ASSIGNMENT 1: ESSAY
Exploring Principles of Care and Good Practice in Health and Social Care
Introduction
a) Principle of care may be defined as the way in which health and social care and other care providers should behave towards the individuals who are under their service. The standards of health and social care are built on the basis of different principles and these are:
Respect and dignity
Inclusiveness
Compassion
Responsive support and care (Stirrat and Woodley, 2018).
Wellbeing
Confidentiality
Effective communication
Autonomy
b) Principles of care and good practices are essential in health and care and it is important for enabling care workers to comprehend the various treatment procedures of individual patients. It is important for informing care workers about the confidentiality of patients and how to ensure their privacy (Shelton, El-Boghdadly and Appleby, 2021). Without the principles of good practices and care, it is not possible to protect the rights of the service users. Moreover, it is also important for ensuring informed decision making.
c) This assignment is centred on principles of good practices and care in health and social care organisations. Therefore, the assignment is an opportunity to discuss some of the key principles of health and care organisations. The principles of care are linked with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need Theory. Next, the autonomy and rights of vulnerable people and the way they are protected against harm and abuse are discussed in this assignment. A risk assessment is also performed in relation to safeguarding vulnerable groups. The implementation of Equality Act 2010 has also been included in this essay.
a) The key principles of care/ good practices are discussed below:
Respect and dignity: These are important for the health and social providers to maintain this principle so that the patients believe they have been treated with compassion and care. It would make them feel safer and enable them to cope with the experience in an effective manner (Gogoi et al., 2021).
Inclusiveness: This is an important principle of care as inclusion and equality are believed to be vital for ensuring the differences in people are valued. It is also important for ensuring that every patient is treated equally.
Compassion: This is one of the most important principles of care because it is due to compassion, health problems are prevented among patients and it speeds up the process of recovery (Whiley and Grandy, 2021). Compassion is imperative for improving the relationship between the patients and the care-providers.
Responsive support and care: These mean that the social and health care needs of individuals are reviewed and assessed in order to ensure that the patients have received their right. In order to be responsive, the health care providers require to adapt with the needs of the patients.
Confidentiality: Ensuring the privacy of the patients is believed to be a key responsibility of the health and social care system. This gives clients and patients confidence while sharing personal information (Rossi and Sarangi, 2021).
Effective communication: This principle is important for maintaining transparency with the clients. Moreover, communication skill is required for sharing information with the patients in the most effective manner. Openness is needed in relation to daily requirements and tasks.
Autonomy: This principle is important for ensuring that an adult competent patient is able to make informed decisions (Rossi and Sarangi, 2021).
b) It is important to link the principles of care with a critical theory:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
1) Physiological needs: This element of the theory could be linked to the basic needs that clients expect from health and social care. One of the most important principles of care is responsive care and support and therefore, the care providers need to meet the basic requirements of the patients such as bathing, feeding, repositioning, turning, dressing, along with other practical basic needs like grocery shopping, paying bills for the patients and so on (Snelling and Quick, 2022).
2) Safety needs: The safety of the patients could be guaranteed if the care providers are responsible and trained to use appropriate tools for the job, show immediate response to hazards and spills, wear proper clothing, use safe tools for lifting patients and so on.
3) Love and belonging: One of the most important principles of care is dignity and respect. Treating patients with compassion fosters a feeling of belongingness and improves their relationship with the caregivers (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022).
4) Esteem: When the patients are treated with respect and compassion, their self-esteem increases and they feel confident and this is essential for their physical health as well as for mental health. They feel that they are important and deserve to be taken care of, which is an important realisation for stress management as well.
5) Self-actualization: This is when the patients feel that they are empowered. When this need is fulfilled, they are able to make decisions about their health and medical treatment. At this stage, the patients are even more confident with the care provided to them, this speeds up the process of recovery among the patients (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2022).
C) The impact of key legislations, policies and code of conduct that underpin health and social care practice are discussed below:
1) Key Legislations:
‘Health and Social Care Act 2012’: The purpose of this act is to introduce a range of legal duties regarding health inequalities. The act ensures that every patient would be treated equally and must be provided with the same medical care (england.nhs.uk, 2022).
‘Equality Act 2010’: This act protects the clients and patients from discriminations in relation to their age, gender, disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation and so on.
