Health and Social Care: Reflecting on Professional Practice and Values

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of a health practitioner's personal values, principles, and their impact on professional practice within a health and social care setting. It explores the influence of personal culture and experiences on supporting clients and colleagues, reflecting on contributions to individuals experiencing significant life events. The report discusses how new developments and changes in personal values affect work, offering recommendations for improving support within a health and social care organization. It examines the practitioner's role, responsibilities, and accountabilities, assessing current skills, abilities, and learning styles. The report evaluates the use of communication skills, including active listening, summarizing, and open questioning, alongside the application of ICT software. It also assesses contributions to health and safety, policy development, and produces a holistic development plan with short, medium, and long-term goals. Furthermore, the report explains professional relationships, evaluates personal effectiveness in promoting individual rights, and discusses ways to resolve issues. It analyzes the impact of the work role's limits, minimizing barriers to teamwork, and evaluating personal contributions while providing recommendations for improvement.

1

Table of Contents
Task 1...........................................................................................................................................................4
A Comparison of your personal values and principles with the principles of support for working in your
work ........................................................................................................................................................4
An Assessment on how personal culture and experience influence your role in supporting clients and
colleagues in your work place. ................................................................................................................5
Reflection on own personal contributions to the support of individuals experiencing significant life
events ....................................................................................................................................................6
Discuss how new developments and changes to your personal values can impact on your work ..........6
Make recommendations for improving the support available in a health and social care organization
for individuals and their social networks when affected by significant life events .................................7
Task 2...........................................................................................................................................................8
Explain own role, responsibilities, accountabilities and duties in the context of working with those
within and outside the health and social care workplace ......................................................................8
Assess your current skills ability and learning style ................................................................................8
Use of communication skills in a health and social care context ............................................................9
You need to provide example on how you communicated to service user usin communication skills
such.........................................................................................................................................................9
Active listening skills. Summarizing, use of open question, acting as an interpreter. Use I ....................9
Access and use standard ICT software packages to support work in health and social care .................10
You need to show that you can access the use of ICT using other Microsoft words, spread sheets,
skype, internet, use of google chromes.................................................................................................10
Evaluate own contributions to place the health and safety needs of individuals at the centre of
practice .................................................................................................................................................10
Evaluate own contribution to the development and implementation of health and social care
organizational policy .............................................................................................................................10
Produce a holistic development plan for yourself with short, medium and long-term goals ...............11
Monitor your progress against the plan according to the requirements of a care practitioner, revising
the plan as required ..............................................................................................................................12
Evaluate the effectiveness of the development plan to your development as a Health and social care
practitioner ...........................................................................................................................................12
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................................12
Explain the nature of different professional relationships in the context of your work place ..............12
2

Evaluate your personal effectiveness in promoting and supporting the rights of the individual in your
work place.............................................................................................................................................13
Discuss ways to resolve issues encountered in professional relationships in your work place. ............14
Task 4.........................................................................................................................................................15
Explain how the limits of your work role impacts on working with others............................................15
Analyse your role in minimising barriers to effective teamwork in your work place.............................16
Evaluate the effectiveness of your personal contributions when working with others in your workplace
...............................................................................................................................................................16
Evaluate how your own development has been influenced by management approaches encountered
in own experience ................................................................................................................................17
Discuss how to improve your personal contributions to the collective effectiveness of your team......18
Make recommendations to develop own contributions to meeting good practice requirements .......18
Avoid bullet points. Improve your answers making sure the format is correct. Try to complete the
assessment criteria. It is about 23 including 9 assessment criteria from the other units. ........................19
References ................................................................................................................................................20
3

