Reflective Account: Understanding & Applying Principles of Care

This reflective account delves into the understanding and application of principles of care within healthcare settings. It highlights the significance of these principles in safeguarding the rights of vulnerable individuals and promoting good practice. The author reflects on their learning journey, particularly concerning the principles of safety, dignity, independence, and communication, and how this knowledge has shaped their perspective on health and social care. The account also addresses the challenges in comprehending care and control issues, such as class, income, and discrimination, and how further research could enhance understanding. Ultimately, the reflection underscores the importance of continuous learning and experience analysis to improve future healthcare practices.

Reflective Account

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Who, what and why ....................................................................................................................3
How did it make you feel ...........................................................................................................3
Why did it happen.......................................................................................................................3
Could you have done anything differently .................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Reflective practice is defined as the practice to reflect on past experiences in order to
ensure continuous progress. This report includes reflection on knowledge of principle care and
the influence of this knowledge in changing personal approach to health and social care. Role of
such experience in developing personal insight is also provided in this report.
MAIN BODY
Who, what and why
I learned about principles of care and their importance for healthcare workers. I was able
to understand the role principles of safety, dignity, Independence and communication in
protecting the rights of vulnerable individuals which helped me develop understanding on good
practice in healthcare. In addition to this I also gained knowledge about the barriers associated
with health and social care. I was able to understand impact of various care and control issues on
health and social care of individuals such as class, income, region, population growth, average
age growth and discrimination. This helped me develop profound knowledge of health and social
care and has affected my approach towards health and social care (Butler, 2019). Apart from this,
I also understood legislation implemented to safeguard rights and ensure safety of vulnerable
people.
How did it make you feel
I feel that this has developed my viewpoint on health and social care and allowed me to
understand different perspective on providing effective care. I have understood how rights of
vulnerable individuals can be abused in absence of principles of care and good practice. Going
forward my approach towards health and social care has evolved because of this knowledge
(Lucas, McMahon and Charlton, 2020). This is because I feel that it is important to understand
the conditions of vulnerable people and ensure protection of this rights. In addition to this I also
feel that I have not effectively understood the concept of care and control issues. This is because
of the large number of variables are associated with each care and control issues.
Why did it happen
I had been able to easily understand principles of care and good practice as I understand
the conductions faced by vulnerable people at workplace. I faced difficulty in understanding the

care control factors which impact health and social care as every factor is associated with
different variables such age and population growth are related to number of factors such as
decrease in individual lifestyle which also impacts health and social care. This relation of
variables created barriers and hindered me from understanding the concept of care control as
effectively as other topics (Salzmann‐Erikson, 2018).
Could you have done anything differently
I think I understood are control issues at a basic level but I should have further
conducted further research to understand related variables and concepts and interrelation
between various care control factors in order to gain more profound knowledge.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that it is important to gain knowledge about
principle of care and good practice in order to ensure protection of rights of vulnerable people.
Reflection plays an important role in understand past experience with the he aim of learning
from negative and positive aspect of such experiences to improve in the future.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Butler, A., 2019. ‘Inspiring change, leading in healthcare’: NHS Lanarks support worker
conference. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 13(10). pp.510-513.
Lucas, C. J., McMahon, A. T. and Charlton, K. E., 2020. Developing professional education for
primary healthcare providers about nutrition. Australian journal of primary
health, 25(6), pp.534-538.
Salzmann‐Erikson, M., 2018. Moral mindfulness: The ethical concerns of healthcare
professionals working in a psychiatric intensive care unit. International journal of
mental health nursing, 27(6). pp.1851-1860.