‘Social Value Act 2012’: The public sector commissioners such as the health sector bodies and local authorities are responsible for considering the economic, environmental and social wellbeing while procuring contracts or services (england.nhs.uk, 2022).
2) Policies:
Patient care policies: This policy covers workflow and protocols for certain treatment procedures. The purpose of this policy is to inform the care providers about the ways in which they are expected to respond to a certain medical situation.
Privacy and security policies: This policy informs the care providers about the way they should respond to a situation that poses a security threat within the care facility.
3) Code of conduct:
The care providers should be accountable and therefore, it is imperative for them to have an answer for their omissions and actions.
It is important to maintain accurate healthcare records of the clients and reporting to seniors in case of an issue (skillsforcare.org.uk, 2022).
The confidentiality of the patients must be ensured.
d) It is important for the health and social care providers to protect the rights and autonomy of the vulnerable patients or clients in the following ways:
Right to information: The vulnerable patient must be provided with adequate information regarding their health, its diagnosis and even the possible complications, etc.
Right to reports and records: The vulnerable adult patient should have the right to access to patient records, medical reports, case papers, investigation reports and so on (Rodger, Blackshaw and Young, 2019).
Right to confidentiality: It is important to protect the privacy of vulnerable patients and therefore, their treatment plan and condition must be confidential.
The vulnerable patients must be protected against abuse in the following ways:
Children and young people with autism must be protected from sensory factors as sensory stimulations lead to behavioural issues and they might become self-injurious.
Inappropriate and abusive intervention of patients with dementia and autism must be reported to the police or local authorities (Wilkinson, 2020).
In order to report abuse, the Alzheimer’s and Autistic Association in the community must be contacted.
The online caregiver community must be contacted while reporting abuse against vulnerable patients with dementia or autism.
e) The risk assessment for safeguarding vulnerable adults are discussed below:
Level 1 Harm (Low Harm) |
Level 2 Harm (Moderate Harm) |
Level 3 Harm (Serious Harm) |
Level 4 Harm (Significant Harm) |
Level 5 Harm (Catastrophic Harm) |
1) Minor non-compliance with the health and social care standards (Trueba, Bhutta and Shahvisi, 2021). |
1) Shortcoming in patient administration and care. |
1) Vulnerable patients attended by untrained staff. |
1) Severe injury to patients while moving them. Untrained staff does not know how to use lifting tools. |
1) The condition of the patient worsened due to the flaws in care and overdosage of medicine. |
2) Minor injuries of the vulnerable patients. |
2) Not treating patients fairly, affecting their mental health (Trueba, Bhutta and Shahvisi, 2021). |
3) Improper reporting of a patient's health (Morley and Floridi, 2019). |
2) Caregiver not responding to self-injurious behaviour of patients (Jones, Finnerty and Richardson, 2021). |
2) Sexual harassment to patient with autism or dementia. |
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4) Not assisting patients with hospital visits. |
3) Caregiver not administering medicines as prescribed. |
3) Causing fatal injuries to patients while moving them (Jones, Finnerty and Richardson, 2021). |
f) The impact of abuse could be severe on vulnerable patients. It prevents the recovery process among patients and it is possible that their condition would worsen. Patients who have experienced abuse might develop other conditions as well and due to this, it is likely for them to suffer from excessive fear and anxiety, depression and withdrawal, eating disorder, refusal to medication, changes in personality and behaviour and so on (Robinson et al., 2021). It causes agitation among patients and this might be worse especially for patients with dementia and autistic. The patients might as well develop a feeling of sadness and isolation and due to this, they lose trust in others and refuse medical attention as well.
There are many health and social care that encourages anti-discriminatory practices and due to this, the satisfaction of the patients is severely affected. These health and social care providers fail to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and treat patients unequally. There are many patients in these health and social care organisations who are victim of discrimination and abuse in terms of their age, gender, colour, race, sexual orientation, disability, status, and so on. For example, in some health and social care, older patients are treated unfairly and they are not observed as a priority. They are given less attention despite having to pay the same amount as any other patient (Robinson et al., 2021). Besides, some patients in the health and social care settings also face discrimination in terms of their level of education, nationality, national or regional accent, appearance and so on.
g) There are many ways in which discrimination could be prevented and these are discussed below:
It is important for the staff and workers at the health and social care to respect diversity and practice inclusion. This way they would be able to win the confidence of clients and ensure the satisfaction of the patients.