Task 1
A Comparison of your personal values and principles with the principles of support for
working in your work
As a health practitioner I have some personal values that help me in my role of assisting
the clients and sometimes fellow staff members in the best way possible. I believe that everyone
in the society is worthy of respect and equal consideration and therefore I treat all the people I
interact with equally and with the respect I believe they all deserve. I sometimes disagree with
people depending on their practices but this does not affect my view that they are not lesser
human and they should thus be taken serious and given fair treatment. I also believe in the power
of communication and thus I give my clients and colleague time to express them and let them
know my view on issues. To be able to do this, I create an atmosphere of trust that allows the
people to feel relaxed and enable them to talk openly without any fears. I have the value of
respecting diversity and am therefore able to work inclusively with people of different ages,
diverse backgrounds as well as different cultural backgrounds.
I try as much as possible to follow the principles of support for working in my workplace
which includes fairness, stakeholders’ involvement, nurturing local leadership among other
principles. At our workplaces we believe fairness does not necessary translate to people getting
similar things but rather obtaining what they need. We also believes that community work can
only be successful of all the stakeholders are adequately involved in all the projects. Our service
tries as much as possible to develop and nurture leaders from within the community.
An Assessment on how personal culture and experience influence your role in supporting
clients and colleagues in your work place.
Personal culture and experiences have significant influence in the interaction between a
health worker on one side and the clients and colleagues on the other side. Belief and attitudes
are formed and altered with time as a person interacts with others and the environment. As a
4

healthcare professional, it is important to ensure that your personal culture does not conflict with
that of your colleagues and clients but rather ensure that there is respect for each other culture for
peaceful co-existence. Personally, I come from Filipinos culture which has a lot of cultural
values. From the influence of my culture, I have strong family ties and I treat my clients and
colleagues as members of my own family as that is what I learned since I was young.
This enables me to create instant connection both with my colleagues and clients and I
therefore find myself with so many friends which are good for my profession. I became
accustomed from relating to people of different cultures at tender age and this has impacted a lot
on my profession as I find it as a norm to interact with different groups of people. From the
feedback I receive from my clients and my colleagues, I am sure my culture has a positive
influence on their lives. My personal culture is supplemented by experiences I have gained both
while at work and when I was a student where my desire to ensure people have no pain to bother
about make me work around the clock to ensure my clients get maximum service to assist them
(Durkin, 2000).
Reflection on own personal contributions to the support of individuals experiencing
significant life events
I have made some significant contributions to support people experiencing life events
such bipolar disorder and dementia. I have always made time for such people and ensured I
remained patient in every situation involving them that I have participated. I have been able to
use my past experiences in dealing with such cases which has enabled me to be able to
communicate with the people in an effective way. I have also made contribution by reassuring
individuals experiencing significant life events by the use of tone of voice, my choice of words
which has aided in reducing frustrations. I have undertaken personal and group initiatives that
are aimed at helping people experiencing life events. I always make it my responsibility to give
guidance to people on how they can avoid diseases such as cancer which is slowly becoming a
killer disease by advising them on healthy eating and living styles. I regularly make time to visit
people experiencing life events even when it is not part of my duty to do so. By so doing I
believe I have made tremendous contribution to provide support of individuals experiencing
significant life events.
5

Discuss how new developments and changes to your personal values can impact on your
work
I believe my personal values at the moment are contributing positively to my work
though some few changes can impact on my work in a number of ways. At times I find myself
with a lot of passion for helping people who are suffering and this normally leads to having to
spend more time with them and forgetting my other obligations. A change into this which can
make me attach not so much passion on one duty can impact a lot on my work in a positive way.
I also want to develop skills in the emerging technology to be able to increase my service
delivery at work.
Make recommendations for improving the support available in a health and social care
organization for individuals and their social networks when affected by significant
life events
The support available in a health and social care organization can be improved by
bringing together all stakeholders including the government and the healthcare centres
themselves so that they can work together in a more effective way. Collaboratively, they should
engage in a wide campaign of educating people about significant life events and actions to take
in case of occurrence of such events (Shawn Smith, 2003). People within the social networks and
family members of people affected by significant life events need to be provided with the
relevant counselling in addition imparting relevant skills to them in dealing with the affected
persons.
6

