Marina Agachi

Unit 2 assignment
1.1 Briefly describe the importance of your job description and
identify the most common responsibilities you have in a care
worker.
Job description is a legal document and forms a part of my employment
contract. It provides information about my responsibilities and what are the
expectations of the role I have to perform at work.
A job description lists the general tasks and functions of my position and
level of responsibility I have. Typically, it also includes the position reports,
specifications such as the qualifications needed by my in the job, salary
range for the position. A job description is usually developed by conducting a
job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks
necessary to perform the job. The analysis looks at the areas of knowledge
and skills needed by the job.
For me job description provides a clear framework for my future practice
avoiding any tension and conflict between me and other care assistants.
My responsibilities are to assist in individualized care under the supervision
of a qualified nurse and others in the health care profession and also work in
a co-operative manner, and to recognize and respect their contribution
within the care team.
My duties of my work role are:
* enabling clients to eat and drink
* clients to access and use toilets
* enabling clients to maintain their personal hygiene and appearance
* enabling to maintain and improve mobility
* contributing to the health, safety and security of individuals and their
environment
* enabling clients to achieve physical comfort
* promoting equality for all individuals
* respecting and maintaining patients privacy and dignity at all times

1.2 Identify the professional standards that guide and

influence your knowledge, skills and practice.
There are many national quality standards that I have to be aware of to
ensure that my role is carried out in a way that complies with the legal
requirements and quality standards. The national standards inform me as to
how the job I do must be done, which differs from the job description which is
what is expected of me in the role I have.
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For example-The HCPC Code of Practice: this is a list of standards of conduct

that are expected to be followed in a social care setting to ensure that the
way I work supports the rights of the service user. This document contains
agreed codes of practice for social care workers and employers of social care
workers describing the standards of conduct and practice within which they
should work. Code of Practice is a good way of making sure that my practice
is following ethical and professional guidelines
There are other national standards that I have to be aware of as these
provide guidance as to the standards expected of me in my practice, the
most important are the:
1) 16 essentials standards as used by CQC in inspections of care services
and are a legal requirement.
2)The National Occupational Standards: The UK standards of performance
that people are expected to achieve in their work place. Also it includes the
knowledge and skills necessary to complete their job effectively, these are
seen in my Diploma level 2 award and I am assessed to these standards to
demonstrate my competence.
3) The Policies and procedures of my organization. These are the legal and
professional standards give me an idea of the duties and responsibilities of
my job, what my employer expects of me and what I expect in return.
Procedures are the legal requirements ensuring my practice does not put
myself or others at risk and are a step by step guide.

1.3 Describe ways to ensure your personal attitudes values

and beliefs do not obstruct the quality of your work.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinions and these come about as a result
of the persons own personal life experiences. It is always important to listen
to other peoples opinions and be receptive to their opinions.
I am responsible of delivering an equal, non discriminatory service to all of
my service users. My personal beliefs should never affect my work and
understand that I have to value each individuals personal choices regarding
their own life and life styles. If a service user only likes to wear the colour
red, I must value their choice and encourage them to make their own choices
and respect these choices. If a service user is gay I must not voice my
opinions regarding same sex relationships.
I must ensure that my personal attitudes or beliefs do not obstruct the
quality of my work by leaving my personal opinions and judgments at the
door. It is vital that I go into work with an open mind and keep in mind the
fact that not everybodys beliefs and preferences are the same as my own. It
is best I deal with situations the best I can without letting past experiences
influence the decisions I make. Every matter should be dealt with great care
and try to be as understanding as possible.
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To ensure that my personal attitudes and my beliefs do not obstruct the

quality of my work I would need to be honest with myself and try to reflect
and evaluate my beliefs and values and make sure they do not in any way
reflect in a negative way on service users. If there was a situation within my
workplace that I felt uncomfortable with I would need to seek advice from my
supervisor. I would need to seek advice to help with guidance help to
improve my understanding. Maybe asking for supervision and or training to
address issues through gaining more knowledge and understand that I must
always get professional help as I need to ensure I evaluate myself against
the agreed professional standards and values.

2.1 Explain why reflection is so important in developing your

knowledge, skills and practice and how you learn from your
experiences
Reflection is a complex process, which involves a degree of professional self
criticism which we may find threatening. Reflection is the personal
examination of your own thoughts and actions it is about thinking things
over. Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture
their experience, think about it, mull over & evaluate it.
Being able to reflect on my actions and my own experiences allows me to
learn from them and adapt my behavior and give me a better understanding
of myself. By being critically reflexive upon my own actions can enhance the
environment for service users. When working in an adult care setting this
means being conscious about how I interact with colleagues, my clients and
the environment. It means thinking about how I could have done something
differently, what I did well, what I could have done better, how I could
improve, what I did. It also means reflecting on my own values, beliefs and
experiences which shape my thoughts and ideas. I am responsible for
providing an equal, non discriminatory and inclusive service to all individuals
no matter what a persons personal beliefs and values may be.
Reflective practice is exploring why and how you practice, thinking back over
a situation or activity and then developing a different approach to gain
insight into a new way of learning. Reflective practice is an important
continuous professional development tool as all social care workers need to
be able to reflect on their knowledge skills and practice to help develop
better skills and knowledge and take some responsibility for their own
development. I always try to use the National Occupational Standards and
the Code of Practice and also use the companys procedures to learn a level
of competence against these standards.
I believe that reflective practice is a very important tool the adult social care
setting as I have found that I am faced with new challenges and obstacles
each day. I believe that for myself to be a good career I need to be self
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critical of my practice, picking out not only the good parts but also the parts
of my practice that didnt go so well.
The Kolbs Learning Cycle is a good example of how reflective practice can
be used effectively to learn as part of an experiential process of learning. The
process and model Kolb developed sees 4 stages of development:

Stage 1 (I have an experience) something may happen to you or you

could do something that makes you feel uncomfortable. Maybe something
that is an unusual experience or maybe an experience that happens on a
daily basis.

