Health and Social Care

Standard (may include; code of practice, regulations, minimum standards or national occupational standards)

Own role and expectations

To work in a person centred way

Working in a person centred way is a big part of how we work within my company, each customer we care for has an initial assessment that sets out the care plan they require. This assessment is carried out with the individual present they are encouraged to participate in planning their care. When carrying out the tasks as a health care assistant I would ensure that the individual is treated as an individual and not as a number or just an old person that needs to be cared for. They would be given choices and encouraged to actively participate in their care tasks.

To give/gain consent

Before our care packages are able to start we must gain the individuals consent where possible, we do this by talking or the telephone and the again when we first arrive at their home. The individual is always asked to give consent to having their care plan tasks carried out, if the individuals was to decline and not give consent to our care package starting we are unable to give the care they may or may not require. It is important to gain consent from all individuals as we could breach their personal rights and this can be a form of abuse.

Complaints policy and procedures

There should be an adequate complaints procedure in place for staff as well as customers, the organisation should act upon each complaint made and take the appropriate action to ensure that the incidents do not reoccur. Within the company I work for we have a quality survey within the customer’s files that are kept within their homes, this can be filled out anonymously and sent off to our head office or given to a member of staff who passes it on to our managers, and they will then follow up with the required actions. The managers bring up any issues at our team meetings so that all staff is aware of the complaints and ensure that they do not make the same mistakes again.

Health and safety at work act 1974

This regulation ensures that my employer maintains safety for myself and individuals within our organisation. It also ensures that I follow set agreed ways of working. Within my organisation we have a health and safety policy which is set out using the health and safety at work act 1974 guidelines. It instructs my managers on what their responsibilities are in regards to keeping me and my colleagues safe as well as our customers. It also sets out what we as staff can expect the company to do for us and what we as employees must do in regards to health and safety at work towards our colleagues and our customers we care for. The policy also gives guidance on what we should do if there are any concerns, accidents or injuries relating to health and safety.

Manual handling operations regulations

Our company uses the manual handling operations regulations 1992 to create our manual handling policies and procedures. All staff attends regular mandatory training to gain the knowledge required to carry out manual handling tasks whilst caring for individuals in their own homes. The company’s policy is always to hand in the staff room and is updating when required. The policy contains the necessary information that will support staff to carry out care for individuals in a way that will reduce or eliminate the risk of injuries or harm to staff and the customers. It also sets out the procedures we should follow in the event that an accident, injury or near miss occurs.

Safeguarding from abuse

This standard gives guidance and support to companies when they are creating their own safeguarding policies and procedures. My own company has a set of guidelines made up into our own safeguarding policy. The policy sets out the guidelines of what is expected from staff in relation to safeguarding of our customers that we care for. It also details what we should do if we ourselves are abused by our customers or members of staff. We attend regular safeguarding training which ensures that we gain and retain the vital information relating to safeguarding for example; how to identify the signs and symptoms of abuse and what we should do if we see or suspect abuse has been carried out. It sets out the guidelines of the procedure that takes place when the abuse is reported. Describe how to work effectively with others In order to work effectively as a team you must be able to communicate with your colleagues clearly; be respectful of others views and opinions and regularly attend team meetings and training that is required. To be able to acknowledge the work that your colleagues are doing whether it is good or bad practices, act professional towards them whether you like or dislike them and share the work load when possible.

. Reflective practice is important in order have personal development within the work place, reflecting on actions and events that occur regularly or as a one off event can help to understand what happened, whether it was good or not, if it can be changed or done differently next time. This means that by doing reflective practices you can learn from any mistakes and improve the quality of service given. Describe how your own values, belief systems and personal experiences might affect working practice I may visit individuals of different cultures or religions that I do not agree with this could affect the way in which I work with the individual. I could also have had experience with a piece of equipment or knowledge on how to deal with a difficult situation I could pass on my knowledge to my colleagues which will help improve the care provided.

Explain why continuing professional development is important Professional development is important to continue as it keeps you up to date on all new and updated legislations and standards, it helps carers to provide a good service to individuals, it can help provide opportunities to develop within the job roles, it can build workers confidence in doing their job correctly and finally it can help organisations to ensure that their workers are following the correct policies and procedures. Task DDesign a template for a personal development plan (PDP) that you could use to improve your learning, development and professional practice. Your template must include:

Examples of the training you have engaged in.

Now able to assess CCA/HCA with medications, fill out MARS charts and have better understanding of medications Task E Write an account, on how reflecting on practise has improved the quality of the service provided and explain how reflecting on practise has led to improved ways of working.

Account Reflecting on practice has many purposes some of which are to help bring together and develop good practices by looking at the negative and positive practices that have taken place during a particular event or task. It also helps to improve understanding of the job role and how it can be improved upon and most importantly it helps with improving the quality of services provided by allowing the individual reflecting to learn from any bad practise identified.

I have recently completed an advanced medication training course; this is a required training course for me to progress within my career from a health care assistant to a trusted assessor. The training course is given by a qualified pharmacist and is a full day. During this training we discuss a variety of medications and their effects, procedures we should follow for good practice in relation to medication administrations, observations and spot checks of staff. I found this course extremely helpful and was happy that I out my name forward to do the training as it has given me the confidence and knowledge required to become a trusted assessor. As explained previously one of the topics during the course was about specific types of commonly used medications and how they work and the best times of day to take them; one of which was simvastatin, which is best taken in the evening or before bed. Whilst I was out completing hands on shift I noticed that on a customer’s MARS chart had been filled out incorrectly, it said that the simvastatin medication was to be administered in the morning, the pharmacist label was not clearly labelled as it only stated take one daily.

Due to just completing training I knew that it should be taken in the evening and the mars chart needed to be updated with the correct notes for the other health care assistants caring for the customer. I followed the company’s policy and I rang my line manager who after some time agreed with me and allowed me to fill in a new mars sheet for the customer’s medication. If I had not had the advanced medication training I would not have had the knowledge about specific medications and would not have been able to spot and rectify the mistake that had been made. This mistake was later raised at one of our regular team meetings discussed fully and then an action plan was put into place so that this is less likely to happen again.