Professional Code of Conduct and Ethical Practices in Elder Care

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the ethical and professional code of conduct within elderly care homes. It defines the importance of ethical practices and guidelines, emphasizing the need for accountability, privacy, and dignity in healthcare settings. The report explores various standards, including collaborative working, effective communication, and continuous professional development, while also addressing potential shortcomings and ethical dilemmas. It examines how these codes of conduct impact the quality of care, minimize risks, and promote equality. Furthermore, it analyzes approaches to resolve ethical issues, such as the utilitarian and virtue ethical approaches, and discusses how ethical frameworks guide decision-making in healthcare. Overall, the report highlights the significance of ethical conduct in ensuring high-quality, patient-centered care for the elderly.

ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL CODE OF
CONDUCT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1..................................................................................................................................3
Question-2........................................................................................................................................6
Discuss the approach that should forwards to resolve the issue and problem.............................6
Question-3........................................................................................................................................8
Scrutinise both adverts and identify that if legal under UK equality and diversity laws............8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

2

INTRODUCTION
The professional code of conduct can be defined as the practice guidelines which ensures
that ethical practices are executed at workplace by the individuals. This code of conduct defines
the professional standards so that accountability and responsibility can be encouraged within
professional behaviour. In order to make professional practices transparent, fair and beneficial
there must be well defined code of conduct and ethical guideline (Runciman, Merry and Walton,
2017). The report will discuss the various standards of practice code which can enhance ethical
decisions and fair practices at workplace. It will also evaluate the theories of ethical practices
through different case studies.
QUESTION 1
The health cares professional in the elder care home must follow the standards of
professional conduct so that they can provide effective services to the old age people. The
professionals must follow the dignity of the patients so that people are comfortable with health
care practitioners. It will improve the quality of health services provided to the service users. The
old people are very sensitive and requires additional care thus they must be provided with proper
attention (Preshaw and et.al., 2016). The health service providers must communicate regularly
with the people in care home so that they can easily share their concerns and requirements.
Code of conduct structure old care home:
The elderly home care must follow certain principles which reflect their code of conduct.
These are discussed as follows:
Accountability:
The healthcare professionals must have accountability for the actions and decisions made
by them. This accountability will ensure that the decisions taken by them are ethical and for the
welfare of their patient. These health professionals are accountable to the old people living in
care home as well as to the health regulating agencies. The staff members of care home are
required to follow the guidelines of national healthcare policies so that quality of services is not
compromised.
Promoting privacy and treating old people with dignity and respect
The staff members of elderly home care must ensure that they respect the dignity and
privacy of the old people. For instance the female members may not feel comfortable with the
care workers of opposite gender. Thus, it is the ethical responsibility of the service provider and
3

management of the care home that they must consider this and arrange the other professional so
that dignity of patient is not harmed (Code of Conduct for Healthcare Support Workers and
Adult Social Care Workers in England, 2013). The consideration of this aspect will also help
staff members of old care home to take more suitable decisions for their service users. The old
age people are very sensitive and significant behavioural changes are observed in them due to
age related factors. In such cases it becomes essential that health care providers of care home
understand their psychological state and services are provided accordingly.
Collaborative working for safe and quality healthcare support
It is also required that health professionals must work in collaboration with the other
care providing teams. For instance the elderly care may require support of multidisciplinary
teams such as physicians, dieticians and psychologists (Tadd, 2017). If care workers will not
coordinate with these team members then, they will not be able to analyse the need of the elderly
care home members. This code of conduct is one of the vital element for assuring the quality
care. The complete care of elderly people requires support from above mentioned
multidisciplinary teams. The lack of such support and coordination among staff members can
lead to incidence of clinical negligences as well as failure to achieve the benchmarks of
healthcare services.
Effective communication skills
It can be considered as one of the basic code of conduct for healthcare providers. The
polite communication of staff members with the old people will enhance the emotional
attachment between both. It is also possible that old people may not be comfortable with the staff
members and thus it prevent them to share their health concerns. Hence for improving the quality
of services there must be open communication so that problems can be analysed and relevant
solution can be determined. The language of staff members in care home must be polite and must
not include abusive or inappropriate words which sounds uncomfortable to the service users. The
conflicts and lack of communication can be harmful for the health outcomes of elderly groups.
It will not only improve the quality of services provided by these professionals but will also
enhance the communication and trustworthiness between the care workers and care home
members.
Confidentiality
4

