Personal and Professional Development in Health and Social Care - Research Proposal Example

Personal and professional development in health and social care How personal values and principles influence work in a health or social setup. Personal values usually refer to enduring ethics to which an individual is committed. For instance, in most countries, nursing values are embedded in particular values belonging to that country not leaving out individualism and self-reliance (MARQUIS & HUSTON, 2009). Relying on the values that have been bestowed upon individualism, another value is the belief that “a person has the ability to pull him or herself up through their personal bootstrap” not forgetting that an individual’s rights are given more priority than the society. There are some personal attributes that can be geared towards having a negative attitude to work place (GUEST & CONWAY, 2001). Having standards that are put in place to ensure that people have appropriate care whenever they seek them is a fundamental principle of change and modernization of social and health care system. My aim is to always put clients, patients and service providers first. Quality Standards guiding Health and Social care define the standard that an individual can expect at a healthcare facility (WHITE, 2010). In up keeping these standards, my concern is to take quality of services next level and to improve the social and health standards of the citizens in the jurisdiction that I serve. At the core of these standards are the main service users and care providers’ values that include dignity, rights, respect, safety and independence. Meeting different clients or patients on a daily basis is one of the most challenging facts that if one has a poor public relation then handling such can be a problem. Care givers are always there to serve patients, when it turns out that the patient cannot receive quality care just because there is a communication hitch between the two then the situation becomes even more appealing. Whenever a client comes into the facility to seek care, he or she becomes my top priority. It is not always clear why the community expects nurses to be compassionate, although this may be as a result of profession’s cultural origin and due to the fact that a variety of care is usually provided by family or foes with whom emotional attachment is most (WILSON & ROCKSTRAW, 2012). Patients will always assume that all nurses provide compassionate care (CHAMBERS & RYDER, 2009). Nevertheless, once it becomes a routine, it may pose danger that may be undervalued or hidden. Bearing in mind that compassion is a single and natural response to the suffering of human, any attempt by care givers to overtly demonstrate this aspect may result to it being institutionalized, not having any real feeling as well as making it worth less. Cultural changes may affect nursing and at the same time nursing can also reflect cultural changes (JEFFREYS 2006). Viewing the profession as a calling is outdated and is likely to be linked with idealess services. Currently, the meaning of ‘vocation’ is commonly used to mean career, but originally it meant calling, especially to religious way of living. As values of religion have been marginalized in the community, it may also be the same to in nursing where it is perceived to have moved to a higher peripheral position in nursing practice. Individual philosophy of nurses builds the root of compassion (BEAN, 2011). The possibility to figure out how human beings are related and attached to each other is the primary foundation for compassionate care. Compassion for others at times is an active involvement but not a passive position. It should be noted that compassion for another person begins from kindness of one person. Individual beliefs are certain to have great impact on the career life of an individual nurse, a lot of questions are In need of answers when some believe that they should embrace and come up with technical medical skills at the expense of giving care. Members of different cultures may poses varying degrees in terms of commitment related to the predominant cultural values, but as a result of opposing those values suddenly set the stage for counter conflict (CIVITELLO, 2011). There are some countries where citizens were at one time relatively secluded from other cultures or were happened to be homogenous like Asian cultures, are also becoming more culturally diverse. In comparison, the influenced international students’ attitudes that get back to their homeland after their studies in a capitalistic culture are springs of inculcating modern but perhaps endless ethical perspectives on a particular country as well as profession. Globalization, paired with its results of steered cultural diversity, has not left out nurses with pause for brain calculation but as well backed ethical conflicts (LUM & TEHRANIAN, 2006). Communication breakdown is more likely to occur especially when care givers give much attention to culturally diverse persons. For instance, I am in a health facility that is visited by various people with different cultures: just because a patient does not possess or do not possess the culture that I am interested in, then he or she becomes last in my priority list. The outcome of this might lead to disrespect for patients or clients whose cultural values are different from my own or one’s own. How can the condition be enriched? The following are some suggestions that may help improve or take the situation next level: 1. Recognize and appreciate that values and beliefs are different not only amid different cultures but also within cultures.  2. Consider values and beliefs from diverse cultures within historical, cultural, spiritual, health care and religious context. 