Healthcare Assignment: Equality, Diversity, Rights and Inclusion

This healthcare assignment delves into the critical aspects of equality, diversity, rights, and inclusion within health and social care services. It defines key terms like equality, diversity, inclusion, and discrimination, highlighting the importance of treating individuals with respect and dignity, irrespective of their background. The assignment discusses how rights are promoted in healthcare, emphasizing patient privacy, fair treatment, and cultural safety. Ethical dilemmas that arise when balancing individual rights with the duty of care are explored, using examples like dementia cases and end-of-life decisions. Furthermore, the report explains strategies for promoting equality and supporting diversity in the workplace, challenging non-inclusive behaviors, and supporting others in upholding these principles. Finally, it summarizes relevant legislation and codes of practice, including the Equality Act of 2010, the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, and the Equal Pay Act of 1970, underscoring the legal framework that protects vulnerable groups from discrimination. Desklib offers this assignment as a resource for students, alongside a wealth of other solved assignments and past papers.

Running head: HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
HEALTHCARE ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Unit 1: Understand equality, diversity and rights and health and social care:
1.1: Define the following terms:
Equality: Equality can be defined as the state of being treated equal with regard to status,
rights or opportunities. Equality supports the legal framework and allows the consideration of
choices in the decision making process. By virtue of equality people tend to feel valued and
respected. Also, equality helps in accruing equal rights and equal opportunities to people so
as to assure everyone a similar legal status. The Equality Act protects the vulnerable groups
through equality legislation on age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, marriage, maternity, civil partnership and pregnancy. These determiners across
which protection is guaranteed is also known as protected characteristics. The Act now
extends its protected characteristics to include disabled and gender reassignment (transsexual
people) and grants them equality across all domains of life (Hepple 2014).
Diversity: Diversity can be defined as the state of being different from others in terms of
cultural, religious, linguistic or ethnic background. Diversity allows people to celebrate the
existing differences with respect to culture and tradition and enables people to stay in
harmony with one another. Also, diversity enables people to respect each other’s difference
in custom and traditional beliefs.
Inclusion: Inclusion can be defined as the state of being included within a group. It generally
refers to the inclusion of disabled people or people with special needs in a group.On a
broader note, inclusion can be explained as accepting individuals with special needs and
treating them with dignity and respect. Inclusion means not to discriminate on the basis of
limited ability of the disabled individuals and treat them with integrity. The central idea of
inclusion is to socially include the disabled individuals in the society so as to alleviate their
standard of living and protect them from social discrimination.

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Discrimination: Discrimination can be defined as an unjust or prejudicial treatment that
oppresses individuals belonging to different social categories of age, race, sex or
gender.Discrimination refers to the behaviour of making a unique distinction towards an
individual or a group of individuals on the parameters of age, colour, height, gender, ethnicity
or cultural preferences. Discrimination involves oppressing or restricting a particular group
from participating equally in the decision making process or depriving the group from a basic
opportunities to access the basic amenities of life. Discriminatory policies exist at the
individual level, organizational level and at the national level. According to the definition
propounded by the United Nations, discriminatory behaviours might assume many forms but
typically involve a form of exclusion or rejection.
1.2: Explain how rights are promoted in health and social care services
Health care services as well as social care services ensure proper access to support
and care facilities of people irrespective of the circumstances. The care professionals are
obliged to practice according to the code of conduct that stringently allows them to work in a
manner that promotes equality and diversity across their areas of practice. At the same time,
professionals also advocate the individual rights of the patients and act in the best interest of
the patient. Health care services critically ensure that patient privacy is protected and at the
same time the patients are protected against any harm or danger. In addition to this, care
services also treat patients in a fair and just manner and ensure that patients irrespective of
their demographic or cultural background have an equal access to care services and case
resources. Also, care professionals are expected to impart effective care services in a
culturally safe manner. The rationale can be explained as protecting the patient from any
potential harm which could elicit a negative implication on the health outcome of the patient
and at the same time treat the patient with respect and dignity in order to ensure equity in
terms of treatment services. In addition to this, across healthcare services, privacy of

