Introduction
According to the NHS (4), all employees are entitled to work in safe and healthy environments. Therefore, employers must ensure that such environments exist for their employees. Comparatively, employees also have duties and responsibilities to safeguard their safety and health. This section of the paper outlines unique ways that, we, as caregivers, could comply with health, safety, and risk management policies in the workplace. The context of this analysis is for end-of-life caregivers.
Understand Health, Safety, and Risk Management Codes
Complying with health, safety, and risk management procedures in the workplace require a comprehensive understanding of the codes of conduct that define and guide employer-employee relationships in the workplace (Alli 19-20). The Nursing and Midwifery Council (1) delves deeper into this issue by explaining the meanings of the codes of conduct for employers and patients and arguing that a violation of these codes could question a caregiver’s skills and practice. My role as a care assistant requires a thorough understanding of my organization’s code of practice, as the first step towards complying with the health, safety, and risk management requirements of my organization. Therefore, in my duty as a caregiver, I should exercise due diligence to make sure that my actions comply with relevant acts and regulations surrounding health, safety, and risk management processes (Nursing and Midwifery Council 1).
Attend Training Sessions and Programs
It is my duty, as a caregiver to attend health, safety, and risk management seminars to make sure that I know the latest safety management procedures in the health sector. This step would also enhance my knowledge of safety policies and practices in the health sector and improve my understanding of the duties and obligations required of employees and employers in the nursing environment (Nidirect 1).
Embrace Teamwork
As a key part of the safety team in my workplace, it is important to acknowledge the duties and responsibilities of nurses to work with other employees in promoting a safe culture in the workplace (Nidirect 1). Part of this strategy involves taking reasonable care for the health and safety of my colleagues, to avoid putting other people at risk of harm. This conscious effort would complement the safety and health initiatives in the workplace and ensure the effective implementation of safety and health policies in the nursing environment.
Reporting Safety, Health, and Risk Management Issues
It is crucial to recognize the important role of caregivers in reporting potential causes, or incidents, of unsafe work practices that may undermine the implementation of an effective risk management policy. Under this framework, we, as caregivers, should report injuries, illnesses, or strains that we may suffer because of our work. The goal of doing so is to pre-empt the employer to take action before something bad happens (Nidirect 5).
Embrace Full Disclosure
According to the World Health Organization (30), caregivers must disclose all medical conditions, which may affect their ability to work. For example, an employee should tell an employer about a pre-existing medical condition, such as epilepsy, which could affect his/her ability to work. Similarly, employees should tell employers when they are pregnant or have suffered an injury because such conditions could affect the employer’s risk management plans. Through this full disclosure plan, employers would be better equipped to manage risks in the workplace.
Reflective Account
The case study I will describe in this section of the paper is about a close friend of mine, who, unfortunately, died in 2015, and suffered from Parkinson’s disease and Vascular Dementia. For purposes of this report, I will call her Pat. Pat was a new resident of Woodstock Care and Nursing Home (1). Because of her condition, she could experience upsetting moods and, what she believed were, embarrassing side effects of her condition. For example, she felt bad that she could not close her eyes and was unable to be steady on her feet. She also experienced occasional episodes of incontinence, which worsened her moods. Pat also had a difficult time adjusting to being at the new home because she was used to being alone and having occasional visits from a personal caregiver, recommended by her daughter. The caregiver could pop in to see her, a couple of times a day, and help with her daily needs. Pat was depressed, as she could not understand why her daughter brought her to the nursing home. Therefore, she often did not want to leave her room or interact with other elderly people at the facility. She also liked to eat her food in her room and, interestingly, hid the leftovers in napkins.
My colleague, Mary, requested me to take care of Pat. The first thing I did was to spend time with the patient and her family whenever they visited. In this task, my roles were twofold: working with Pat’s daughter to give her mother the best care and supporting Pat, emotionally and physically. Indeed, according to the Carer’s Recognition and Services Act (cited in Bull 24), Pat’s daughter had a right to demand the best care for her mother. Using the same legislative spirit, I undertook a Carer’s assessment to make sure that the services I gave to my patient were the best. My main objective was to help the patient develop a community presence in the nursing home.
Pat’s case was an example of how powerful people could affect the vulnerable because the occupational therapist and the warden were not convinced that she could cope well in the community. I disagreed with this view. My concern stemmed from questioning the accuracy of the information they used to dismiss Pat as a person who could not cope with other people in the nursing home. If we analyze the situation in terms of anti-oppressive practices, I was not amused at how people in power could be insensitive to vulnerable people, especially those who did not understand their circumstances, or conditions well. For example, many of my colleagues were not willing to listen to what Pat had to say because they already had “formed opinions” about her. They failed to realize that the patient did not understand her potential to live a positive life and was not empowered enough to accept the consequences of her actions. I expressed my concerns to my supervisor, who partly shared my views. After candid deliberations, we agreed that I could use a task-centered model to help Pat develop a community presence in the nursing home. My colleagues and I held several meetings to analyze her capacity to cope in the nursing environment. Part of my responsibility, in this regard, was to involve the patient in the deliberations by seeking her thoughts about her condition. My colleagues concluded that the patient was not in a position to make positive decisions or decisions that promoted her wellbeing. I disagreed with this view as well.
