Healthcare Principles: Exploring Care and Good Practice Concepts

This essay delves into the fundamental principles of care and good practice within the healthcare sector, emphasizing the importance of respect, effective communication, confidentiality, autonomy, dignity, and privacy in patient care. It explores the application of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Roger’s humanistic theory in prioritizing and implementing patient care, highlighting how nurses' satisfaction and motivation influence patient outcomes. The study also discusses the impact of key legislation, such as the Health and Social Care Act 2012, Care Standard Act 2000, and Mental Health Act, on safeguarding vulnerable adults and ensuring ethical conduct. Furthermore, it examines the protection of vulnerable people's rights and autonomy, the significance of risk assessment in preventing abuse, and the role of anti-discriminatory practices under the Equality Act 2010 in promoting fair and equal treatment. The essay concludes by underscoring the necessity of adhering to these principles and legislations to improve patient health and ensure a safe and respectful healthcare environment.

Exploring Principles of Care and Good
Practice
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Key Principles of care/good practice including respect, effective communication,
confidentiality. Autonomy, dignity and privacy..........................................................................3
Maslow’s hierarchy needs theory and Roger’s humanistic theory to the principle of care/good
practices.......................................................................................................................................4
Impact of key legislation, codes of conduct and policies that underpin health and social care
practice.........................................................................................................................................5
How the rights and autonomy of vulnerable people are protected and balanced to protect them
from abuse...................................................................................................................................6
Importance of risk assessment in relation to safeguarding vulnerable people............................6
Considering abuse and impact and anti discriminatory practice relating to equality act 2010. . .7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Best practice in healthcare can be defined as the best way that is being used by healthcare
professionals for identification and disseminating for collecting patients’ information and care
intervention for patients (Adams, 2007). This present study is going to discuss principles of good
practice that include communication, confidentiality, dignity and privacy and by abiding all these
principles, healthcare professionals can improve health of patients. Further, this study will
discuss impact of health and social care and other legislations on health of patients and quality of
care. Hierarchy needs of theory have also relation with principles of good practice as it helps
nurses in identifying as well as satisfying patients’ needs. Risk assessment in safeguarding
vulnerable people also plays a vital role as it makes healthcare professionals able in decreasing
risks that occur in healthcare sector.
MAIN BODY
Key Principles of care/good practice including respect, effective communication, confidentiality.
Autonomy, dignity and privacy
In regard to care and good practice in healthcare, it can be said that it is the best way to collect,
evaluate and implement information and monitoring outcomes of health care interventions for
patients. There are 5-6 principles of care and good practices that healthcare professions need to
consider and follow for improving health of patients as well as improving their image. Some
principles of care and good practice include:
Dignity: As per this principle, nurses and healthcare professionals need to treat each and every
patient with respect. Nurses can help patients in maintaining their dignity and self respect while
interacting with patients (Brotherton and Parker, 2013). When patients are being treated in an
effective manner then it makes them feel valued that increases their self-esteem.
Safety: It is key principle and as per this principle, nurses as well as healthcare professionals
need to keep patients free from injuries like falls, and bruises. They need to ensure that patents
are at safe place, are not hurting themselves. Along with this, nurse assistants need to take extra
care of those patients who are not able to maintain hygiene and for that they need to wash their
hands and change their cloths every day.
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Communication: Talking and listening to patients is key. When nurses listen to patients and
understand their needs then it also makes patients feel valued that have positive impact on their
health.
Independence: It has been seen in many cases as patients start feeling helpless when nurse
assistants help them out in changing their cloths, washing hands, making them walk and others.
This feeling can have negative impact so, as per this principle, nurses need to encourage patients’
independence and should allow them to do work that they can do by themselves. It can make
patients feel physically and mentally fit.
Privacy: There are number of patients who share quarters and sometimes in cases of mental
illness, patents prefer that their medical history and condition is kept safe. So, for this reason,
nurses need to make patients sure that their personal and medical history will not be shared with
anyone else (Cottrell, 2008).
Maslow’s hierarchy needs theory and Roger’s humanistic theory to the principle of care/good
practices
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory suggests that once nurses’ basic needs are met, their focus
will shift to higher needs that include sense of belongingness, self esteem and self actualisation.
As like employees in other companies, satisfaction among nurses also plays a vital role. This
theory guides nurses in prioritising, planning and implementing care. This hierarchy of needs
include: physiology, safety, love and belongingness, self-esteem and self actualisation. When
nurses are satisfied with physiological and safety needs then they are more likely to support and
care patients.
