Professional Development in Social Work

This assignment examines the concept of action learning within the context of professional development for social workers. It highlights the importance of reflective practice, self-care strategies, and interprofessional collaboration in enhancing social work competence. The focus is on understanding how action learning can contribute to individual growth and improve social work practice outcomes.

Personal and
Professional
Development
1

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Effect of the values on principles of support in Health and social care............................4
1.2 How personal culture and experience impact on role as a health care professional
when supporting service user.......................................................................................................4
1.3 Discuss how new development to personal values can impact on work at Health and
social care....................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Assessing current skills and ability along with learning styles based on your SWOT
analysis and Learning Style Questionnaires................................................................................5
2.2 Producing a holistic Personal development plan with short, medium-and long-term goals. 7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Explaining the nature of different professional in health and social care contexts..............9
3.2 Evaluating personal effectiveness in promoting and supporting the right of the individual
...................................................................................................................................................10
3.3 Discuss the ways to resolve issues encountered in professional relationship.....................10
4.1 Evaluation of effectiveness of personal contribution while working with others in Health
and Social Care..........................................................................................................................11
4.2 Limitations of own role affecting work with others............................................................11
4.3 Analyzing of own role in minimizing of barriers towards effective team work in health and
social care..................................................................................................................................12
4.4 Improving personal contributions for collective effectiveness of team...............................12
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
2.3 Monitoring progress against the plan according to the requirements of a health and social
care practitioner and revising the plan as required....................................................................13
2.4 Providing an evaluation of the effectiveness of developmental plan to own development as
a health and social care practitioner...........................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16
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3

Introduction
Improvement in accordance with both personal and professional level has become
necessary in order to effectively work within any sector in today’s world. Development in
oneself allows self awareness that what areas need further improvement (Moon, 2013). Also
professional relational relationships have to be maintained so that the organization is ale to
effectively carry out all the tasks and operations. Within the report main reference has been given
to the health and social care sector. In order to satisfy the patients with premium facilities and
proper care, organization needs to do tasks in teams so that the targets can be achieved more
quickly and that too in an effective manner. So the report has briefly analyzed various aspects of
health and social care sector that contribute in effective delivery of services to patients.
TASK 1
1.1 Effect of the values on principles of support in Health and social care.
There is a great effect of values on principal of support in health and social care. The values are
different from person to person because it is based on nationality, ethnicity and religion. At the
time of working in a health care home value and belief sometime creates a barrier in delivering
high quality services (Xyrichis and Lowton, 2008). For example, there are many patient of
different religious who not like to takes services from male nurse. This make difficult in
delivering a services to services user. Further there are some people of different caste, race and
nationality understand and respect the culture of other which help in delivering all the services
effectively without facing any issues. Working in a health care home is not easy if one mistake
can also take life of individual. So personal value and individual belief is very important. While
as per the principal of support each and every patient should be treated equally not on the basis
of culture, age and discrimination.
1.2 How personal culture and experience impact on role as a health care professional when
supporting service user.
Personal culture and experiences impact on role as a health care professional at the time of
supporting services user. Culture is concern to the nation, ethnicity language etc. Culture play
significant role in health and social care (Schaufeli, Leiter and Maslach, 2009). If person belong
to some other caste or religious it may done discrimination at the time of providing services to
services user. Further nature and value of individual also impact the services which are delivered
to patient. As per my vvlaues and norms it imply that I need to support the people who are in
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trouble and theis cultural norms also supported me in my for contributing best effort. While I
found that I am still at risk on certain biasness at the time when I was working with client. For
example, at the time of starting work at health care home I believe that people are responsible for
their position and success but as per my experience I found that working with different kind of
people changed my view and attitudes. I also analyzed that my cultural values and norms
basically coincide with those of the health and social care environment.
1.3 Discuss how new development to personal values can impact on work at Health and social
care.
