees: Disciplinary is the last stop method. When there are large conflicts which could not be solved by the regular techniques. Disciplinary committees are set up to take charge and resolve the situation.

LO4: Be able to demonstrate development of own skills and understanding in relation to working with others in health and social care practice.

Health and Social care is one of the few noble professions left today. Health care workers work in order to provide a better future for the participants of the society. In a health care set up we are a part of a team and we together deliver the service to the patient. We all know the saying that the chain is as strong as it weakest link, thus in a team individual attitudes, beliefs and perception plays a very important part. If there is friction in the team then the final service delivery will be bad because no one will be able to focus on the patient. There will also be some distraction which will hamper in the delivery of the product. The personal contribution shapes the team, it gives the team character and it makes it unique. “Personal contributions such as:

Personal values: e.g. opinions and preferences, political perspectives, culture, interests and priorities, change over lifespan to date
Culture and experiences: e.g. family, ethnicity, belief, education, employment, age and gender, life events
Values and principles: equal rights, diversity, confidentiality, protection from abuse and harm
New developments: legislation, policies, research, priorities and targets
Changes to personal values: influence of e.g. overcoming of tensions between personal values and principles of good practice, differences relating to values of others” (Munn-Giddings & Winter, 2013).

If the members of the team have different views in any of these factors it will seriously hamper the effectiveness of the team. The roles and capacity of the various team members also impact the effectiveness of the team. As said earlier the chain is as strong as its weakest link. The service delivery is a process and everyone involved has a role to play especially in health care. For instance, in an emergency situation where time is of the essence, if the nurses supporting the doctors could not handle the intensity of the situation and work quickly to save the patient, the result will be critical. We might even lose the patient. Thus, since the nurse was not able to complete its role there was a flaw in the service delivery. Same instance can happen with the other players involved like the orderlies, support staff and management and even the doctors.

Teamwork is important and everyone should try to develop and mature along with the team; no one’s a lone wolf, if one person takes charge and tries to influence and motivate others, the rest will follow. Everyone should try to minimize the barriers in order to provide better health and social carepractice. Some of the ways by which this could be achieved:

Better Communication: Better and effective communication goes a long way. If the team is thinking in the same wavelength then the operation will go much smoother and faster and effective service could be provided.
Take an interest in personal life: A team where people know each other in a personal level will provide a better service than a disjointed one. A people are vested in each other’s lives, they will try to move together and pick up other’s slack wherever they can. This will lead to better service delivery
Training: Training and simulation also helps teamwork. It prepares the team for the times of emergency. They could communicate more freely and provide effective service to the patient.
Removing biases and misunderstanding: Airing all the grievances and talking it out amongst the team members goes a long way in effective team building. The members will respond better if they know the position of everyone involved and their side of the story.

As discussed above personal contributions of the various parties involved shapes the team. Thus, it is necessary to improve our personal contributions in order to improve the team. Some ways by which we can do that are:

Removing biases: Biases often hinder in delivery. If one member says he will not to do the work because it offends his personal or cultural point of view, acts like these could lead to friction among the team members. Thus, it is important remove biases.
Instilling positive attitude: If one person is feeling down it could bring the morale of the entireteam down. Thus,it is important for all parties concern to surround them in a positive environment.
Training & Team building exercises: training & team building exercises removes the personal contributions as the team becomes gets more accustomed to each other’s company.

Task 7: Analysis and Evaluation of Presentation and Report

Health and social care is a service driven industry. There needs to be a constant connect between the service provider and the patient. The rapid advancements in science & technology have changed the face of health care. Service delivery has become the most important aspect in this intense competitive climate. The need for team building and trust exercise amongst the various members of the delivery chain is needed in order to provide the best end product. A health care system is an organization of people, institutions, groups, etc. that try to meet the health needs of the people by delivering health related services. Health system should not be expressed only in terms of components but also on its interdependencies.

We can evaluate the effectiveness of the report based on the following criteria:

Effectiveness: We can evaluate the report by its effectiveness, whether the report was able to inspire, educate or teach anything new to the group.
Quality: The quality management of information provided in the report as well as the overall quality of the report could be one of the criteria for evaluating the report.
Clarity of Message: The clarity of the message communicated in the report that is whether the audience could connect with the data and the information provided could be one more criteria for assessing and evaluating the report.
Content: The content provided in the report. The authenticity and reliability of the information presented in the report could one more criteria for evaluation.
Precision: The precision and the accuracy of the information that is how reflective is it to the topic is an important part of the evaluation of the report.
Style: The style in which the report is written. It follows logic and structure. It is simple to understand and the message is getting delivered to the audience is another criteria of the evaluation of the report.
Execution: Finally, the execution of the report whether it fulfils all the goals and learning objectives it was set out do is the final evaluation criteria of the report.

As discussed in the report, Personal development plans (PDPs) or a personal learning plan (PLPs) is a part of the concept of continuing professional development (CPD). PDPs are a meant to identify professional and educational needs and to record and hence reveal that need has been addressed. The aim of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) is to produce a structured snapshot. Making a Performance development plan is not enough we must have an effective system in place to keep our goals in check. We must use SMART techniques to see if we are on track or not. “Our goals must follow these principles:

Specific - specified learning activities, not general statements.
Measurable - possible to assess whether they have been achieved.
Attainable - possible to achieve.
Realistic - within the doctor's capability.
Timed - agreed time for achieving and reviewing” (Brandtstädter, 1999).

Finally presentation, its evaluation depends of the factor how well the report is prepared and capacity of the speaker to grab hold of the audience. The ways of criteria for the evaluating presentations are:

Authenticity of source material: Presentation depends upon the report and the information provided in it. The better the quality of information better the presentation.
Capacity of the presenter: Much of the presentation depends on the presenter. If he could hold the audience’s attention and get those involved better will be the presentation.
Mode of delivery: Mode of delivery is also important, if we are addressing a big class a microphone is needed otherwise presentation will be ineffective.
Duration of presentation: Presentation neither could be too short nor too long – 10 minutes is the time given and we must utilize it fully.
Clarity of presentation: The clarity of the presentation whether the message is being delivered is one more criteria for evaluating the presentation.
Quality of presentation: Quality of the presentation that is whether all the facts are coming forward and transmitting to the audience is essential for an effective presentation.
Execution: Finally, as was the case with the report execution is the key for a successful presentation.

Conclusion

Health and social care has gone through major changes in the past decade. The roles of other members in the service delivery chain have gathered importance over the years. Thus, need for effective team building as well as personal and professional grooming is required. Each member of the team must believe in the cause and help to better the team in order to provide effective service.

References

Brandtstädter, J. 1999. The self in action and development: Cultural, biosocial, and ontogenetic bases of intentional self-development. Langmuir, A. D. 1980. Changing concepts of airborne infection of acute contagious diseases: a reconsideration of classic epidemiologic theories.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 353(1), 35-44. Lee, H. L., &Pierskalla, W. P. 1988. Mass screening models for contagious diseases with no latent period. Operations research, 36(6), 917-928. Poulton, B. C., & West, M. A. 1999. The determinants of effectiveness in primary health care teams. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 13(1), 7-18. Munn-Giddings, C., &Winter, R. 2013. A handbook for action research in health and social care.Routledge. BTEC HND Assignment Experts

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