Personal Development in Adult Social Care Settings Argumentative

1. Identify what standards influence the way adult social care job roles are carried out (AC1.1)? As a care worker there are standards that influence the way my role is carried out. The General Social Care Council (GSCC) outlined the Codes of practice that health and social care professionals must follow. We have a duty of care to provide our service users and you must meet the required standards. Health and Safety at work Act (1974) – The understanding of the health and safety act and putting it to good practice will ensure that my clients, colleagues and I are safe during work and free from injury. The Care Standards Act (2000) – Provides regulations and procedures for a variety of care facilities including hospitals, nursing homes, residential homes and children’s homes.

Data Protection Act (1998) – The understanding of data protection will protect my client from personal information being exposed unless it’s for a suitable purpose. Anyone holding personal information must store it in a secure environment. National Occupational Standards (NOS) – standards of performance that people are required to achieve at work, and the skills, knowledge and understanding they need to perform effectively.

2. Explain why reflecting on work activities is an important way to develop own knowledge and skills (AC1.2)? Reflecting on work activities is an important way to develop own knowledge and skills because it allows you to identify areas where you have made mistakes and helps to prevent them from reoccurring. It also allows you to recognise gaps in your own knowledge and skills so you’re able to improve in these areas to provide an all-round better quality of care for the client.

3. Describe ways to ensure that personal attitudes or beliefs do not obstruct your quality of work (AC1.3) As a care worker I need to ensure my personal attitudes and beliefs are kept to myself. I should respect the personal attitudes and beliefs of all my clients and the people I work with. Knowledge of the person’s history could help me understand their background, this may improve my attitudes towards them. For example, if I am a Christian and I wanted to know more about the Islamic religion, and vice versa, I could do some research on the internet or talk to a colleague who is Muslim and this would help me gain information on the religion. Assignment 2

1. Describe how the learning activity has improved your own knowledge, skills and understanding. (AC2.1) The learning activity has improved my own knowledge, skills and understanding because I researched into Multiple Sclerosis and learnt about the causes and treatment of the condition. I also learnt how to provide the best care for patients with this condition. Producing the leaflet on Multiple Sclerosis helped me to communicate with all different types of audiences and creating an effective questionnaire ensured that I receive the best possible feedback.

2. Describe how reflecting on this situation has improved your own knowledge, skills and understanding. (AC2.2) Reflecting on this situation has helped me gain a lot of information on Multiple Sclerosis as before my knowledge was very limited. Upon reflecting on this situation, using the feedback from the questionnaire, I was able to identify weaknesses and strengths of my work. From this I have been able to gain ideas on how to improve my work practice.

3. Describe how feedback from others will develop your own knowledge, skills and understanding. (AC2.3) It will help me identify areas of improvement which I might have not seen myself and it could also highlight the positive features which have been seen by someone with an outside perspective. Their view can also help me establish a more efficient working method that I otherwise wouldn’t have been aware of. Lastly, feedback from an experienced colleague can help me to develop my own knowledge, skills and understanding to a higher level than before.