Reflection on Personal Development in Health and Social Care

• Sharon Heather Ferguson-Guy

Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings

Outcome 1 – Understand what is required for competence in own work role

1:1 Describe the duties and responsibilities of own work role:

My duty is to support the clinically professional practitioner and to give a high quality pre-hospital care as well as transfers from hospital to required hospitals. I must respond to the care in the community and various medical emergencies. I am expected to act in the trust policies for procedures and protocols stating my scope of practice for the job role. I will be under the supervision of a paramedic, technician, paramedic technician, emergency care practitioner or clinical supervisor. I will be qualified and trusted to drive a range of emergency vehicles with upmost care and consideration for the patient and other road users, may it be an emergency or non-emergency.

• Communicate with control and keep them up to date with any situation and progression of the incident.
• Communicate with other professionals.
• Communicate with the patients and their families.
• Confidentiality of any situation is paramount.
• Disposing of single use equipment in the correct way i.e. clinical waste.
• Dynamic risk assessment when attending an incident.
• I must make sure that patient report forms are completed with relevance to the trusts policies, procedures and protocols and Caldecott guidelines (data protection of the patient/families).
• Making sure all medical equipment and supplies are in date un-damaged and ready for use. Listing and replacing any equipment used for the next shift, in which they shall also re-check equipment.
• Making sure the vehicle is cleaned to prevent infection transfer before and during shift (after each patient has been on the vehicle).
• Refuelling of vehicles.
• Report any signs of neglect, abuse and risks to safety.
• Vehicle safety checks before the start of every shift.

1:2 Explain expectations about own work role as expressed in relevant standards

To be compassionate, trustworthy, caring and professional and to display appropriate attitudes and behaviours to patients in my care, also families and other professional staff as stated in the GSCC code of practice, employee handbook and the terms and conditions.

Below I have referred to the GSCC code of practice in which social care workers must:

• Be accountable for the quality work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving their knowledge and skills.
• Promote independence of service users whilst protecting them as far as possible from any danger or harm.
• Protect the rights and interests of the individual.
• Respect the rights of service users whilst seeking to ensure that their behaviour does not harm themselves or other people.
• Strive to maintain the trust and confidence of service users.
• Uphold public trust and confidence.

(I have included a copy of the General Social Care Council – Code of Practice for Social Care Workers ‘September’ 2002)

The role of an Emergency Care Assistant is to CARE for the service user from the point of meeting until handover at the hospital. Making sure their well-being is paramount as well as their safety. Trust plays a big part of care, they are trusting you and the clinically qualified professional to take care of them. Having understanding in any behavioural changes due to illness or injury, out of character behaviour can factor this or just plain nervousness of not being in control of themselves at this time.

Outcome 2 – Reflect on practice

2:1 Explain the importance of reflective practice in continuously improving the quality of service provided

The importance of reflective practice is that everyone learns by experience and to try and improve on the quality of care given to patients. Reflective practice is an examination of personal thoughts and actions as well as a key way of progressive learning from our experiences. This method of learning can promote a better use of skills and knowledge. As shown below is the Kolb’s learning cycle. It is far easier to keep a visual record of potential learning so you can see how the cycle moves in the direction of learning. Everyone can learn from experiences, such as learning from what we see, so we can record that part of learning, reflect on what we have observed, then we can move onto developing and theorising from our reflective, the last to follow is the action which linked from concept and theory. The action is; how we proceed to improve our skill and knowledge, what can we do to improve? Then from that action we can start the cycle again, we can also do a reflection on the action we took. Reflection can also help us make decisions or resolve uncertainty, explore alternatives in problem solving, plus to identify a new course of action. For example if we make a mistake, we must reflect on this so we don’t make the same mistake repeatedly. Identify what went wrong, why it went wrong, what I can do to prevent it, how can I learn from this to improve for the next similar situation.

Kolb’s learning cycle .

2:2 Demonstrate the ability to reflect on practice

Reflect on various emergencies, dilemmas or conflicts. Ask my shift colleague, clinical supervisor, line manager for any feedback relevant to the incident.

