Values and Principles in Health and Social Care

This article discusses the values and principles in health and social care, including personal values, theories, legislations, and policies. It also highlights the importance of feedback and adaptability in becoming a skilled healthcare professional.

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Centric Care
Name of student
Name of university
Author note

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Human values are the significant and lasting beliefs and ideas
that are connected with the discourse of life. The behavior and
the attitude of an individual are influenced to a great extent by
the values. The values of an individual are influenced by the
experience and culture of an individual. Some of the driving
factors of human values include beliefs, sex, family and
experience of life. These factors contribute to the personal
opinion of an individual towards the changes in his life.
Personal Values
My personal values consist of my belief and consideration that
each and every individual in the society should be treated in the
norms of equality and confidentiality with full dignity and
respect. My values and my personal opinion furthermore
encourage the concept of diversity. My values and principles
guide me to safeguard or protect any individual in need of
health care. Some of the primary values that a health care
professional should possess include efficient encouragement of
the norms of diversity, promotion of equality while providing
health and social care and to preserve the norms and conditions
of confidentiality of the service receivers or users (Moyo et al.
2016). All of these values which are essential in the context of
health care and social services are similar to my personal
values and thus I can confidently state that I own the values
and principles of a successful healthcare professional.
The values in me and my personal experiences have motivated
and influenced me in my workplace and furthermore supported
my employment with that of the person whom I support. I have
Values and Principles in Health and Social Care

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been further motivated by my cultural background in the
context of providing additional special care to the group of
individuals who are most vulnerable in nature. From my past
experiences, I have learned that it is essential for any health
care professional to develop a strong, friendly and informal
relationship with the service users to deliver a quality care
service. One of the best sources of motivation for me has been
the comments and the feedback from the service users whom I
have cared for in the past.
Theories
In the context of health care and social services, some of the
theories of practice include the foundation theory by
Seedhouse. The foundation theory of health promotion states
that the promotion of health should be based on philosophies of
politics which include social justice, liberalism, utilitarianism,
and egalitarianism. The theory revolves around the belief that
promotion of good health should bring wellbeing or positive
health of the service users to promote good lives to them. The
heritage cycle theory is another of the important theories in the
context of health care and social services.

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The figure above illustrates the different stages of a heritage
cycle in healthcare management and how the cycle helps in the
promotion of good life and good health among the service
users of social and health care.
One of the major factors of the health care services that have
been receiving a worldwide attention from the last few decades
includes the phenomenon of compassion (Sweeney, Danaher
and McColl-Kennedy 2015). There lay seven dimensions of
compassion in the field of health care and social services
namely, attentiveness, active listening, naming of suffering,
involvement, helping, being present, understanding of
sufferings and emotions. The seven dimensions of compassion
are the basic concept that mirrors the procedure to promote
care and protection to the service users of the health care and
social services.
Community care is closely related to the idea of care
management. Twelvetrees developed some of the ways to
tackle the context of inequality in the health care management
and linked it with the community care program (Porter and
Kramer 2019). According to his theory, the three important
measures to address the issue includes understanding and
addressing the problems of the community at the community
level, initiate to promote changes at the policy level by the
action of the community, successful promotion of health-
related intervention and social capital for reducing health
inequalities.
Legislations
In the context of health care and social management, equality
in health care refers to the access of each and every individual
to the social and health care services and any other resources
related to care irrespective of any social, physical or any other

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types of discrimination. It is important for the health care
professionals of an organization to follow the code of conduct
for the support of the health care for the successful preservation
of the human rights of all the individuals at care or services.
The right to health is the basic inalienable right of every human
being that includes standards of medical care services, decent
behavior, and healthy environment (Burwell 2015). One of the
notable factor in the field of health care id the publication of
the Francis inquiry report. The Francis inquiry consisted of the
evaluation of the standard of care towards the patient of the
Stafford Hospital. Some of the notable factors that was gained
from the inquiry includes personal and criminal accountability
of the nurses, minimum standards of quality and safety care,
monitoring of the quality of services provided to the service
users, good patient care and financial viability, development of
special cadre of hospital inspectors and improvement of the
existing clinical policies and decisions.
Policy
Some of the notable policies in the context of health and social
care are the Care Act of 2014 that enables the community to
determine the requirement of the support and care for the adult
individuals (Kelly et al. 2015). The health and safety policies
of a workplace furthermore contribute to the approach and the
commitments for the management of safety and health care in
the organization. I believe each and every individual in an
organization is entitled to equal opportunities and freedom in
case of policies related to health care, this includes freedom
from any sort of discrimination or disabilities. Furthermore, it
is important for all health care professional to preserve and
maintain the confidentiality clauses in the health care while
providing any services to the patient. According to my personal
opinion, it is essential for each and every individual working in
an organization of health care institutions to note that the

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service users are free from any harassment and bullying while
taking their services.
Healthcare professionals are expected to work in accordance
with the set policies and legislation (Wilson et al. 2016). New
developments in the same field entail nurses to demonstrate
professionalism and capacity to adapt to changes. I face
challenges in addressing such changes since my skills of
adaptability are inappropriate. Changes in my personal values
have a key link with my work. I attempt to adhere to the values
of the organization I work for. It is difficult at times to live up
to the expectations of my seniors.
Developing personal and professionals values would help me
in becoming a more skilled professional. Learning through
feedback would be crucial for understanding the changes
needed in my set of values. This would help me in coming up
with real changes in alignment with my role. I would take
feedback from health leaders in my organization (Glasby
2017).

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References
Burwell, S.M., 2015. Setting value-based payment goals—HHS efforts to improve US health care. N Engl J Med, 372(10), pp.897-
899.
Glasby, J., 2017. Understanding health and social care. Policy Press.
Kelly, M.P., Heath, I., Howick, J. and Greenhalgh, T., 2015. The importance of values in evidence-based medicine. BMC medical
ethics, 16(1), p.69.
Moyo, M., Goodyear-Smith, F.A., Weller, J., Robb, G. and Shulruf, B., 2016. Healthcare practitioners’ personal and professional
values. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 21(2), pp.257-286.
Porter, M.E. and Kramer, M.R., 2019. Creating shared value. In Managing Sustainable Business (pp. 327-350). Springer, Dordrecht.
Sweeney, J.C., Danaher, T.S. and McColl-Kennedy, J.R., 2015. Customer effort in value cocreation activities: improving quality of
life and behavioral intentions of health care customers. Journal of Service Research, 18(3), pp.318-335.
Wilson, C., Bungay, H., Munn-Giddings, C. and Boyce, M., 2016. Healthcare professionals’ perceptions of the value and impact of
the arts in healthcare settings: A critical review of the literature. International journal of nursing studies, 56, pp.90-101.

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