Reflective Report: Health and Social Care Practice Principles

This report delves into the critical role of reflection in health and social care practices, focusing on the National Health Service (NHS) as a case study. It explores the purposes of reflection, emphasizing its impact on personal and professional development, and uses the Gibbs reflective cycle to analyze a healthcare practitioner's experience. The report highlights the importance of increased experience and new ways of working in improving service quality and patient care. It also examines the application of practice themes such as disciplined working, team working, communication strategies, and risk management as frameworks for reflection. The report concludes by evaluating the effectiveness of these practices in enhancing reflective skills and overall professional competence in the healthcare setting, emphasizing continuous improvement and patient-centered care.

Demonstrating
Professional Principles
ans Values in H&SC
Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1 ROLE OF REFLECTION IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PRACTICES....................1
Explain....................................................................................................................................1
Description of the Experience................................................................................................2
Review....................................................................................................................................3
Evaluate..................................................................................................................................3
LO 2 USING THE PRACTISE THEMES AS FRAMEWORK FOR REFLECTION...................4
Explain....................................................................................................................................4
Illustration...............................................................................................................................5
Plan for Reflecting on Own Learning....................................................................................6
Assessment.............................................................................................................................7
CONCLSUION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Health and Social Care Practice can be defined as the practice which are provided to the
individuals from the health and social care providers. These organisations provides the public
with services related to their betterment such as from diseases and some more. The company
chosen for the completion of this assignment is NHS. The following is a public sector
organisation which was formed in the year 1948 and is headquartered in Richmond House,
London. Currently the number of employees working in this organisation are around 1.4 million.
The following assignment will make its focus on the purposes of reflection in health and social
care practises with the help of models of reflection in health and social care practice. The impact
of reflection on the personal and professional development of an individual will be drawn. In
addition to this, the focus will also be made on the Practice Themes which can be used to
underpin reflection in learning and practise, the link between Practice Themes and other
indicators will be drawn along with the plan for reflecting on own learning and development
using practice themes and other performance indicators. Lastly the effectiveness of the plan in
the development of own reflective practice skills.
LO 1 ROLE OF REFLECTION IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
PRACTICES
Explain
In health and social care services, reflection play very important for an individual to write
so as to know about the effectiveness of the services provided to the patients (Mangan, Miller
and Ward, 2015). As it is known from the patients about the services provided the service
provider and the individual also knows about the service provided to the patient whether it was
appropriate or not. So this will help in knowing about the positive and negative points of the
health and social care service provider and will provide with the needed aspects of improvement
in the working. So the purposes of reflection in health and social care which are described as
under:
Increase in Experiences: The purpose of reflection in Health and Social Care is to make the
individual to come across to the experiences that are happened earlier. This will help in knowing
the areas of improvement to the individual so that the deviations could be eradicated and
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strengths could be made more good. With the help of increased experience, it will be possible for
the individual to provide good quality services to their patients and users.
Provide New Ways of Working: Based on the past experiences of the individual, it helps in
making comparison in between the past and present so that the future could be improved. So the
main purpose of this aspect is to make comparison in the past and present and work on finding
new ways of working so as to improve current and future working (Richards and Hallberg,
2015).
Description of the Experience
As the Health Care Practitioner in NHS, I also experienced many things during my
course of work. So, the following is the reflective piece of my own experience that I came across
during the time when I was working as Health Care Practitioner in NHS. The organisation was
large and there were many people who were working there. In one department there were many
people who were appointed with different tasks. I was appointed with the duty of childcare as my
services were related to providing health care services to children. The main aim of these
services was to make people live a healthier life free from diseases. At the time of dealing a child
patient, in starting it was very difficult for me because of inexperience. But later on hesitation
was removed but a feeling of fear always remained in me as it is also possible sometimes the
services may not be effective much and could not satisfy them. But during my whole experience,
the main problem or negativity was related to the difference in the situations told by their parents
and the actual situation of the children. The problem told by the parents about their children may
not match with the condition of children which is a conflicting situation in which it is not
possible to judge whether to consider my point of view or the parents. It is very difficult for me
to handle these kinds of situations.