The new development of personal values can impact on work at Health and social care
organization. if each and every patient is treated in well mannered them it help in delivering high
quality services. Further, employees are trained in concern to way they are treated patient which
is very effective. Training help in make ware employee about their roles and responsibility in
order to the way of supporting the services user at the time of delivering them services. It impact
on heath and social care work at organization such as services user can freely discusses their
problem with services provider (Shapiro, Brown and Biegel, 2007). Along with this there is good
relation development in between professional because they started respecting each other culture
and views. This help in avoiding discrimination and biasness from the health care organization.
overall quality of work will be improved. Communication gap between social care and health
care can lead to deliver bad quality of services to patient. Improper communication problem can
be resolved which help in understanding the problem of services user at the organization.
TASK 2
2.1 Assessing current skills and ability along with learning styles based on your SWOT analysis
and Learning Style Questionnaires
Activity 1: Honey and Mumford Questionnaire
This learning style is based upon four leading constituents that define the learning
attitude of different individuals that often differs from one another. These are activists, reflectors,
pragmatics and theorists. Below are the responses given by me for a framed set of questionnaire
as a way of identifying my learning attitude out of these styles.
1. I frequently tend to act without much consideration about any possible consequences.
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2. I always consider the formal work policies and procedures as a way of restricting
people.
3. I believe that activities based on feelings are as sound as those based on cautious
opinions and assessment.
4. I keenly seek out for newer experiences.
5. I am more fascinated to novels with uncommon thoughts than the practical ones.
It is thereby on the basis of above responses, I believe to be activist who is more
considerate about acquiring practical experiences rather than opting for the other alternative
measures of learning.
Activity 2: SWOT Analysis
This section is with a need base consideration of referring to my existent skills and
abilities to aptly perform the duty of a health care professional by together referring to any
approaching work opportunities and threats where these are as identified below- Strengths- A major strength of mine is my apt communication skill that in turn also
supports to reinforce my interpersonal skills as well. It is however in context to my
amplified verbal skills that in turn helps me to make a clear interaction with all. As a
result to which, I can quickly understand the complications faced by the patients
approaching our health care setting. Both these skills also aid me in managing any
conflicted issues at work among the employees by together resolving their disputed
concerns between them. Weaknesses- There together exists some major weakening qualities of mine where I am
lacking in proper aptitudes of time management and this in turn impacts upon my work in
a negative manner. It is mainly due to a deficit time management I often get late in
submitting my work on a stipulated time period. Along with which, I am together
distressing from insufficient decision making skills where being an activist; I am less
concerned about the practicality dominating in the market. As a result to which, I am
simply unable to correspond to any arising issues at work by taking prompt decisions to
resolve them. Opportunities- A vital opportunity for me is to learn newer things where health care
settings are continually required to adopt the changes taking place in the market as a way
of serving the users in a pertinent manner. This involves technical changes along with
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some other medicinal practices that are required to be imposed for a better care of the
patients by corresponding to the progressive advancements.
 Threats- There together exist some major threats in the upcoming times where the new
generations appointing into our health care setting with more updated cognition will be
depicted as my contenders. I am thus required to upgrade my own skills as a way of
defeating them in a likely manner.
2.2 Producing a holistic Personal development plan with short, medium-and long-term goals
A personal developmental plan also termed as PDP is evident to assist me in performing
my job responsibilities in a more effective manner where it is duly based upon the above
identified qualities of mine. Beside this, it has together measured the other two elements of
opportunities and threats as a way of planning an impelling developmental plan that will together
aid me in my professional growth.
Skills Present state Future
consideration
Activities planned Time scale
Communication  Good
verbal
skills.
 Written
skills are
needed to
be
improved
to create
more
practised
presentatio
ns.
Better written
skills with
improved
verbal skills
with no
pronunciation
mistakes in
the medical
terms and an
enriched
grammar to
make
effective
presentations
at work.
 Reading
medicinal
books and
journals as a
way of
increasing the
present
expertise in
communication
.