Instead, I volunteered to take care of Pat the best way I knew. My roles included doing her nails and making her hair. My goal was to establish rapport with her and to make her trust me. We also talked about her condition and I assured her that she had nothing to worry about. I also assured her that her behaviors were not embarrassing. Occasionally, I chose to eat with her in her room, to make sure she had enough to eat and did not throw away most of her food. Soon, she became comfortable with me and I, consequently, became a good listener whenever she wanted to talk. She later became open with me and, soon enough, I was helping her to get up early in the morning and complete her morning routine. Knowing that I had gained some trust with her, I requested her to join other members of the nursing home for meals. She refused. However, after gently persuading her, she agreed to do so, for breakfast only. During the breakfast sessions, I introduced her to new people and, soon, she was making friends and sharing stories with her new friends.
I have encountered many complex health situations in my role as a care assistant, but I have chosen Pat’s case because it demonstrates my skills in responding to service-user choices and needs in a way that shows my person-centered practice. The complexity of the case study also shows that I can work in highly complex situations. In this case, I collaborated with a fellow social worker in caring for Pat because her health situation was complex. A significant fact to note in this analysis was the patient’s failure to understand her health situation and its effects. However, I managed to make her feel comfortable enough to live a normal life at the nursing home, despite my colleagues dismissing her.
Plan of Action for next Workplace Module
This section of the paper defines the plan of action for the next workplace module by outlining the skills I need for my future endeavors as a caregiver. It also documents the range of skill areas needed to move in practice. They appear below
Skill Areas needed to Move in Practice
- Sector Skills Plan – Sector skill plans refer to a collation of skills that most professionals require in one economic sector. For purposes of this paper, the sector skills plan would be concentrated only in the health sector. However, these skills are not isolated because they should work towards fulfilling the wider organizational goals (Reinhard 341). I would orient myself with these skills to improve my practice.
- National Skills Development Strategy – The sector skills plan, highlighted above, exists within a wider framework of organizational goal development plans. These goal development plans also exist within a wider framework of a national skills development strategy (Timby 8). The national skills development strategy is an important skill area that concerns seeking the relevance of training in a broader national skills development plan. I need to align my skills with the national skills development strategy to increase my value in the wider national skills development framework.
- Critical Thinking: Critical thinking skills would be important in my future practice because they would be essential in assessing my patients and recommending a care plan for them (Timby 17). Stated differently, critical thinking skills would be essential in equipping me to develop the best course of action for addressing my patients’ needs and providing the best possible care for them. Antonia (56) says such skills emphasize the importance of problem-solving because when developing the best course of action for a patient, a nurse should gather all relevant information, analyze it, and make sense of it, in ways that can make a positive influence on a patient’s care plan.
- Documentation: Studies by Keenan (49) reveal that changes in workplace environments and changes in caregiver placements often cause documentation problems when providing end-of-life care because a patient’s information may be lost, or misinterpreted, during a relocation process. Furthermore, many data management (documentation) techniques lack standardization because of variable documentation formats in the nursing practice (Keenan 49). Indeed, given that most patients receive care in various points of the healthcare system, medical records may become useless, or of little importance, in providing patient-centric care because of the variances in documentation processes. Becoming aware of such possible areas of misinterpretation and misrepresentation of information could be the first step towards refining industry-wide solutions to standardize the process of data management. Although there are industry-specific problems, in this regard, as caregivers, we should have a strong commitment to creating industry-wide solutions that promote accurate and comprehensive documentation processes for improving the caregiving process.
Update of Long-Term Plans
An updated list of my long-term plans highlights the ways I intend to improve my knowledge and competency in caregiving. The list of updated long-term plans appears below:
- I would like to become a qualified health nurse
- I would like to experience different aspects of caregiving, for different types of patients with mental health problems
- I would like to have an updated knowledge of various aspects of caregiving in mental health services
Works Cited
Alli, Benjamin. Fundamental Principles of Occupational Health and Safety, Geneva, SW: International Labor Organization, 2008. Print.
Antonia, Caitlin. Nurse-Risk Management (CPHRM) Specialty Review and Study Guide:A Series from StatPearls, London, UK: StatPearls Publishing, LLC, 2015. Print.
Bull, Ruth. Housing Options for Disabled People, London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1998. Print.
Keenan, Gail. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses, Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2008. Print.
NHS. Workplace Health and Safety Standards. 2014. Web.
NIdirect. Employees’ health and safety responsibilities. 2015. Web.
Nursing and Midwifery Council.The Code for nurses and midwives. 2015. Web.
Reinhard, Susan. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Web.
Timby, Barbara. Fundamental Nursing Skills and Concepts, London, UK: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009. Print.
Woodstock Care and Nursing Home. Woodstock Care & Nursing Home – Gloucester. 2016. Web.
World Health Organization. Ethical issues in Patient Safety Research, 2013. Web.