Sometimes parents agree and sometimes they do not. This creates the situation of
confusion for me about the way of treatment to be provided to the children. The best part during
this whole course was the work experience and the environment in which I am working which is
very good and pleasant as they are very helpful and work in a coordinated way. So overall, I
analysed that as being the health practitioner, it is my duty to consider both the situations of the
child as well as the parents concern also and provide services according to the actual condition of
the children. For this, I have to work on m communication skills so that it could become possible
for me to influence them and provide the best possible service to the individuals. In future, if I
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will be ever provided with this kind of situation, I difference will be in the way of providing
services to the patients such as by knowing about the actual problem faced by the child and with
the help of words, it will be possible to convince the parents about treating the child according to
his actual situation. Also the help from the senior will also be taken that will help me in making
improvement in my current skills and knowledge and develop them to the new level. This will
help me in making improvement in the existing ways of providing services and treat the patients
in a better way.
Review
There are different ways with the help of which an individual could apply reflective piece
in the health and social care practise or in the support environments. This could be done with the
help of focusing on the main areas of concern of an individual (Sallnow and Paul, 2015). It is
important to choose some area in which the individual is wishing to find out the positivity and
negativity so that the improvement could be made. With the help of this reflective piece, it has
become possible for an individual to know about the negative and positive points that could
prove to be strength of the individual and on which the individual could work upon also. But the
reflective piece could also be bias based as in some reflections people do not disclose their
weaknesses due to which they could not get the needed results and lacks behind in the way of
improvement. Different models are propounded that could help preparing reflection such as the
Gibbs Reflection Cycle that has been applied in this assignment. In addition to this, several other
models are also considered such as Johns Model for Structured Reflection, Rolfe's Framework
for Reflective Piece, Kolb's Experimental Learning or the Schon's Reflection in Action in order
to reflect upon the experiences that an individual comes across.
Evaluate
With the help of reflection, it will be possible for the individuals to know about their
strengths and weaknesses some could relate to their profession and some may to personal. So the
reflection provide grounds for improvement to both level as the personal as well as professional
(Schuch and et. al., 2016). For example, team working, fulfilling the responsibilities efficiently
and with accountability. The reflection could be related to the improvement in the missed
diagnosis, dissatisfied patient, failed procedure, current ways of working, postoperative
complications. The individual writing the reflection will get many points to cover as the focus is
not only on the one aspect but the covering is done of all the aspects such as about the situation
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that an individual comes across, positive and negative experiences, grounds for improvement,
reason for both positive and negative experiences (American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association, 2016). All these information are enough for an individual to know about where he is
right and where wrong. This will help in knowing about the weaker and stronger points and on
the very basis the improvement process could be applied which could make the improvement to
highest level. The following reflection have helped me a lot in making improvement in my
weaknesses and focusing more on the strengths to make them more stronger.
LO 2 USING THE PRACTISE THEMES AS FRAMEWORK FOR
REFLECTION
Explain
There are various skills and competencies which are required by an individual not only in
the personally but also professionally. This will help the individual in making their professional
work easier. For example, while treating a patient, it will be good for the doctor to treat him
calmly and patiently so that he could feel free to tell about his problem to the doctor. So this is a
measure of success for the doctor as he now knows the problem and is able to treat him in the
right way (Cesari and et. al., 2016). Only when the nature of doctor is good, in that case it will be
possible for the patient to tell the problems faced by him and this is also a strength of doctor or
an individual to make the other people to be open about everything. And the effectiveness of the
services of doctor will be clear from the treatment provided to him. This will be possible only
when the doctor's behaviour is good and is agree to provide the best possible service to the
patient. Based on the Practise Themes, there are many things that are to be considered by
reflector so that proper knowledge could be gained and applied for the betterment.