 Regular
practise of
communication
in English by
attending
seminars at
work and
3 and a half month
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taking
meetings.
Decision
making
Deficit decision
making skill for
not being aware of
the prevailing
market
circumstances.
More prompt
decision
making is
required to
quickly
respond to
the situations
with updated
information.
Attending conferences
and workshops by
together referring to
latest online
publications as a way
of obtaining an
updated knowledge
about the current
happenings.
1 month
Conflict
management
Almost all
conflicts are being
resolved with
requisite measures
for the same.
An upgraded
vigilance will
be helpful to
quickly
resolve any
conflicted
state of
affairs.
Interpreting magazines
to refer to some
practical organisational
models as a way of
applying them on real
time situation at work
to resolve any disputed
concern.
5 weeks
Leadership Considerable
skills of leadership
to motivate the
workers to a
certain level.
More
inspirational
tactics are
required.
Reading books and
journals written by
some renowned
authors with prescribed
management theories.
1 and a half month
Time
management
An insufficient
time management
ability that in turn
results in delayed
submission of
work.
Timely
submission
of work is
required to
meet out the
set deadlines.
 Opting for
several
planning tools
like diary and
notebooks, etc.,
as a way of
recording the
2 months
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routine tasks.
 Avoid multiple
works by
assigning a
particular time
to a single
assignation.
Interpersonal
skills
 Profound
interaction
with
colleagues
and service
users at
work.
 Often
deals with
a wrong
pronunciati
on of
medical
term that
creates
confusion.
More
amplified
knowledge
about the
current
medical
terms that
often tends to
change with a
more fluent
communicati
on with all.
Participating in online
sessions to learn the
recent terminologies of
medical science with
more practises to
communicate in a
fluent way.
2 weeks
TASK 3
3.1 Explaining the nature of different professional in health and social care contexts.
There are different nature of professional work together in health and social care context is as
follows
Between the doctors: at health care organization there are different type of doctor who work
together so all specialist need to respect each other. there should be no competiton take place
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between doctor which can impact the life of service user (The difference between personal and
professional development. 2016). They need to work tighter in order to deliver high quality
services to patient.
Between doctors and nurses: Doctor and nurses always work together which help in providing
best services. In the absence of doctor, nurse required to take care of patient and give them
medicine on time. Further they also get knowledge from doctor and both nurse and doctor are
dependent on each other. doctor also need to give respect to the nurses and their ideas and views.
3.2 Evaluating personal effectiveness in promoting and supporting the right of the individual
At the time of working health and social care my own effectiveness is to provide best quality
services to services user. Further I also promote safe and health environment to customer. I also
communicate with patient and try to understand their problem so that I can deliver services as per
their requirement. It is necessary that at the time of treating patient I not make them feel
uncomfortable or any discrimination (Professional and Personal Development. 2015). However I
also find that I should not provide services user a basic health services but also provide them
social support. For example, some patient want to talk even if issues is not related to health,
Hence, sometime services user want social support with treatment which help in recovering their
health fast. Further I need to respect each health care professional who are working with me in
health and social care home.
3.3 Discuss the ways to resolve issues encountered in professional relationship
The way to resolve issues which are encountered in professional relationship that are as follows:
Proper channel of communication: If there is lack of communication then it lead to give rise to
conflict. Further if there is no proper communication then it may impact the services which are
delivered to patient. Communication gap between nurses and doctor lead to delay in providing
services.
Training to staff member: Training to staff member according their work also help in providing
high quality services to patient (Munn-Giddings and Winter, 2013). Further it help in making
aware the way of working with different doctors. In training session it also need to show the
significance of respecting each other which help in avoiding conflict.