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individuals is respected and it is ensured that individuals are free from harm and danger.
Further, it is also ensured that individuals are treated in a fair manner and have access to
personal records, individual preferences as well as personal choices in relation to the
treatment process. The overall purpose of the promotion of rights is to ensure that people feel
respected and free from any potential threat or harm.
1.3: Discuss ethical dilemmas that may arise when balancing individual rights and duty of
care
Ethical dilemmas refer to conditions where the duty of care and the individual rights
of the patients do not go hand in hand. For instance, a condition when the care professionals
suspect that an individual is suffering from dementia and is harmed or threatened by a family
member, the ethical duty of the care professionals is to protect the individual from that family
member. The autonomy and wellness interest of the patient here is complex and benefits
associated with a long term relationship must be compared with the extent of harm that was
caused to the patient. The four ethical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence
and justice help the carers to act in the best interest of the patient so as to foster effective care
delivery. Another instance of ethical dilemma can be explained in terms of what should be
disclosed to the family members of the patient. For instance, in end of life care decisions and
critical cases, patients often pester the nursing professionals to decipher what was conveyed
by the physician. In such instances, nurses are surrounded with the ethical dilemma that to
what extent the patient information should be conveyed. Also, disclosing medical information
forms another case of ethical dilemma. In certain cases, family members of the patients
request not to convey the information to the patient about a serious diagnosis so as to avoid
psychological stress. However, considering the legal obligation of the patient and the right to
know about the medical diagnosis raises a serious ethical dilemma where the nursing
professional must test the validity of the request made by the family members of the patient.

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Understand how to work in inclusive way:
2.1: Explain how to promote equality and support diversity
It is extremely important to promote equality and support diversity within a
workplace. A health work environment reflects inclusive practice and mutual respect for
cultural diversity (Baillie and Matiti 2013). A number of processes can ensure promotion of
equality and supporting diversity. Firstly, the staff and clients within an organization must be
treated in an equal and fair manner. Secondly, creation of an inclusive culture for the staff
and clients can help in promoting equality and supporting diversity. In addition to this,
ensuring equal access for all also helps in the promotion of equality. In addition to this,
enabling development of full potential of the staff irrespective of their cultural background
can help in promoting equality and supporting diversity. Also, procuring a safe and inclusive
environment and enforcing anti discriminatory policies and procedures can help in promoting
equality and supporting diversity.
Therefore, it can be mentioned that in order to promote equality and support diversity,
staff professionals working within an organization must treat everyone equally and create
an inclusive environment. In addition to this, at the administration level it must be
ensured that policy makers create policies and procedures that promote equality and
diversity. This means that the policies must not promote institutional discrimination and
must ensure that professionals working within the organization have equal access to
opportunities and enjoy professional freedom so as to work in harmony with one another.
2.2: Describe how to challenge those not working inclusive in a way that promotes change
On coming across an incident where it is detected that inclusive practice is not being
followed or is violated, the three primary steps can be taken (Dweck 2013). Firstly, a

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complaint can be identified and registered to the employer of the organization in an informal
manner, secondly a grievance can be raised using the employee grievance procedure and
thirdly a claim can be made to the employment Tribunal for seeking justice.
The above discussed procedures are methods in which staff professionals not working in
an inclusive way can be identified and accordingly brought to notice of the higher authorities.
In addition to this, in order to resolve the issue, the supervisor could conduct a meeting and
explain to the professionals the importance of practicing in an inclusive manner so as to
withhold the vision of the organization. Further, the manager must bring to the notice of the
identified professionals their misconduct and can proactively conduct a counselling session to
explain them the true meaning of working in an inclusive manner. Further, the manager can
proactively work in close association with the employees and demonstrate practically the
manner in which the employees could work in an inclusive manner so as to foster a positive
work environment.
2.3: Explain how to support others in promoting equality and rights
In general the promotion of equality or rights within an organization is restricted to
the HR department. However, there are a number of ways which can help in promoting
equality and rights. These can be enlisted as follows (Deane 2013):
 Report any form of discrimination
 Actively volunteer for diversity events
 Offer assistance with recruitment events
 Voice innovative ideas
 Obtain employee views
In addition to this, the organization can proactively share information about equality
rights of the employees and encourage employees to raise a concern upon sensing violation of