Task 2
Explain own role, responsibilities, accountabilities and duties in the context of working
with those within and outside the health and social care workplace
My roles in the context of working within and outside the health and social care
workplace include care giving, decision making, communicating as well as management of care
at the healthcare service. As a caregiver, I provide hands-on care to the clients in different
settings ranging from physical needs, to helping patient with illness prevention. As a decision
maker, I have the role of using my critical thinking skills to make decisions, set goals in addition
to promoting outcomes for a patient. I am also responsible for written communication or patient
charting which is a chief component to continuity of care in addition to having the role of being
the patient advocate where I protect the client’s rights. My responsibility at the workplace
include assisting clients to ensure they see options available to them, promotion of the choice of
the clients, encouraging of rights to self-care as well as protecting the clients.
I also have the responsibility of ensuring the welfare of the clients as I am aware of their
challenges and thus must ensure they are able to overcome them. As a healthcare practitioner I
have some accountability which I must satisfy to the best of my abilities. I am accountable to
criminal as well as civil courts and therefore I have to ensure my activities conform to the legal
requirements (Shawn Smith, 2003). I am also accountable to my employer where I have to
follow my contract of duty in addition to accountability to regulatory bodies. With regard to
duties, the law imposes on me duty of care where my actions or inactions can be questioned
(College and Association of Registered Nurse of Alberta, 2005).
Assess your current skills ability and learning style
Personal Strengths
I have several personal strengths that serve to enhance my profession among them being
loyal to my job and my clients which I believe is a very important aspect that helps in enhancing
my credibility. I am also helpful as I usually find myself with a desire to help at all times.
Additionally, I find myself being a resourceful person as many are times I find myself being
7

consulted by my colleagues on a variety of issues. I am in possession of relevant skills,
competencies, knowledge as well as work experience which make it able for me to do my job
effectively.
Personal weaknesses
Some of the areas I feel improvement is needed include areas like networking, career
direction, and weak career management skills. Though I am able to create friends easily, I finds
easy to maintain professional network and thus I need to work on improving this. I have passion
for my career but of late I have realized I don’t have a plan for the future about which direction
within the health care industry I should be taking. I therefore want to improve on this and have a
direction to follow in my profession. Another area I am working on improving is career
management skills where I aim at enhancing my skills as time goes by.
Personal opportunities
Some of the trends that I find as an opportunity to me include favourable industry trends
in the health sector, a booming economy, specific health job openings, increase use of
technology among others. All these will lead to favourable external environment of the
healthcare industry.
Personal threats
The healthcare work has its share of threats which include, physical demanding,
emotionally difficult and it is sometimes stressful. These factors are beyond my control but they
keep affecting me.
Use of communication skills in a health and social care context
You need to provide example on how you communicated to service user using
communication skills such
8

Access and use standard ICT software packages to support work in health and social care
You need to show that you can access the use of ICT using other Microsoft words, spread
sheets, skype, internet, use of google chromes
Evaluate own contributions to place the health and safety needs of individuals at the centre
of practice
I have been regularly involved in ensuring that health and safety needs of individuals at the
centres as well as the clients and other users. I recognize that the individuals face a multiple of
risks at the workplace and therefore I have to be involved in ensuring their health and safety
while at the centre. Some of the risks I have contributed in reducing and cautioning individuals
from includes biological and chemical risks. Biological risks includes risks such as infections
that normally results from needle sticks injuries while chemical risks are related to drugs that
are used during treatment of diseases like cancer and other disinfectants. I have therefore made
major contribution in ensuring the health and safety of individuals remains paramount.
Evaluate own contribution to the development and implementation of health and social
care organizational policy
I have made tremendous contribution in the developments and implementation of health and
social care organizational policy at our healthcare service. I contributed to the organization’s
policy of helping the local councils and other healthcare organizations in coming up with a plan
to provide integrated care. I also regularly emphasize the organization’s policy of giving an
opportunity to our clients to choose whatever services that they think are the right ones for them.
I have always being in the frontline in developing policies that help to eliminate barriers that
hinders integrated care in the service. I do this by ensuring the service is able to implement its
policy of working with the national partners. I also ensure that the organization is able to provide
better information on people’s health and care needs.
9

