An Analysis of Duty of Care, Conflicts, and Dilemmas in Care Settings

This report provides a detailed overview of the concept of duty of care within care settings, emphasizing its legal obligations and contributions to safe practice. It defines duty of care, explaining its role in safeguarding individuals, ensuring their choices, and managing risks. The report also clarifies the meaning of duty of candour and its relationship to the duty of care, highlighting the importance of honesty and responsibility in healthcare. Conflicts and dilemmas between duty of care and individual rights are explored through examples, along with strategies for managing associated risks. The report concludes by outlining resources for additional support and advice, such as senior members, colleagues, policies, and social workers, providing a comprehensive guide to navigating the complexities of duty of care in healthcare settings.

DUTY OF CARE IN CARE
SETTINGS
February 2018 v1

1 Understand how Duty of Care Contributes to Safe Practice
1.1 Explain what it means to have a duty of care in own work role
Duty of care can be defined as legal obligations of a role within the organisation in
which an individual is working at. It also means that an individual has been appointed for a
particular job to carry out the duties and responsibilities of that particular according to the
policies and procedures and also in accordance to national care standards in order to
safeguard individuals and enabling their choices by managing risks. Duty of care in work role
provides the information how to carry out the duties as per the policies as well as the
procedures which can serve best for an individual as per its interest. By having a duty of care
in one's own work role can help in protecting ourselves as well as an individual from any
harm and abuse which may arise during performing work (Chan, 2016). Duty of care is not
assigned for an individual but also for the organisation in order to ensure that all legislations
are well in practice and proper care standards are maintained in an organisation. Duty of
care comprises various concepts like to keep individuals free form any kind of harm, to keep
individuals safe and to gives choices to individuals. Duty of care is normally associated with
working with young people and children and is a legal term for safeguarding self and others.
As young people and children are normally vulnerable as they have not yet developed
cognitive and physical capacity in order to care of themselves and also they need protection
and care from adults around them (Tsinovoiand Adler-Nissen, 2018). It is the social and
health care organisations what is called a duty of care towards the people for which they
have to look after for. Duty of care in ones own role also means to provide the reasonable
attention and caution in order to avoid negligence that could lead to harming to other
people. It brings a significant duty of care while working to children and young people and it
is essential to recognise for an individual that vulnerable young people and children needs
greater duty of care.
1.2 Please answer the following questions below:
 Explain what Duty of Candour means
Duty of candour can be defined as a statutory or legal duty to be open an
honest with patients or with their families if anything goes wrong which
appears that have caused or could lead to significant harm in the future with a
patient. Duty of candour applies to all social and health care organisations
which are registered in the regulator of Care Quality Commission (CQC) United
Kingdom. As it is applied to all the organisations but it is the individual who is
responsible for delivering it and it includes various duty categories like ethical
duty, statutory duty and contractual duty. Every healthcare professional should
be open and honest with their patients if something happens wrong during the
treatment and it is duty of professional to be honest in its profession.
February 2018 v1

 Explain how Duty of Care relates to Duty of Candour
There is a strong relationship between Duty of Care and Duty of Candour because by
following the duty of care an individual has to provide has to be proper professional in
its duties and it is the responsibility and duty of an individual to take proper care of a
patient with high attention and it is responsibility of an individual to be honest with the
patient and with it family members (Ford, 2017). This is possible only when an
individual follows duty of candour in its professional career. Duty of candour means
being honest and responsible and this honesty and responsibility it what is required
for performing a job in healthcare organisation and only an individual can make justice
with its job and with the patients. So this is how they are interrelated with each other
one can nit exist in the absence of another.
1.4 Explain how duty of care contributes to the safeguarding or protection of individuals
(You need to give an example of this that relates to your job role)
It requires a significant care while safeguarding patients the patients like children or
young people requires a greater care, it is the attention and care of practitioner which can
help them in safeguarding the patients and also it gives a practitioner an understanding
foresee the potential danger that may arise in the future or they may hurt or upset others
(Broom and Broom, 2017). The duty of care that contributes towards safeguarding and
protection of people can be carried out in various ways such as:
 Avoiding of potential hazards that could lead to harm through spreading infections or
through accidents.
 Formulation of proper risk management plans.
 Having a proper and clear instructions and set boundaries.
 If appropriate work with parents and other professionals in order to aid the child's
development. Hold a relevant certificate of safeguarding.
February 2018 v1

Duty of care is a legal obligation which is imposed on individual in order to safeguard
and protect the individual from any kind of harm and practitioners have to adhere the
standards of reasonable care while performing their duties for example it is the duty of a
practitioner to protect the patients from any kind of abuse like mental, physical and sexual
abuse and it is the duty of a practitioner to safeguard the rights of patients. As it is the right
of a patient to be safe and should be treated with the respect and dignity, in order to
maintain the safety individuals should follow legislations, policies and procedures. In order to
safeguard the individuals one should perform the risk assessment in order to ensure the
safety of patients.
2 Know how to address conflicts or dilemmas, that may arise between an
individual’s rights and the Duty of Care
2.1 Describe conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between the duty of care and individuals
rights (you need to give three examples) Please link these to your job role
Conflicts or Dilemmas can arise between the duty of care and individual rights that
could be staff having a difference in their opinions over a patient (Brooks and Sparrow,
2016).
Example 1
Staff member of social and healthcare organisation believes that a child may have
been bullied at the school but another staff member believes that there may be any other
reason, and this difference on opinion could lead to conflicts between a team.
Dilemmas may include when to get any help form senior staff, another team
member or police or any social service this result in dilemma for the staff member as staff
member is not able to decide to what to do in a particular situation which is faced by a
staff member.
Example 2
A child has gone through a physical abuse and is admitted in the hospital by looking
at child's condition a staff member gets in dilemma whether to take help from the seniors,
or another staff member or police or call any social service.
Example 3
Another example of dilemma is that when a practitioner or staff member is not able
to decide when to break down the confidentiality in order to share the information with the
February 2018 v1