The individuals under their support must be treated as unique and it is not even important to treat every individual in the same manner (Wilkinson, 2020). This would allow them to respect the individuality of every patient and value their differences.
The caregivers in health and social care settings must be able to perform in a non-judgemental manner. This is important for the overall reputation of the healthcare organisation they are working for.
The workplace standard, ethics and policies must be considered by every individual working for health and social care settings. This would enable them to foster a discrimination-free environment for the patients.
The workers in healthcare setting must have the confidence to confront or challenge discriminatory behaviour in order to protect the clients (Snelling and Quick, 2022). Empowered workers are important for empowering patients.
Discriminatory behaviour against patients or their family must be reported to the higher authority. The person reporting against the discriminatory behaviour must wait for the authority to take effective and appropriate action.
Conclusion
In health and social care settings, the primary importance is given to the needs of the individual patients. It is imperative to address the physical needs, emotional needs and practical needs of the patients. Catering to the needs of the patients builds the reputation of the organisation and ensures client satisfaction. Discrimination against patients is a serious offence and promotes unethical behaviour in health and social care settings. This means these organisations do not believe in principles of care and lack ethical behaviour. It is important for the health and care settings to train their workers against discriminatory behaviour and the authority must monitor the actions and behaviour of the workers especially when they attain patients. It is also important for organisations to adhere to a certain code of conduct.
Reference List
Journals
Gogoi, M., Reed-Berendt, R., Al-Oraibi, A., Hassan, O., Wobi, F., Gupta, A., Abubakar, I., Dove, E., Nellums, L. and Pareek, M., 2021. Ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes among healthcare workers in the United Kingdom: UK-REACH ethico-legal research, qualitative research on healthcare workers' experiences, and stakeholder engagement protocol. medRxiv. pp.1-23.
Jones, B.L., Finnerty, F. and Richardson, D., 2021. Healthcare charging for migrants in the UK: awareness and experience of clinicians within sexual and reproductive health and HIV. Journal of Public Health, 43(2), pp.355-360.
Morley, J. and Floridi, L., 2019. NHS AI Lab: why we need to be ethically mindful about AI for healthcare. Available at SSRN 3445421.
Robinson, A., Elarbi, M., Todd, A. and Husband, A., 2021. A qualitative exploration of the barriers and facilitators affecting ethnic minority patient groups when accessing medicine review services: Perspectives of healthcare professionals. Health Expectations.
Rodger, D., Blackshaw, B. and Young, A., 2019. Moral distress in healthcare assistants: A discussion with recommendations. Nursing ethics, 26(7-8), pp.2306-2313.
Rossi, M.G. and Sarangi, S., 2021. Communication Skills, Expertise and Ethics in Healthcare Education and Practice. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 15(1), pp.106-122.
Shelton, C., El-Boghdadly, K. and Appleby, J.B., 2021. The ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic: the ethics of emerging inequalities amongst healthcare workers. Journal of Medical Ethics.
Snelling, P. and Quick, O., 2022. Confidentiality and public interest disclosure: A framework to evaluate UK healthcare professional regulatory guidance. Medical Law International, p.09685332221079124.
Stirrat, G.M. and Woodley, J., 2018. Healthcare ethics education in the UK. In Healthcare Ethics, Law and Professionalism: Essays on the Works of Alastair V. Campbell (pp. 197-212). Routledge.
Trueba, M.L., Bhutta, M.F. and Shahvisi, A., 2021. Instruments of health and harm: how the procurement of healthcare goods contributes to global health inequality. Journal of Medical Ethics, 47(6), pp.423-429.
Whiley, L.A. and Grandy, G., 2021. The ethics of service work in a neoliberal healthcare context: doing embodied and “dirty” emotional labor. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal.
Wilkinson, E., 2020. RECOVERY trial: the UK covid-19 study resetting expectations for clinical trials. Bmj, 369.
Website
england.nhs.uk (2022), Legislations, available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/equality/equality-hub/resources/legislation/ [Accessed on: 15.03.2022]
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (2022), Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718660/ [Accessed on: 15.03.2022]
skillsforcare.org.uk (2022), Code of Conduct, available at: https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Documents/Standards-legislation/Code-of-Conduct/Code-of-Conduct.pdf [Accessed on: 14.03.2022]
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