The first is the Disciplined Working. An individual must work in a disciplined way as it
provides various benefits such as good reputation, timely completion of work, increased
concentration towards work, dedication to work, motivation for others also and many more. With
the help of this type of working, the users could have great services from the work of health care
practitioners.
Others are team working, communication strategies, equality and diversity, risk
management, quality care procedures, personal development are also other important aspects that
helps in the improvement in the learning process and professional practice of the individual
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(Turner and Maschi, 2015). With the help of team working, coordination could be established
that will help in creating understanding in between different employees working in the
organisation. Likewise, the communication strategies will help in delivering the right message to
right people and in the right way. This will help the providing right solution to the right
problems. This will also help in eradicating errors from the work performed by the employees.
Additionally, risk management and quality aspects will provide the individual with good
reputation from that of others and his importance will also increase. Considering the quality will
help in learning new things that how the quality of services could be best maintained and the
learning process will be fostered. Risk management another important concept that will improve
the ways of working and enhance the process of professional practice (Davies and Challis, 2018).
Illustration
There are also some other areas on which the individual should focus and could be implemented
in the learning and professional practise. As the roles and responsibilities of an individual makes
him clear about his duties and provides the means to compare what he is doing and what he is
needed to do (Lovatt and et. al., 2015). Additionally, it is important for an individual to be loyal
to his job. For example, with the help of loyal behaviour of the individual towards the job
performed by him it will be possible for him to make the fulfilment of his duty with full
dedication and in the right way which will make sense not only for the service provider but also
for the service taker. So with the help of understanding the roles and responsibilities, safety and
well being of employees, whistle-blowing, recording and reporting will help in knowing the
dedication and loyalty of an individual for the job he is performing. Not only in the professional
life of an individual, it is important to help others but also in the personal life, it is important for
the employees to help each other, have good feeling for both each other so that they could also
work coordinated and help in the achievement of goals and objectives of the firm.
In this way, an individual could make use of Practice Themes in the Reflection in order to
underpin the reflection in learning and practise (Horner, 2018).
Performance Indicator or Key Performance Indicator is the type of performance
measurement. With the help of this instrument, the success of an organisation or related to any
other task could be judged or known. In relation to the performance of an individual also, this
instrument also helps in the self assessment of the people. So Practice Themes and the
Performance Indicators are also linked with each other as they both provides the ways of
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improvement to the individual. Communication Strategies of an individual may be effective and
ineffective. But the improvement in the communication strategy of an individual will be clear
after a certain period of time when he will continuously work on making improvement in them.
For example, it will be known with the help of noticing the time taken by an individual in
understanding the dialogue communicated and also with the help of effectiveness of the work
provided to that individual. Before the improvement and after the improvement there will be
difference in the time taken by the patients to understand what I am trying to say. In addition to
this, the individual could also notice the improvement in the services provided as a performance
indicator. Services provided by the health practitioner is considered as both performance
indicator and in the Practice Themes also. The reason behind the consideration of services as
performance indicator is because the improvement in services will help the health practitioner in
achieving efficiency in the work performed by him and this will be known with the time of
repeated coming of the patients for the same problem or disease. This will help in knowing about
the performance improvement of the practitioner in providing services to the patients. Work
performance such as record keeping, reporting also provides the individual with the dedication
that an individual is having with the work performed is also made clear (Thistlethwaite and et.
al., 2015). Some people discriminates other people due to their colour, race, skin, gender and
many more basis which is wrong and with the help of self evaluations, it will be possible for me
to create a situation of diversity and equality at the workplace. This will help in improvement in
the performances of employees as well as the organisation also. The dedication level of an
individual towards the work he is performing will also be clear with sincerity with which the
individual is doing his duty.
Lastly, the consideration about the knowledge and skills which are required for the
betterment of both physical and mental well being of the employees as well as of the patients
should also be taken into consideration. Seminars could be conducted in order to know about the
make the employees aware about different concepts such as the service delivery and then after
their performance could be measured which will help in knowing the about the improvement that
are made (Wang, Kung and Byrd, 2018).