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4.1 Evaluation of effectiveness of personal contribution while working with others in Health and
Social Care
Every organization requires team work in some tasks. The objectives of an organization
are achieve more effectively when one works within a team. So it could be said that a very
crucial part is played by team work. So in order to analyze the effectiveness of personal
contribution within team the factors as stated below play a vital role:
Knowledge: It possesses a very major role in the field of health and social care. Based upon the
possessed within an individual, different roles and responsibilities are assigned to them. Having a
better and enhanced knowledge about each and every parameter involved within health and
social care sector allows enhanced delivery of facilities to the patients. For eg. Appointing a
doctor with phd in medical field and also experience in other hospitals, will give assurance that
premium quality care would be given to patients (Nicholls, 2014).
 Skills: First of all in order to enhance the efficiency of teamwork, effective interpersonal,
presentation and decision-making skills are necessary for achievement the objectives of
organization. So in accordance with sector of health & social care, adoption of these
illustrated skills should be done so that they could deliver better services to patients.
 Understanding: The concerns and problems of patients have to be understood.For this a
health and social care practioner should possess effective verbal and noin-verbal
communication skills.
With help of these an effective professional relationship could be build up with other
professionals within same sector.
4.2 Limitations of own role affecting work with others
Every work profile that exists within a health and social care sector, involves some
limitations. For example being at the management position, one will mot be allowed to take
direct details from the patients so that accordingly facilities could be provide to them with ease.
This is because collection of details is not the task of management. So his role would be limited
to his profile only. This way lack of opportunities occurs in order to make direct coordination
with patients. This might also result in lacking of trust and faith amoth other staff members.
Furthermore the limitation over collection of relevant patient information might result in lack of
knowledge because of which effective facilities could not be provided to customers.
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Furthermore, the limitation of management profile will not allow to control other profiles. As a
result no attention will be paid towards their activities which will reflect a perception of having
lack of knowledge (Cox, Bachkirova and Clutterbuck, 2014). This will showcase a negative
interaction which will definitely cause organizational culture violation. Not only management
limitation occurs but every profile within a health and social care involves a certain set of
limitations. A normal ward boy cannot have say in the decisions of management. His opinions
will be given least importance, This way a negative environment is gradually create because of
which effective service delivery to the patient is not achieved. So it needs to be considered by
health and social care that at times of requirements, such limitations should not affect the
delivery of services to patients so as o enhance the organization’s as well as individual
performances.
4.3 Analyzing of own role in minimizing of barriers towards effective team work in health and
social care
The efficiency in terms of working within a team is hugely affected by barriers. The
major factors that could provide aid in minimization of barriers are as follows:
Interpersonal skills: A very typical part is played when excluding of all sort of negative factors
has to be done. These factors are responsible for creating a negative image when cooperation
with other staff members has to be done. So in order to avoid this situation, every staff members
should posses effective skills in terms of communication, presentation and decision-making. All
these as whole will enhance the morale of all members (Capuzzi and Stauffer, 2016).
 Accountability: The effectiveness of teamwork in order for achieving the goals and
objectives set by organization can be enhanced with help of this parameter. If employees
is successfully able to complete the assigned task then success percentage should allotted
to him/her so as to further boost up their confidence.
 Professional Codes: The effectiveness of work while working as a team can be
maintained and enhanced with assistance of these codes. In it various standard related to
work ethics required in health and social care are included.
4.4 Improving personal contributions for collective effectiveness of team
In order to enhance the efficiency of team towards the assigned responsibilities and roles
during work assessment of personal skills is of utter importance. Qualities possessed within
oneself should be effectively analyzed so that accordingly duties are allotted (Skovholt and
12

Jennings, 2016). Furthermore a detailed assessment of the individual strengths and weaknesses
could aid in improving the team work for achievement of goals and objectives. Strengths will
further give an analysis about tyh strong points which could serve as a contribution towards
success of organization. Also in order to avoid weaknesses strengths can be fully utilized so that
the performance of organization is not affected as a whole. Also, in addition to this, the
organization should conduct feedback system so that performance of each and every member in
association with health and social care sector could be analyzed. This gives the organization that
what res working under it need improvement for enhancing their efficiency in delivering
effective services to employees.