family members of patients or to share an information with a patient.
So, these are the situations which puts a practitioner or a staff member in conflicting
situation when there is a difference in opinions between the staff members and can also
get in dilemmas where a staff member is unable to decide what is right for a situation
which is faced by an individual.
2.2 Describe how to manage risks associated with conflicts or dilemmas between an
individuals rights and duty of care (link your answers to the examples given above)
There are various ways for managing the risks related to conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between
individual's rights and duty of care like recording of conflict or dilemma one can have an evidence what has
happened and what management is trying to do and how they are trying to resolve the situation. Recording is one
of the possible way to manage the risk which may help in decreasing the conflicts and dilemmas between
individual's rights (Leira, 2018).
Another way is to report the dilemma or conflict to the senior management or member when ever a
conflict turns bad or a staff member is not able to decide what to do. By reporting to senior member to take a
charge of a situation can help in managing the potential conflicts or false allegations or any other statement to be
made. If an individual is in conflicting situation or in dilemma it can discuss the situation with another staff
member this will help in being clear and can help in resolving the situation. Another way is risk assessment which
gives a staff member an information so that information available can help in formulating the strategies to
minimise the conflicts so that patients gets right treatment at the right time (Millar and Hsu, 2016).
So these are the various ways by which an individual can manage the risks which are associated with
conflicts or dilemmas between duty of care and rights of an individual which can help in providing better and
effective solutions to such problems.
2.3 Explain where to get additional support and advice about conflicts and dilemmas
There are various ways one can get additional support and advice related to their conflicts and dilemmas
such as:
February 2018 v1

 Senior members: This is the best option from where one can get advice from, as senior members have the
experience and they can provide better solutions to the problems which can be used by an individual in
order to come out from difficult situations.
 Colleagues: One can also get the advice from its colleagues which has got the better knowledge for dealing
with a situation.
 Internet: It is also the best way one can advice from by searching the relevant information on the internet
and can get advice from it.
 Policies and procedures: It is the one of the options that one make use of while facing the conflicts or
dilemmas as policies and procedures can guide the staff member how to react or deal in a particular
situation.
 Social workers or professionals: An individual can also get the advice from social worker when there is any
case of social abuse it can ask help from social workers. An individual can also get advice from professionals
in the field as they have the proper knowledge about the facts and situations as they have experienced
such situations . Other ways are:
 National Minimum Standards
 Children Act 1989 (Volume 5)
 Family if appropriate (Dicker, 2018).
Know how to respond to Complaints
3.1 Describe how to respond to complaints
While dealing with the complaints one need to remain calm and should make sure that you are listening a
complaint, one should give a complaint a proper time and respect with regards to confidentiality and record the
entire information which will be needed in the future. One should also report to senior members of the
organisation and make sure that complaint has access to complaint policy. On should also make sure that a person
who files a complaint should know what is going to happen next and what are the steps to be taken and also offer
the complainants help if they need the help (Kpanake and et.al., 2018).
February 2018 v1

3.2 Explain Policies and relating to the handling of complaints
It is the company policy that Registered Manager has to ensure that patients and their families, visitors are
provided with the information which is contained in the statement of function and purpose on how to complain
which also includes how they can make sure they get access to advocate. It includes the following:
 To enable the patients, family members, staff and others involved in home in order to make both major
and minor complaints by making the copy of the procedures which are freely available.
 Complaints can be made by a person who is effected by the action or it may be made by a person who is
acting on behalf of patient in any case where a person is child (Under 18), has died, has physical or mental
disability (NHS England Complaint Policy, 2019).
 There are also some complaints which can not be dealt under the policy like the complaints made by NHS
Organisation/private/independent provider/ reasonable body. The complaints which are made orally and
are resolved can not be registered on later than next working day.
On your ward/or in your department, where is your complaints procedure located.
Learner Signature:
Date of Completion
February 2018 v1

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brooks, G. and Sparrow, P., 2016. Bookmakers and a duty of care: customers’ views in
England. Journal of gambling studies. 32(2). pp.737-747.
Broom, A. and Broom, J., 2017. Fear, duty and the moralities of care: The Ebola 2014
threat. Journal of Sociology. 53(1). pp.201-216.
Chan, G. K. Y., 2016. Finding common law duty of care from statutory duties: All within the
Anns framework. Tort Law Review. 24(1). p.14.
Dicker, A., 2018. Should doctors observe a moral duty to care for themselves?. In Primary
Care Ethics. (pp. 137-147). CRC Press.
Ford, D., 2017. A school's duty of care to transgender students. Independence. 42(2). p.56.
Leira, H., 2018. Caring and Carers: Diplomatic Personnel and the Duty of Care. The Hague
Journal of Diplomacy. 13(2). pp.147-166.
Millar, M. and Hsu, D. T., 2016. Can Healthcare Workers Reasonably Question the Duty to Care
Whilst Healthcare Institutions Take a Reactive (Rather than Proactive) Approach to
Infectious Disease Risks?. Public Health Ethics. 12(1). pp.94-98.
Tsinovoi, A. and Adler-Nissen, R., 2018. Inversion of the ‘Duty of Care’: Diplomacy and the
Protection of Citizens Abroad, from Pastoral Care to Neoliberal Governmentality. The
Hague Journal of Diplomacy. 13(2). pp.211-232.
Online
NHS England Complaint Policy. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/nhse-complaints-policy-
june-2017.pdf>.
February 2018 v1