Nurses’ satisfaction plays a vital role in improving health of patients. It is believed that when
nurses are satisfied then it makes them feel valued and boost their confidence. Valued nurses are
more likely to improve patients’ health and they interact with patients in a fair and effective
manner.
In addition, it can be said that Roger’s humanistic theory also helps out nurses and patients
in improving their health and care as well. Rogers believed that humans are constantly reacting
to stimuli with their subjective reality (Thompson, 2006). As per this approach, everyone exists
in a world full of experience. These experiences shape our reactions that include external objects
and people. Overall, it can be said that person’s behaviour factor is being motivated by self-
actualisation to work so, accordingly, manager and healthcare professionals can motivate nurses
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so that they can support patients and can take extra care of them. Motivated nurses are more
likely to help their healthcare professionals in improving health of patients. Overall, it can be
said that motivational and hierarchy of needs of theory plays a vital role in healthcare as it is
beneficial for both patients and nurses. It motivates and satisfies nurses needs and satisfied
nurses help patients in improving their health.
Impact of key legislation, codes of conduct and policies that underpin health and social care
practice
Health and social care act 2012: This act that is being developed by NHS, covers wide range of
issues related to workplace health, safety and welfare. As per this act, healthcare professionals
and nurses need to make sure that patients are at safe place and they are not hurting others as
well as themselves. Encouraging patients and make them sure that they will be treated and cured
in a timely manner is key of this act. This act can also have positive impact on patients’ health.
When patients are being cared in a fair and effective manner the they are more likely to be cured
and healed as well.
Care standard act 2000: It is an act according to which healthcare professionals and
nurses need to protect vulnerable adults. The main aim of this act is to make sure by healthcare
professionals and managers that no one is allowed to work if they have ever abused and
neglected vulnerable adults in their care. So, on the basis of this act and policy, it can be said that
it can have positive impact on health of patients and can make them feel valued as well.
Code of conducts refers ways as how workers should behave and this code of conduct is
voluntary. It outlines behaviour that healthcare providers should expect to experience from those
workers that signed up to the code (Webber and et.al., 2014). As per the code of conduct,
healthcare professionals need to respect dignity of patients, they need to maintain privacy and
maintain care professional boundaries. By doing so, they can encourage and motivate patients for
better recovery and improving health in a timely and effective manner.
Mental health act: It is other legislation and act according to which healthcare
professionals need to take extra care of patients with mental illness. People with mental illness
need extra care and nurses need to make sure that patients are being treated in a fair manner by
others and they are safe as like other normal patients.
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On the basis of above discussed acts, it can be said that all these can improve health of patients in
an effective manner.
How the rights and autonomy of vulnerable people are protected and balanced to protect them
from abuse
Before discussing rights and autonomy of vulnerable people, it is important to understand
safeguarding and in this regard, it can be said that it is the protection of health, rights and well-
being of vulnerable individuals. Vulnerable refers those who have learning disability, are fail and
elderly, have drug addiction, are carer, have physical disability, mental needs and do not have
capacity to take decisions by their own. For such people, nurses need to take extra care and need
to consider all important legislations.
It is stated that treatment is more likely to be autonomy supportive if made by clinicians
who seek to promote patients’ autonomy. Nurses and healthcare professionals need to listen to
patients and understanding their needs (Bielińska and et.al., 2022). Along with this, nurses need
to explain such patients as how they have taken personal circumstances, preference and concern.
Vulnerable people have some rights according to which nurses need to take concern of patients
and make patients sure that selected treatment is better for their health. If patient is not able to
take their own decision then nurses and healthcare professionals need to take concern from
family members.
It has also been seen that nurses and other patients discriminate vulnerable people
especially with those who are mentally ill. Vulnerable have rights to be treated in a fair and
effective manner and for protecting this right, nurses need to make sure that vulnerable are being
treated in a fair manner. Other patients also should treat vulnerable in an effective manner so that
their health can be improved. For this purpose, healthcare professionals implement anti
discrimination act and as per this act, they make sure that vulnerable and everyone is treated in a
fair and equal manner (Heilig and et.al., 2019). No one is being discriminated on the basis of
gender, race, ethnicity and age. Overall, it can be said that abiding all rules of legislations can be
the best ways of protecting rights of vulnerable.