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the employee rights. Further, encouraging effective communication between the team
members so as to strengthen team bonding can help in upholding the integrity of the
concerned profession. In addition to this, stringent monitoring of the work process so as to
ensure that employees work in accordance to the rules and law and promoting role model
working can help in supporting employees whose rights or laws are compromised.
Unit 2: Understand legislation and codes in relation to inclusive practice
3.1: Summarise legislation and codes of practice relating to equality, diversity, inclusion and
discrimination
The Equality Act passed in the year 2010 cumulatively addresses the previous acts that
were associated with equality and discrimination (Florian and Spratt 2013). This ACT is
applicable to all organizations and it critically ensures protection of the vulnerable groups of
individual from discrimination (Knowles 2013). It is expected that organizations dealing with
early year education must be aware of the law and foster adequate support for children with
disability or other developmental deformity so as to ensure equality and protection against
discrimination. In addition to this the staff members must procure a positive attitude towards
the disabled in order to reinforce an inclusive practice. Also, an organization must ensure that
all employees are treated equal to one another and work in an inclusive manner so as to
abstain from practicing any form of discrimination. In addition to this, the sex discrimination
act of 1975 was passed by the parliament of the United Kingdom which prevented the
discrimination of men and women on the grounds of marital status or sex
(Equalpayportal.co.uk 2019). This law involves equal social status of men and women
irrespective of their marital status and ensures equal legal rights to lead a life free from social
prejudice or belief in relation to marital status. Also, the Equal Pay Act of 1970, was passed
by the parliament of United Kingdom and it guaranteed wage equality between men and

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women (Equalpayportal.co.uk 2019). This law critically ensures equality of wages of men
and women and equal employee rights so as to acquire equal status before the court of law.
Finally the Equality Act passed in the year 2010 replaced these anti-discrimination laws with
a single Act which simplified the complexities and made it easier for people to understand the
meaning of equality in every sphere of life and comply with it (Equalpayportal.co.uk 2019).
This act came into force on October 1, 2010 and assures equality on the basis of pay scale,
discrimination and marital status and other opportunity.
Understand role of health and social care practitioner in inclusive practice:
4.1: Evaluate the role of the health and social care practitioner in meeting individual’s needs
through inclusive practice
It is important for the care professionals to possess excellent communication skills as
communication is an integral medium to exchange information with the disabled
individual and build an effective therapeutic relationship (Hagquist and Hellstrom 2014).
In addition to this, the health care practitioner as well as the social care practitioner must
adapt a positive attitude towards the disable d and interact with them in a humble manner
so as to ensure a positive inclusive practice. Utmost care should be taken to ensure that
factors that are detrimental to inclusive practice are uprooted. These factors include
discrimination such as verbal abuse or attending disabled patients poorly. In addition to
this, time constraints, staff changes, poor financial resources, lack of proper training and
resources, lack of knowledge about person-centred care and failing to identify the cultural
and religious specific need of the patients could cumulatively lead to poor patient
outcome. The strengths of inclusive practice include a through consideration of the above
factors and adapting a person centred care approach so as to acquire positive patient
outcome. Research studies have mentioned that inclusion of family centred practice and

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placing the patient at the heart of the care can help in fostering holistic wellness and at the
same time ensure positive and accelerated recovery of the patient.
On the other hand the disadvantages of inclusive practice includes unequal pace of
learning of the different students. In addition to this, students suffering from auditory
impairment or processing disorders or Asperger’s syndrome can be affected to an extent
that their pace is lower than their peers despite the implementation of all inclusive
teaching practices. In such cases, disabled children are generally placed in a least
restrictive environment in order to acquire skills that their peers have already mastered in
a classroom setting. This can be considered as a demerit of inclusive education as a each
child is special despite their limited abilities and must not be placed in a lower grade as
they are unable to match up to the skills of other children.
Unit 3: Understand key elements of human development across human lifespan
1.1: Identify the life stages of human development
The life stages in human development can be enlisted as under (Boyd et al. 2015):
Infancy: birth to 1 year: This phase includes the first year of life which is also known as
an important stage of human development. This stage is marked by a number of physical
development stages. In addition to this, infants also develop emotional attachment with
their care providers at this stage (Kail and Cavanaugh 2018).
Early childhood: 1 to 6 years: This stage marks the phase when the child starts
experiencing a degree of freedom and learns to make independent choices. Children
further develop self-esteem and gain confidence at this stage. They also come to terms
with the happening in their environment (Singelman and Rider 2014).