TASK 4
2.3 Monitoring progress against the plan according to the requirements of a health and social
care practitioner and revising the plan as required
Skills Present state Future
consideration
Activities planned Time
scale
Appraisal of
improvement
Decision
making
Deficit
decision
making skill
for not being
aware of the
prevailing
market
circumstances.
More prompt
decision
making is
required to
quickly
respond to the
situations with
updated
information.
Attending
conferences and
workshops by
together referring
to latest online
publications as a
way of obtaining
an updated
knowledge about
the current
happenings.
4
months
Feedback
from
seniors.
Leadership Considerable
skills of
leadership to
motivate the
More
inspirational
tactics are
required.
Reading books
and journals
written by some
renowned authors
2 and a
half
month.
Consulting
superiors.
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workers to a
certain level.
with prescribed
management
theories.
Time
management
An
insufficient
time
management
ability that in
turn results in
delayed
submission of
work.
Timely
submission of
work is
required to
meet out the
set deadlines.
 Opting for
several
planning
tools like
diary and
notebooks
, etc., as a
way of
recording
the
routine
tasks.
 Avoid
multiple
works by
assigning
a
particular
time to a
single
assignatio
n.
3
months
Self-
appraisal
2.4 Providing an evaluation of the effectiveness of developmental plan to own development as a
health and social care practitioner
Revised self development Plan
Skills Present state Future Activities Time scale Appraisal of
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consideration planned improvement
Time
Management
An
inefficiency of
not performing
multiple tasks
because
improper time
management.
To meet the
deadlines of
the multiple
tasks allotted
to enhance
efficiency.
 Note
down
all
tasks in
notebo
oks
and
also set
the
time
for
comple
tion of
those
tasks.
 Taking
breaks
on a
timely
basis to
relax
the
state of
mind
and
also to
have
clear
mindse
5 months Self-appraisal
and feedback
from seniors.
15

t.
 Perfor
ming
brainst
orming
activiti
es such
as
small
quizzes
etc, to
boost
up the
mind
for
handlin
g
multipl
e tasks.
As with the previously mentioned activities, the objective of effective time management
could not be achieved, hence, a new and revised self awareness plan has been develped for this
professional goal.
It is on evaluating the above created developmental plan where it is apparent to contribute
into the development of both my personal and professional skills and abilities. It is however with
a foremost concern of improving my proficient capabilities to perform as an expertise health care
professional. For which, the above revised PDP has involved the skills that are still required to be
improved by me as a way of succeeding towards a successful future ahead. Herein, I have
referred to four leading skills that are not up to the mark and thus require more feasible
improvements. For this, I have also referred to plan some more intensified activities with an
additive field of appraisal so as to review my improved performance which was not present in
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the above framed PDP. Beside this, the time scale that was specified earlier has together been
extended so as to meet out the undertaken objectives of improvement with a more thoughtful
outlook. Wherein, all my skills of decision making, conflict management, leadership and time
management are required to be reinforced with some more considerate approach. As per the
planned self awareness plan, if I am able to carry out all the activities in an effective manner
then, automatically, my professional and personal development will be observed. Furthermore,
as social and health care practitioner the enhancement of my decision making skills will further
assist in taking quick decisions during case of an emergency. As per PDP, if all the activities are
properly executed by me then this will enhance my ability to lead a team as well. Also, if I will
successfully able to lead a team then tasks would be achieved in shorter period of time.
Furthermore, this will further provide me assistance in managing my time so I would be able to
manage multiple tasks at a time. This will further help to address more number of patients and
that too in a systematic manner.
Conclusion
With reference to the report it could be said that Health and social care industry is an
important sector which with assistance of effective team work can offer premium services to
patients. In order to enhance the organization culture a brief analysation of all the personal
and professional developments should be done. This analyzation helps in identification of
self improvement areas which will further assist in achievement of goals and objectives set
by organization. Moreover the patients will also be satisfied when they treated with proper
care. This will improve the relationship of organization with the patients that will help it in
reaching new heights of success.
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