The professional staff of elderly home must ensure that during their practices the dignity
and confidentiality of the patient must be maintained (Brown and et.al., 2015). During the
assessment of the needs health professionals must ensure that they follow the professional limits.
For instance during communication health professional must not undergo into in depth personal
details of the elder people. Health workers and professionals must not ask personal questions
which are not related to care plan and which make patient uncomfortable. These boundaries for
the professional can be created by only a well defined practice code. If staff members will not
follow this code then it is possible that service users of care home may consider it as violation of
their privacy and may also refuse to coordinate with the staff members while receiving care
services.
Continuous professional development
Continuous development such as improving skills like team work, leadership,
coordination and improving efficiency are essential for achieving the quality standards of
services. It is also possible that conflicts may arise between care providers and service users or
between the teams of health workers. In such cases to resolve these issues systematically and
through ethical decisions the code of conduct is essential. With the help of these standards it
becomes easy for the monitoring committee to analyse the fault or role of each participant
involved in the conflict (Tuominen, Leino-Kilpi and Suhonen, 2016). Thus, the ethical and
professional code of conduct are vital for the care home. The elderly care home can also
minimize the legal and financial penalties and other risks associated with the ethical misconduct.
Encouraging equality
As a health worker, it is there responsibility that they must provide services without any
discrimination (Code of Conduct for Healthcare Support Workers and Adult Social Care
Workers in England, 2013). The lack of equality based practices can create a negative impact on
the healthcare of elderly people. They may feel depressed and their psychological health can
worsen. In such cases it can be difficult for the support workers to provide them suitable
services. These professionals must ensure that they provide equal response and must not
discriminate on the basis of gender, religion or cultural background (Tadd, 2017). The equality
and respect to the diversity are important standards of the professional code of conduct. Though
this professional code is not legally mandatory to follow but their implementation in care home
will give more secure and efficient health services to the people.
5

There will be many Professional code of conduct which need to be described one of the
major will be delivery of high quality healthcare and support. It is very much important that all
the care takers are accountable for making up correct advice to guide the action and reaction of
patients. Promoting and upholding the privacy and dignity or health of people who will use
health and care service at all times. The purpose for this code will be mainly based on principle
of protecting and promoting up of best practice and ensuring up working to standards. Code will
be describing up standards of conduct behaviour and attitude which public and people are using
for health and care sevice is expecting up. Under the code person will be responsible for having
duty of care in ensuring that the standard is followed. The scope will be adult social care worker
in England which is in independent capacity for residential care provider and supporting living,
day support and care worker as well.
Possible shortcomings and ethical code of conduct within elderly care home
In many cases of health services it is possible that there may occur ethical dilemmas
related to type of care provided to patients (Tuominen, Leino-Kilpi and Suhonen, 2016). In such
instances the professional code of conduct provide guidance that how they can resolve their
complains. The clinical negligence and errors in the practices can also be analysed by these
professional standards. The lack of such standards will promote the careless and less responsible
behaviour of the health workers and thus there will be more instances of poor and unethical
decisions, reduce quality services and clinical errors. The regular monitoring and controlling is
an essential aspect in the successful and accurate operational activities of the elderly care home.
In order to assure that the monitoring is performed effectively there must be certain
standards which can be followed for the quality assurance. The professional code of conduct will
develop a base for such monitoring aspect (Preshaw and et. al., 2016). The lack of any such
infrastructure of practice code can lead to conflicts related to work and responsibilities and
methodologies use for providing care to the elderly.
The strict implementation of these practices is essential for the quality management and
for providing the fair and equal facilities to all elderly members without any discrimination or
inappropriate behaviour. The behaviour of healthcare providers in home care must be caring and
comfortable. It should enhance the communication with the patients so that their needs can be
addressed and quality objectives can be achieved (Tadd, 2017). These objectives are essential to
6