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Late childhood: 6 to 12 years: This stage improved decision making ability and ability to
respond to people in a sensitive and decisive manner(Singelman and Rider 2014).
Adolescence: 12 to 20 years: This stage marks the phase when an individual experiences
physiological changes within the body which creates confusion and identity crisis
(Singelman and Rider 2014).
Early adulthood: 20 to 40 years: Early adulthood is also one of the difficult stages when
an individual learns to fulfil responsibilities and undertake sound decisions(Kail and
Cavanaugh 2018).
Middle adulthood: 40 to 65 years: Middle adulthood marks the phase when an individual
is at the peak of success in terms of life’s security and has gained substantial experience
in relation to life (Singelman and Rider 2014).
Late adulthood: 65 years and older: Late adulthood is marked by the phase of insecurity
in terms of accepting that death is inevitable and coming to terms with the loss of loved
ones (Kail and Cavanaugh 2018).
1.2: Describe social, emotional, cognitive and physical developments within each life stage
Birth:
During infancy, social development is marked by interacting with carers and getting to
know the personal touch of the carers. Emotion development is marked by Trust v/s Mistrust.
This forms the first stage of Erik Erikson’s theory of psychological development. This stage
has been studied to initiate at birth and continue up till 18 months of age. During this phase,
the infant is unaware about the world where they live and is entirely responsible on the
mother or the primary care provider for the continuation as well as consistency of care. The
theory suggests that at this stage if the consistency of the care is maintained it leads to

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security and building trustworthy relationships. However, if at this stage if the bond is
affected by mistrust or suspicion then anxiety might develop within the infant. In addition to
this, Cognitive development is marked by actions based on reflexes and physical development
is marked by accelerated physical growth such as crawling and sitting and rapidly growing.
Infancy:
The social development at this stage is marked by First social learning experience. The
emotion development is marked by Autonomy v/s Shame. This stage is studied as the second
stage of Erik Erikson’s stage and this stage occurs from 18 months up to 3years of age. This
stage is marked by developing a strong essence of personal control over the physical skills
and an increased degree of independence. If at this stage children are criticised or controlled
to extremes they are bound to suffer from lack of self-esteem and start doubting their abilities
and personal skills. The cognitive development is marked by Episodic thinking and the child
learns to differentiate between right and wrong (Boyd et al. 2015). The physical development
is marked by mastering the skills of muscle coordination and physical movement such as
walking and talking.
Childhood:
The social development is marked by primary social learning and first socializing
experience. The Emotion development is marked by Initiative v/s guilt (Janus et al. 2014).
This stage forms the third stage of Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. At this
stage children have a tendency to assert themselves repeatedly. This phase can be termed as
a rapidly developing stage of a child’s life and the characteristic vigour of action is
perceived as aggressive by the children. This stage is characterized indulging in regular play
activities with peers to explore inter-professional skills by virtue of activities. Cognitive
development is marked by Concrete thinking development and ability to memorize and

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physical development is marked by slowing down of physical growth. Fine muscular strength
and coordination. Presence of permanent teeth (Haywood and Getchell 2014).
Adolescence:
The Social development is marked by secondary social learning and the emotional
development is marked by Industry v/s inferiority. This marks the fourth stage of Erikson’s
Psychosocial crisis that includes inferiority v/s industry or competence. At this stage, the peer
group and teachers tend to have a greater significance in the child’s life. The child acquires
a tendency to gain approval by demonstrating a set of competencies that are valued by the
society. The cognitive development is marked by ability to engage in abstract thinking and
the physical development is marked by rapid growth and puberty.
Adulthood:
The social development is marked by Maturity on entering adulthood. The Emotion
development is marked by Ego identity v/s role confusion. This stage marks the fifth stage
and evokes a sense of self or personal identity through exploration of personal goals and
beliefs. The cognitive development is marked by Ability to apply insights into activities of
daily living and the physical development is marked by Stable physical growth and mental
coordination. Upon entering middle adulthood, the social development is marked by the
sense of responsibility. The Emotion development is marked by Intimacy v/s isolation and
Generativity v/s stagnation. At this period, individuals experience major conflicts in relation
to forming intimate relationships with other people and successful completion of the stage
leads to happy relationships. At the same time avoiding relationships or intimacy for the fear
of commitment leads to isolation at this stage. In addition to this, this stage is also marked by
creating an impact or an influence by pursuing interests or failing to contribute to the society
which causes a feeling of stagnation. The Cognitive development is marked by Self-directed