2:3 Describe how own values, belief systems and experiences may affect working practice.

Own values beliefs and experiences may affect the working role as everyone is an individual and have their own values and beliefs. So it is wrong to try and impress your own values and beliefs on to any other individual. Beliefs do not need to be religious or spiritual; it can be a way of understanding or making sense of things around us. It is ‘what is meaningful to them’? The carer must be aware that you can unconsciously project your own views on things, so the user may absorb this. I am responsible for providing an equal, non-discriminatory, non-judgemental and inclusive service to all the individuals no matter what a user’s beliefs are, I must respect that.

Outcome 3 – Evaluate own performance

3:1 Evaluate own knowledge, performance and understanding against relevant standards

I look at myself and the way I work reflecting on how the learning courses and policies and procedures have helped me fulfil my role in the work place. My workplace also offer courses to improve my knowledge and self-awareness that I can add to my learning portfolio. The GSCC code of practice states that carers should:

• Be accountable for the quality of their work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving their knowledge and skills.
• Undertaking relevant training to maintain and improve your knowledge and skills and contributing to the learning and development of others.
• Seeking assistance from your employer or the appropriate authority if you do not feel able or adequately prepared to carry out any aspect of your work, or you are not sure about how to proceed in a work matter.

If I find that I may be out of my depth with any of my own performances, it is my duty to report this to my senior or line manager so that I can attend relevant training. If I am asked to perform a duty that I’m not trained for, I could put myself and others in danger.

3:2 Demonstrate use of feedback to evaluate own performance and inform development

Formal & informal

My clinical supervisor may wish to see my development portfolio showing the training I have attended or that has to be identified.

Outcome 4 – Agree a personal development plan

4:1 Identify sources of support for planning and reviewing own development

The sources of support in my work place are supervisions or appraisals where my manager or clinical supervisor would be able to recognise what training I should do to improve my work role, or I would be able to say what training courses I plan to do either on the internet, CPD courses or in house courses. I can also progress my own knowledge and skills by observing more experienced colleagues, and, working as a team discussing issues and even doing research on the internet.

4:2 Demonstrate how to work with other to review and prioritise own learning needs, professional interests and development opportunities

Show my personal development plan to my clinical supervisor.

4:3 Demonstrate how to work with others to agree own personal development plan

Show any training I have attended to my clinical supervisor.

Outcome 5 – Use learning opportunities and reflective practice to contribute to personal development

5:1 Evaluate how learning activities have affected practice

From going on training courses I have improved on certain aspects of my work gaining more confidence in what I have learnt and can see improvement on how I do my day to day duties in the work setting.

5:2 Demonstrate how reflective practice has led to improved ways of working

Obtain feedback from colleagues regarding my ways of working, and how I can improve for the better. I should also reflect on their comments and not to treat as hostility as their input is valuable.

5:3 Show how to record progress in relation to personal development

Show my clinical supervisor my personal development file which will show what training courses I have attended, and the date so they and I know when they need to be updated or renewed. On my appraisal I can reflect and request any further training I think I require to bring positive benefits to my working role.

S.M.A.R.T – Specific – Measurable – Achievable – Relevant – Timely

Referencing using Harvard

Anon, 2002. Code of Practice for Social Care Workers. General Social Care Council.

Anon, emergency Care Assistant Job Role. Emergency Care Assistant Job Description – Yorkshire … Available at: www.yas.nhs.uk/WorkingforYAS/JobDescriptions/Emergency_Care_Ass... [Accessed October 14, 2014a].

Anon, Publication Scheme – Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust. Available at: www.yas.nhs.uk › YAS Publications [Accessed October 14, 2014b].

Caldicott, D.F., 1997. Caldicott Principles. Caldicott Standards and Data Protection A Brief Overview. Available at: https://www.wcppe.org.uk/…/CaldicottPrinciples-DataProtectionAct.pdf [Accessed October 14, 2014].

Sharon H Ferguson-Guy NVQ 3 Diploma ECA Page 1 of 4