maintain the effective and caring image of the care home so that large number of people from
community can get the advantages of quality services of care home (Runciman, Merry and
Walton, 2017). It will also help to follow all the legal aspects related to health service and care
providing organisations.
Question-2
Discuss the approach that should forwards to resolve the issue and problem.
Ethical action is that which provide one person to act in greatest or good manner focusing
on individual’s right to choose between right and wrong. Acting and presenting themselves in
correct and honest manner is one of the most important thing which individual person must be
doing irrespective of what other would think of them. Ethical framework will be under the set of
code which individual who is using his or her behaviour and distinguishing between right and
wrong in way of interacting with world. All the actions will be guided according to morality and
honesty of particular person. In particularly there are 3 approaches to ethics like including virtue
ethics, consequentialist and deontological or duty based ethics.
As per the given case study which depict that it is legal and ethical right of any individual
that if they witness any suspicious person or activity around them they need to inform their local
area police. Just standing, watching them or not informing police will be regarded to as not
considering ethical and legal. Some of the approaches which could be used towards resolving
this particular issue will be as under:
Utilitarian approach-
This approach states or distinguishes between what is ethically right or wrong by only
focusing on outcome which should be producing greatest benefits and least harm as well. So in
that case I must go to police in way of informing them about that suspicious lady on bus stand so
that she could not be able to harm anyone if she was up to do so. Acting as nothing happened and
just returning towards bus stand will be ethically and morally wrong.
The Virtue ethical approach-
The virtues or the character traits determine the actions of individual. This approach helps
to analyse the questions that what values and character attributes of individual affect the decision
making. For instance if I have courage and I feel that it is my responsibility towards society and
nation that I must report about the actions of lady then I can easily decide my actions. On the
other hand if my personality is to neglect such small incidences and to take everything normally
7

or if I am type of individual who does not bother what others are doing then I may not take any
action against the lady.
This approach is based on the honesty, fidelity self-control, compassion and fairness etc.
where the people adopted the new ideas for maintain their ethical rights in proper manner (Lee
and et.al., 2018). This approach is overall the based on the person characteristics and traits that
mainly focus towards the dispositions and attitudes which enables to act in the different ways to
develop their human potential. As per the given case example if an individual has courage and
bold personality then he or she will never hesitate to raise concern over the issue which can harm
the safety of others. As per my personal trait I believe that there is no harm in verifying the
doubts. On the same grounds if the lady is genuine she will also understand that my intention
was not to interfere in her personal space but to assure the safety. If dealing with the ethical so
that virtue will be the best approach to consistently follows the moral principles in effective
manner.
The justice ethical approach-
The fairness and justice ethical approach is the main component of society for maintain
the positions in the world. As per this approach in order to make the ethical decision it is
essential to analyse the fairness of the action that if action is discriminating or treating all
equally. Thus from the general perspective the lady is not doing anything wrong so she must not
be discriminated on the basis of any possibility. This approach also highlights the point that as
some people are involved in destructive activities it does not mean that lady is also favoured
from suspicious perspective. Thus with this approach it is possible that appropriate decisions are
not accomplished due to favouritism (Brown, 2018). Due to this reason for the given case study
this approach is not used.
Suitable approach for the case study:
According to the case study, Right ethical approach is the best for case study because this
ethical right guide to take a decision which protects the ethical duties of every individual without
favouring any particular situational aspect (Brown, 2018). As compare to other discussed
approaches right ethical approach does not favour the lady on the basis of her privacy or moral
rights. Instead with this approach the ethical and moral rights of all associated people who can
influenced by the actions of lady are considered. Thus the decision taken by this approach is
completely based upon the correct evaluation of the ethical actions. On the basis of this selected
8