3. Get to know much about the philological, beliefs, customs, and values of cultural groups, more especially to those that you interact most with. 4. Get to know your own cultural practices and biases, a great step towards reducing ethnocentrism as well as cultural imposition. 5. Always be alert and get to understand the nonverbal communications skills of various cultures including your own that include individual space preferences, clothing style, body language, and hair style as well.  6. Always get to know bicultural differences demonstrated in the physical test, in terms of illness, response to drugs and in health care practition. Monitoring and evaluation for personal progress Monitoring and evaluating progress is essential in developing a better career. As a group each individual is assigned a task that makes up the whole process a success. Individually, I shall be interacting with the community to ensure that their views on the kind of care they receive are reviewed in our weekly meetings to ensure client satisfaction. Patients or clients are normally given the first priority in any health facility and their satisfaction will always demonstrate the kind of work being done at the facility (BUTLER, 2002). I will always be in charge of developing the nursing department operating plan and dashboard at the beginning of each fiscal year after our annual strategic planning process. The plan shall always be reviewed to ensure that appropriate measures are taken on elements that need attention. Strength Providing care is mostly faced with challenges in terms of service delivery, as a team our strength is that we are in a position to give each other a role in order to move on uniformly (KOVNER, KNICKMAN, & JONAS, 2011). It proved that through participation, free communication, consultation and collaboration as one of the inter-professional team members, I was able to carry out my roles and succeed depending on any exercise that I was involved in. Weakness Main weakness is that on a daily occasion, clients present with different challenges and problems of which we cannot handle at once, at times it takes time to get solution since some instances require more experienced practitioner to intervene. Opportunity An opportunity presents itself since we keep on learning new things whenever such problems arise. I had the opportunity to intervene at a system level by getting involved in policy development procedures and applying advocacy plans to steer health and health care. Threat Main threat is that some clients or patients never disclose all their problems, especially the ones that they feel are more private. This result into treatment failure in some occasions and the client may shy away. On a daily basis, we encounter different clients with different health needs. In order to have quality care, we make the language used easily understandable. Use of simplest terms eliminates the barrier that may deny the care provider opportunity to obtain the real problem affecting the client. We avoid the use of medical terms while obtaining any relevant information from the patient. At times when cases of disabilities present themselves, use of either sign language or written articles easily make work easier. Clients are always asked to give any information that may lead to concrete solution and avoiding the client to give information that is not necessary is never allowed (KOVNER, KNICKMAN, & JONAS, 2011). To help our team improve and maintain the faith the patients serve place in us, we decided to set ambitious aims or goals and established a course to be a more reliable group; a place where each client receives appropriate quality care. There are established committees that oversee the quality of care through collecting patients’ views via questionnaires. These feedbacks are analyzed and the committee agrees on the way forward. I always ensure that the questionnaires are administered on a weekly basis and the reports discussed during the weekly meeting depend on time and client availability. In case of adverse conditions, I follow up the patient through phone or physical location given during the visit. Any work that Is not document is not done (YAZBECK, 2009). Through vigorous campaigns that aim at making the society aware of the kind of services they are to gain at our facility: my main aim is to ensure that well printed posters are placed at every corner to ensure that they are accessible to the public. The society must also know the services that they are entitled to for free as well as those they are to pay for and what amount through our service charter that is accessible (POTVIN, MCQUEEN, & HALL, 2008). To ensure that this is adhered to, in our questionnaires to obtain and know the kind of services they are offered, patients are asked to describe a brief process of kind of services they received. At this point, it is easy to know whether a patient was charged accordingly regarding the kind of service he or she received. To keep our team in a position to evaluate the strides they have made, there are measures that are put in place to ensure after each and every three months, we meet and discuss whether we have achieved these goals. Short term plans help us to evaluate our team over short period of time and get to know whether we are able to achieve in the long run. For the three months, it is my responsibility to ensure that all clients who come to the clinic are served within twenty minutes. This can be evaluated during patient satisfactory interview survey. For long term, it is my responsibility to ensure that the clinic has obtained the necessary medical equipment needed for a facility. Development plan gives us an opportunity to work without confusion. By using our planning and organizational skills, we