Produce a holistic development plan for yourself with short, medium and long-term goals
Working in a healthcare sector, I have some short, medium and long term goals that are aiming
to achieve.
Short term goals
I want to finish school and pass the examination of upgrading to work on a medical-surgical
floor and improve my skills a graduate nurse which I hope to achieve in the next one year.
Medium career goals
I want to become a go between in providing advice and information related to nursing care in the
service I work in. I want to be able to help the family members of patients by providing
information to them on obtaining medical supplies and equipment. I also want to become more
available for consultations on issues related to my nursing career. This I should be able to
achieve in the next three years.
Long term goals
In the long term I want to be an active member in the nursing professional and be able to join the
association of nurses in my country. In the next ten years, I want to get a position in the union of
nurses and become able to lobby for nurses advancements. I also want to further my education
and become a doctor in the next fifteen years.
Monitor your progress against the plan according to the requirements of a care
practitioner, revising the plan as required
The progress towards becoming a care practitioner is due on course as only few years I go I
aspired and target my short term goal to be in a college studying nursing. I was able to achieve
this and since I joined the college I have been passing exams as per the requirements of the
college and am about to finish school and graduate as a nurse when I will later upgrade to worn
in a medical-surgical floor. My plans are still on course and therefore am monitoring each
situation as time goes by and I will be do any revisions on the goals and plans I have set to
accommodate any new changes that I would like to further my career as a care practitioner.
10

Evaluate the effectiveness of the development plan to your development as a Health and
social care practitioner
The development plan is an effective tool in ensuring that as a health and social care practitioner
I am able to monitor my progress and ensure I reach or achieve my short, medium and long term
goals. The plan is going along way in helping me do the important things and avoid irrelevant
things as I try to attain all my goals. The development plan is effective as by now most of the
goals set for the short term have been achieved and it is motivating me in attaining the medium
term goals which will pave way for long term goals. The plan helps me to remain focused at all
times as I have things to achieve.
Task 3
Explain the nature of different professional relationships in the context of your work place
There are different professional relationship that exists at work place majorly between the
health care workers and their colleagues as well as the relationships between the health care
workers and the clients. The professional relationships that exist in our workplace are regulated
by code of ethics and professional standards where professional relationships unlike personal
relationships do not last for lifetime but rather are limited by the client’s need for the care. The
location of professional relationship is usually defined and limited to the place the care is
provided as opposed to personal relationships which can be held at undefined and unlimited
places. The purpose of establishing professional relationship with the clients is towards
providing them with care. It is the responsibility of care providers to establish and maintain
professional relationship. The healthcare personnel are required to have formal knowledge,
preparation and orientation while establishing formal relationships.
The relationships that exists in our work place between the clients and the healthcare
professionals is always therapeutic and professional which is a purposeful, goal-directed
relationship that is aimed at advancing the best interests of and outcomes for the clients. This
nature of relationships that exist in our organization help in preserving dignity, autonomy and
privacy of clients (CARNA, 2005). Establishing relationships and maintaining them is a
fundamental part of our professional relationships with our clients and is a vital competency that
is achieved by thinking about ones action’s, putting across necessary questions as well as putting
11

principles into practice. The reasons we form therapeutic relationships with our clients include
gaining an understanding of client care needs, creating an environment that allows provision of
care as well as provision of safe, competent compassionate and ethical care. The relationships we
establish with our clients are based on five common characteristics including factors such as
trust, respect, intimacy, fiduciary duty as well as power which enhance professionalism at the
service.
Evaluate your personal effectiveness in promoting and supporting the rights of the
individual in your work place
As a healthcare professional, I believe I have a duty to act in the best interests of my
healthcare clients at all times while putting interest of the healthcare a priority. I always strive to
promote and protect the best interests of my service users. My personal effectiveness in
promoting and supporting the rights of the individuals in the workplace can be evaluated on a
number of things I do at the workplace. First, I recognize the human rights of workplace
individuals and I therefore ensure I always act in their best interests. This can be evaluated by
acts I do such as respecting human rights of the individuals and ensuring that my actions and
decisions takes consideration of the their interests. I also treat my healthcare users with respect
and dignity at all times which is reflected in a number of ways such as acknowledging their
uniqueness, enabling them to preserve their dignity in addition to enabling them have their
privacy.
Another way my effectiveness in promoting and supporting the rights of the individual in
my work place can be evaluated is the way I practice in a non-discriminatory manner, treating all
the individuals at the healthcare with equality and fairness. This can be reflected in the way I
offer equal and access to the healthcare according to their remit without any bias and or
prejudice. I also do not allow my personal views about individuals’ background or their personal
life influence my behaviour towards them or the care provided. Additionally, I recognize the
importance of my healthcare services users’ backgrounds, languages, cultures as well as faiths in
their performance of occupations. In this spirit, I incorporate the service users’ backgrounds,
12