ethical approach it is suitable to call the police so that truth can be analysed. Though from the
perspective of ethical rights of lady it may be wrong to question her for her actions but since
there is possibility that her action can harm the ethical rights of other surrounding people it will
be appropriate to call police.
Question-3
Scrutinise both adverts and identify that if legal under UK equality and diversity laws.
Equality law is the main part of legislates against towards the prejudice which performed
the action at the workplace. This Act is brings lot of various type of equality within single act
which is easier and simple for people to understand the concepts. This act provides the equal
right to the employees those who are working in the organization. This law provides the facility
to the people regarding the discrimination and unlawful discrimination. Diversity law is based on
the value recognise and respects the differences among the individuals. This law has treated the
people as an individual and also considered as the inequalities (Resnik, MacDougall and Smith,
2018).
Job advert 1:
According to the case study, it can be considered that Job 1 is basically the discrimination
by the association because it is mainly focused on the particular women that hire for the
particular profile. Discrimination means to treated the unfairly to the employee. In job 1 has a
specified age limit attached that may fall towards positive discrimination rather than positive
action. It also introduced that recruitment discrimination has been affected the entire society and
communities. It is based on the age, gender etc. sometimes, the discriminate potential applicants
those who are not belonged to the African and cannot be part of discrimination.
Job advert 2:
On the other hand, the Equality Law has been applied in job advert 2 that helps to protect
towards the unfaithful justification where employer coordinate with the organization to provide
the best quality of services in marketplace. The discrimination happens on the basis is of age, sex
and class etc. This law is provided the beneficial to protect the specific characteristics of
employee in the organisations such as age, gender reassignment, disability, religion, race and
maternity etc. Job 2 is based on the legal factors because it must be offer the proper format to
provide the information and to be considered the student who passed out the college recently. It
9

is mainly focused on the young people that move towards the information technology and
communication purpose.
The equality law provide the equal right and training to each and every employee in the
organization. In this way, young people has been developed their skill and easily understand the
need of organization. They also implemented the innovative idea towards the growth and
development. Many people has lack of experience related to the works so that it is needed for
training and development session help for developing knowledge towards the business
operations and functions.
Required quality legislation for the job adverts:
There are different types of Legal equality and diversity law that applicable in the
organization to provide the benefits to the employees and employers. In many organizations,
Manger could be provided the training and development programs related to the information
technology that helps for improve their skill and knowledge. The Equality Act 2010, it is based
on the parliament of United Kingdom, and therefore, there are same goals and objectives to
maintain their policies and conditions in proper manner. This act is modify the complication
situations with large number of acts and regulations. This act is required for treated to the people
where they access to the employment in the private and public organizations (Runciman, Merry
and Walton, 2017). It can be protect the disabilities, gender, sexual orientation and religions etc.
This act is beneficial for the job 2 adverts because each and every student has equal right
to choose the areas according to the interest. This scheme and law also applicable in the
individual person and disabilities. They can take decisions on the basis of their choice. The
equality act is applied in the October 2010, this law is replaced by the legislation and ensure that
all the employees are consistently work together in the organization which is needed in the
workplace to create fair environment in the organization with the help of this law.
The Labour law is also helpful for people to create better relations ship with the workers,
trade union and employers. This law is based on the fairly provide the equal right to participate
and labour use the decision making power to manage the entire business process effectively and
efficiently. This law has established by the government whereas organization provide the entire
benefits and advantages to their employees. In this way, they can be achieve their goals and
objectives on time (Runciman, Merry and Walton, 2017).
10

Each and every organization follow the rule and regulation for managing their business
operations which is essential for create positive business environment at workplace. According
to equality laws, All the employees work together and free to innovative idea towards the
business development process. This law is useful for employer to adopt the new culture to
perform different task within specific task. This law was give the strength and harmonises to
their employee with the recent legislation, rules and regulation. The discrimination law is
protected for the individuals from the unfair treatment that could be promote the fair in the
communities and society. There are different types of equality laws help for employer in the
organization to protect their lives.
 The race Discrimination Act 1975
 The employment Equality regulations 2003
 The employment equality regulation 2003 based on the sexual orientation.
 The employment equality regulation 2003 based on the Age.
 The Equality Act 2006.
 The disability Discrimination Act 1995.
These are important laws that would be created by the government to follows all rules and
regulations. These rules are provided the equal right and safety to the employers and employees
in the organizations. This law will help for providing the benefits towards the government and
also decided which is not forced to the employee towards the business process because it
negatives towards the business and also reduce the cost of regulations.
11