are not surprised to get a lot done, be in a position to meet deadline and express to the top management that we can do it. A well planned job turns out to be productive and a positive experience is obtained for everyone (HELDMAN, 2011). It is a good practice to create timelines and prioritize in order to meet deadlines at the workplace (KARSTEN, 2006). We also get prepared for the unexpected occurrence, as a result we set emergency plan for such. Having all these in place ensures that as a team, we are in a position to deal with situation as it comes. This has proven to be worth and we cannot hesitate implementing a work plan to be like our doctrine during our operations. Working as a team increases the understanding of both users’ and care providers’ expectations in order to have a set of principles for engagement. Principles are the building block for effective provider and client engagement and illuminate beliefs, attitudes and core values necessary for meaningful involvement (LAWRENCE, 2013). Clients cannot be empowered not unless the staffs are also empowered and it should be noted that the empowerment isn’t a technical change. Principles are the beginning of a meaningful and valuable relationship between the client and service provider. Once principle of engagement has been established, the next question is how to achieve (MACEY, SCHNEIDER, BARBERA & YOUNG, 2011). Even though building and maintaining a good relationship is necessary, there are some relationships that need special attention. For instance, one is in a good position to gain from having good working relationship from colleagues. These are the people who are behind your success or failure. Forming a good relationship with these guys will ensure that you progress at work place. There are several relationships that may occur in a working environment. There could be staff to client relationship and care provider to care provider relationship (TIMBY, 2009). Both of these depend on level or extent to which the relationship cut across. There might be good working relations between the patient and the care provider of which ensures that quality service is given at all the time (TIMBY, 2009). At the same time there might be poor relation to between the patient and the staff; in this scenario both parties normally fail to achieve their mandate. For instance, if the working relation between the nurse and patient is poor, client will not turn up for the service, on the other hand the nurse won’t be willing to attend to the specific client due to poor attitude. Individually, it is my responsibility to ensure that clients obtain quality service. This can always be determined through patient satisfactory survey that is carried out on a weekly basis. The issue of patient nurse satisfaction has gained attention from executives across healthcare sector (COX & HILL, 2010). The survey has helped providers to incorporate patient view as a way to create a culture where service is considered an important goal for healthcare facilities. Despite all these, indicators still shows that a lot still need to be done more especially when dealing with clients or patients from different caliber and culture. To ensure that there is maximum patient satisfaction (SHELTON, 2000). I decided to come up with a team of providers to ensure that the patient needs are addressed accordingly in line with their expectations. It has proven to be practical and workable in most cases. I can attest to this through the survey that we normally carry out. Analyzing the surveys shows that we are headed some places as far as quality care to the client is concerned. On the other hand, supporting the rights of care providers is given priority since it motivates and increases self-esteem of particular individuals concerned (MILLIKEN, 1993). This makes the providers have the feeling of appreciation and in turn get motivated in delivering the services. Every workplace experience hitches more especially between the staff themselves or the staff and patients (Jones & Bartlett 2010). For instance, there might be a poor working relation among staff which leads to low output. To solve this, there is a special committee that has been set aside to deal with matters touch on the care providers themselves. At times it becomes challenging solving such issues especially where the solution involves either eliminating or separating the two individual groups. The issue should not be taken at an individual level but with the view of achieving high output should be the key. Another instance may occur where patient and providers do not get along well. Since patient is our priority, such incidents are identified and whenever such patients appear in the facility they are treated according to their will. Not letting this go this way since at the end of the day we might have a greater number of patients going the same way, we decided to form a special counseling unit to advice such clients on dealing with such mentalities. Problems are always rife in any working place, and to surprise they keep the organization going and much stronger (YAMMARINO, & DANSEREAU, 2009). At times it may involve a professional intervention to settle down issues more especially when the conflict is between care providers. This ensures smooth running of the team at the end of the day. Working as a team has always proven to be fruitful in all aspects (KIRST-ASHMAN, & HULL, 2009). In order to achieve the set goal all the team members’ efforts are greatly needed. As a team player, my role has always been significant in ensuring that other team members also get involved in decision making. Through the surveys and committees that I am always involved in, team members have always have a chance to plan for the future in terms of