Plan for Reflecting on Own Learning
PRACTICE THEMES/ REFLECTION ON LEARNING
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QUALITY ASSURANCE
INDICATORS
Communication Skills
With the help of practice themes, it become possible for me
to make improvement in my learning and practice as with the
development in this skill, I am able to understand what the
other one tries to say in lesser time clearly. Additionally, I
am also able to transfer easily what I want to say easily and
in an understandable way.
Diversity and Equality
This practice them also impacted upon me as now I am
treating all my colleagues and employees in the same way as
all are equal and have the equal right to work at the
workplace. This feeling of collectiveness has came into my
mind as now people are not discriminated on the basis of
their colour, skin, gender, age or any other background.
Service Delivery My way of delivering service has also been impacted as now
I treat the employees calmly and patiently so that the patients
could feel free to tell their problems and I could provide
them with proper treatment for the well being and betterment
in the health.
Interest This quality assurance indicator has also come impacted on
me as I learnt new things so my interest has also risen which
has also increased my dedication towards the work I
performed.
Assessment
These practice themes and quality assurance indicators helped me a lot in the
improvement in my own reflective practice skills that made me to look upon my positive and
negative points in a more better way. As many major improvements in my skills and knowledge
have been made with the help of practise themes and quality assurance indicators. Additionally,
it also helped me in knowing about my current position and making improvement in my
weaknesses and strengthening the positive points. The improvements have been made in many of
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my qualities such as the communication skills, interest level in the delivery of service, treating
everybody equally and some more. This plan had helped me a lot in making improvement in my
weak points and has also prove to be successful to much extent.
CONCLSUION
From the above assignment it has been concluded that reflection writing is very important
in order know about the strengths and weaknesses of an individual that could help in both the
personal and professional development. Additionally, the conclusion has been made about the
purpose of reflection which is for the benefit of individual. Further, the conclusion has been
made about the plan for reflective learning which is also helpful in the development of an
individual to work know and improve the skills and competencies that an individual have.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2016. Scope of practice in speech-language
pathology.
Cesari, M. and et. al., 2016. Frailty: an emerging public health priority. Journal of the American
Medical Directors Association. 17(3). pp.188-192.
Davies, B. and Challis, D., 2018. Matching resources to needs in community care: An evaluated
demonstration of a long-term care model. Routledge.
Horner, N., 2018. What is Social Work?: Contexts and Perspectives. Learning Matters.
Lovatt, M. and et. al., 2015. The provision of emotional labour by health care assistants caring
for dying cancer patients in the community: a qualitative study into the experiences of
health care assistants and bereaved family carers. International Journal of Nursing
Studies. 52(1). pp.271-279.
Mangan, C., Miller, R. and Ward, C., 2015. Knowing me, knowing you: inter-professional
working between general practice and social care. Journal of Integrated Care. 23(2).
pp.62-73.
Richards, D. A. and Hallberg, I. R. Eds., 2015. Complex interventions in health: an overview of
research methods. Routledge.
Sallnow, L. and Paul, S., 2015. Understanding community engagement in end-of-life care:
developing conceptual clarity. Critical Public Health. 25(2). pp.231-238.
Schuch, F. B. and et. al., 2016. Exercise improves physical and psychological quality of life in
people with depression: a meta-analysis including the evaluation of control group
response. Psychiatry research. 241. pp.47-54.
Thistlethwaite, J. and et. al., 2015. An exploratory review of pre-qualification interprofessional
education evaluations. Journal of interprofessional care. 29(4). pp.292-297.
Turner, S. G. and Maschi, T. M., 2015. Feminist and empowerment theory and social work
practice. Journal of Social Work Practice. 29(2). pp.151-162.
Wang, Y., Kung, L. and Byrd, T. A., 2018. Big data analytics: Understanding its capabilities and
potential benefits for healthcare organizations. Technological Forecasting and Social
Change. 126. pp.3-13.
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