Importance of risk assessment in relation to safeguarding vulnerable people
In safeguarding, risk assessment plays a vital role as the main aim of risk assessment in
healthcare is to prevent abuse occurring as well as decreasing likelihood of it occurring. It also
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makes able to healthcare professionals in minimising impact of abuse by responding it in an
effective manner. There are some key considerations of risk assessment that include:
The right to independence: Risk assessment and controlling of risks can help healthcare
professionals in making patients and vulnerable people independent. Making patients
independent is vital as it makes them feel valued and when they are being encouraged to do their
personal and other works by their own then it makes them feel motivated (Augestad Knudsen,
2020). They are more likely to be treated and it is possible when healthcare professionals assess
risk and prepare risk management plan.
Focus on vulnerable: The main focus of risk assessment is on safety as well as protection
of vulnerable adults and the environment in which they are in. It is important to undertake risk
assessment with service users so that vulnerable people can be protected safe and secure. By
preparing risk assessment, healthcare professionals can enlist all those possibilities that can
increase occurrence of risks and accordingly, they can manage risks. By managing risks in an
effective manner, they can safeguard vulnerable people (Hagenlocher and et.al., 2019).
For better risk assessment and risk management plan, healthcare professionals need to
consider issues of capacity. They need to make sure that people may have capacity to make
decision with respect to one area but may lack to make decisions in other areas. Along with this,
healthcare professionals must involve other people like family members of patients, patients and
others for making this process effective and easier.
Considering abuse and impact and anti discriminatory practice relating to equality act 2010
In regard to anti-discrimination practice, it can be said that it is fundamental to the ethical
basis of care provision as well as protection of patients’ dignity. An equality act 2010 was being
developed with the main aim of treating everyone in a fair and equal manner. This act was then
developed as anti-discrimination and now as per this act, healthcare professionals need to protect
everyone and patients from gender, age, ethnicity bias. This act protects patients from getting
discriminated in any manner and equality act also aims of treating everyone in a fair manner
(Henderson and Gronholm, 2018). So, on the basis of this, it can be said that this equality act is
related with anti discrimination. This anti discrimination act and practice can protect patients
from abuse. It is good for everyone as mentally ill people can also be treated in a fair manner as
like others. It is believed that when patients are not being treated in a fair manner and they are
being discriminated then it has negative impact on patients in both emotional and mental manner.
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So, for protecting them against unfair behaviour, it has become important for healthcare sector to
implement this. Overall, it can be said that it can protect patients from abuse.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarised from the above study that principles of care plays a vital role as it
makes patients feel valued, safe and healthy. It has further discussed importance of key health
legislations, code of conduct and policies that are being followed by healthcare professionals
with the main aim of improving health of patients. Anti-discrimination act also plays a vital role
as it is related to equality act and it makes patients sure that they are safe at hospitals and no one
will treat them in an unfair manner. It has positive impact on health of patients and improve
image as well.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Adams, R. ed., 2007. Foundations of health and social care. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Augestad Knudsen, R., 2020. Measuring radicalisation: risk assessment conceptualisations and
practice in England and Wales. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political
Aggression. 12(1). pp.37-54.
Bielińska, K. and et.al., 2022. Equal access to healthcare in national legislations: how do Croatia,
Germany, Poland, and Slovenia counteract discrimination in healthcare?. BMC Health
Services Research. 22(1). pp.1-11.
Brotherton, G. and Parker, S. eds., 2013. Your Foundation in Health & Social Care. Sage.
Cottrell, S., 2008. Study Skills Handbook, Basingstoke and New York.
Hagenlocher, M. and et.al., 2019. Drought vulnerability and risk assessments: state of the art,
persistent gaps, and research agenda. Environmental Research Letters, 14(8), p.083002.
Heilig, J.V. and et.al., 2019. Considering the ethnoracial and gender diversity of faculty in
United States college and university intellectual communities. Hisp. JL & Pol'y, p.1.
Henderson, C. and Gronholm, P.C., 2018. Mental health related stigma as a ‘wicked problem’:
the need to address stigma and consider the consequences. International journal of
environmental research and public health. 15(6). p.1158.
Thompson, N., 2006. Anti-Discriminatory Practice (Hampshire. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Webber, M. and et.al., 2014. The effectiveness of personal budgets for people with mental health
problems: a systematic review. Journal of Mental Health. 23(3). pp.146-155.
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