service delivery. For instance, during survey feedback reports, individual members are capable to identify gaps and see on how to fix them. Though not all members receive the feedback in a good way, but it is our responsibility to ensure that each member have the correct information and adjust where necessary. Patients are also very pleased whenever they hear that their grievances are addressed accordingly (VANDECREEK & LYON, 1997). For teamwork to be successful, a number of barriers need to be overcomed. The basic merit of teamwork is many minds working together to achieve a common goal (FINKELMAN & KENNER, 2010). My involvement in the team ensures that quality of patient care is improved at all cost. It enhances patient safety and decrease workload stress that causes burnout among healthcare professionals. I ensure that we have a clear purpose and good communication channel. Active participation of other key members also helps the team achieve its goals. On a daily occasion, not all the members usually accept the view of others, to ensure that there is a clear understanding between members, we engage in various meetings on a weekly basis to discuss the challenges facing the team as well as outcomes obtained from surveys. It is from these meetings that we get way forward to see us through most of the time. My contribution has been essential in ensuring that the team moves on to achieve the set goals. My responsibility in the group has seen the group excel in different ways. This can be seen through the responsibilities that I have been mandated to undertake within the group. Through researches and surveys that usually take place, our group has been able to measure their level of participation and progress. Taking on the responsibility of ensuring that patients are served well makes other team members to know whether they are progressing or retrogressing. Patients’ feedbacks are very essential to each and every health care provider( MAHMUD, 2011). Patient is always given the first priority (ELLING & ELLING, 2003), it is my responsibility to ensure that their aim at the end of service delivery is either fully achieved or not unattended to totally. To ensure that we have a strong team that can see us through, it is my responsibility to ensure that each individual plays a role in ensuring that this is achieved. Learning practice come with a lot positive experience that is beneficial to the care provider as follows: i. Through this, I am capable of integrating scientific findings, genetics, bio-psychosocial fields, general health effective improvement and organizational skills for continued improvement of clients or patients care in a diverse setting. ii. Utilizing organization and system leadership to foster high quality and proper patient support is also a skill that I have not missed out. iii. Another outcome is that I can employ methods, performance measures, tools and standards in line with quality development and safety in the organization (MOL, 2009). iv. I was also capable of utilizing patient clinic and communication technologies to enhance proper health care. I am also in a position to make use of organizational and system leadership in promoting high quality and safe patient care. v. At the end of the day, I was capable of providing care in a compassionate way and that of due respects, protect and ensure spiritual integrity, cultural diversity and not forgetting to demonstrate the Healer’s art. In order to improve on personal contributions, it is my view that I attend more continuous medical trainings in order to achieve more experience on mutating issues to do with diseases and recurrent issues in clinics. At the same time my view is that more managerial seminars to be availed in order to gain more experience in the managerial field. Training improves skills of individuals in management filed. I recommend that most care providers give patients first priority in terms of service delivery. Quality should be adhered to while delivering services to patients. Management is very essential and effective if well-coordinated. Bibliography MARQUIS, B. L., & HUSTON, C. J. (2009). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: theory and application. Philadelphia, Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. GUEST, D., & CONWAY, N. (2001). Public and private sector perspectives on the psychological contract: results of the 2001 CIPD survey. London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. WHITE, T. (2010). A guide to the NHS. Abingdon, Radcliffe WILSON, L., & ROCKSTRAW, L. (2012). Human simulation for nursing and health professions. New York, NY, Springer Pub. Co. 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Understanding human behavior: a guide for health care providers. Albany, N.Y., Delmar Publishers. Jones & Bartlett (2010). Global Perspectives in Workplace Health Promotion. Jones & Bartlett Learning. YAMMARINO, F. J., & DANSEREAU, F. (2009). Multi-level issues in organizational behavior and leadership. Bingley, JAI. KIRST-ASHMAN, K. K., & HULL, G. H. (2009). Generalist practice with organizations & communities. Belmont, CA, Thomson Brooks/Cole VANDECREEK, L., & LYON, M. A. (1997). Ministry of hospital chaplains: patient satisfaction. New York, The Haworth Pastoral Pr. FINKELMAN, A. W., & KENNER, C. (2010). Professional nursing concepts competencies for quality leadership. Sudbury, Mass, Jones and Bartlett Publishers MAHMUD, T. (2011). Better Patient Feedback, Better Healthcare. Keswick, M&K Update Ltd ELLING, B., & ELLING, K. M. (2003). Principles of patient assessment in EMS. Australia, Thomson/Delmar Learning. MOL, J. (2009). Collective and individual responsibility: a description of corporate personality in Ezekiel 18 and 20. Leiden, Brill. Read More