Stage 2 (I review the experience) then you can think about it and
then put the experience into perspective.

Stage 3 (I reach a conclusion about the experience) when you have

reflected on the experience or situation you can then get a greater
understanding of the problems or I may of identified the need to have new
rules or understanding in a new areas.

Stage 4 (I plan what to do next) try out the new experience, the next
time the same thing happens apply the new learning. After trying the new
learning I should feel differently about the experience and may have
resolved some of the problems from last time. This model is very useful and
powerful a tool and should help form a natural learning strategy for social
care workers. Kolbs learning will help with complex problems within the
workplace also it will help on a personal level as well.
This is a powerful learning model for both professional and personal
development.

2.2 Explain how you use the code of practice and procedures to
assess the standard and quality of your practice.
As a social care worker I have agreed standards and criteria to guide my
practice and be clear about what standards of conduct I am expected to
meet. I am encouraged to use the codes of practice to examine my own
practice and conduct whilst at work and I understand that I need to look for
areas in which I can improve my knowledge and practice. As a social care
worker I know what part I am expected to play in the provision of a safe and
respectful service to my service users as part of the regulation of the
workforce and the support of high quality social care. I am encouraged to
review my own standards of practice and policies in the light of the
standards set in the code. Also I use feedback from others to help me
improve my performance and reflective practice to help me improve with
certain tasks I perform and always think how to do the task better for the
service user so it becomes a pleasant and happy experience rather than a
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negative one. This is often done in my one to one supervision sessions with
my supervisor.
For service users these codes help them to understand how a social care
worker should behave towards and how employers should support social care
workers to do their jobs well.

2.3 What methods could you use to reflect on your practice?

As a reflective practitioner I use 2 methods to reflect in my practice:
-Reflection in action - is that process that allows me to reshape what I am
working on while I am working on it. It is that on-going experimentation that
helps me find a viable solution. If something isnt working correctly, doesnt
seem right, doesnt seem to move closer to the goal then I reflect in the
action-present.
-Reflection on action - on the other hand, occurs after the activity has
taken place when I am thinking about what I (and others) did judging how
successful I am and whether any changes to what I did could have resulted
in different outcomes
Reflecting on academic or professional practice may make my personal
beliefs, expectations more evident to me. This understanding of myself help
me to carry out my studies more successfully as it makes me aware of the
assumptions that I might make automatically or uncritically as a result of my
view of the world. Supervision is a good way to reflect using both in action
and on action with my supervisor who will show me how to perform tasks
and instruct me as to what is to be done to improve my practice. Sometimes
I will perform simple tasks like helping a service user wash and then I will get
feedback from my supervisor and also after the task is complete the service
user will also give me feedback too. And then I can use the feedback to make
the task or experience a better one.

3.1 Identify the sources of support you can access to help

improve your own knowledge, learning and development
I understand the need to ask for advice and support when I am unsure or
when situations are highly complex. I have to seek information and advice
from key people where I have difficulty in learning. I would do this one by:
Reading service users care plan
Reading service users medical notes
Speaking to the service user directly
Speaking to other colleagues.
I can get constructive feedback from line manager, tutor, supervisor .Another
sources of knowledge and support are: books, publications, TV and radio,
documentaries and educational programmers, government websites,
conferences and staff meetings.
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I have included in my assignment an ECOMAP I completed in class which

shows both the professional and personal support I have available to me.
Please see the ECOMAP
3.2 Describe the planning cycle and your contribution to

agreeing a personal development plan.

A personal development plan is a very important document, as it identifies
my training and development needs .A personal development plan will help
me to take responsibility for my own career and professional development
which will motivate me to develop my own skills and to be aware of my
strengths, weaknesses. My contribution to agreeing to a personal
development plan as a social care worker; I need to be able to contribute to
the process and is usually done as part of the supervision and appraisal
process.
There are 4 main steps to creating a personal development plan which
include:
1) Consider my skills, strengths and weaknesses before I can work out what
area I need to develop I need to analyze the skills I already have and decide
which areas you should develop
2) Create the plan think about how I can achieve my objectives, whether I
need training, to shadow a colleague or take on a different role this then
should be given a timescale for the achievements of the objectives. It is
important to discuss my plan with colleagues, managers as they may offer
advice and support or have suggestions in which I can gain experience
Here I have to follow SMART goals:

Specific make sure I have thought clearly about what I need to learn or
develop.

Measurable Consider how I will know whether I have achieved what I set
out to.

Achievable Make sure my objective is possible

Realistic be realistic about how and when I can achieve things.

Time-bound Timescales help to motivate, so give myself a timescale in

which I plan to meet.

3) Implement the plan by actions and records through seminars, practice,

mentoring, workshops.
4) Review and reflect plan If I do not review my plan regularly I may find
situations change and the goal I had set for myself is no longer relevant,
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thats why it is important to review regularly so I can think about what I have
achieved and what steps to take next.

3.3 Who would normally be involved in the process of

developing your personal development plan?
There are many sources of support that I can access and many different
ways that I can help myself, when developing my practice and the use of
constructive feedback from others is important.
My supervisor is involved in the process of developing my personal
development plan in my appraisal. The supervisors role is to support and
advise me in my work and to make sure that I know and understand my
rights and responsibilities as an employee, what my job involves and the
procedures my employer has in place to help me carry out your job properly

4.1 Describe your experience of a recent development activity

and how the methods used has helped to improve your
knowledge, skills and current practice.
I was thinking that I am not very good at writing essays. Closer reflection
helped me to see that. By using strategies which helped me to overcome
that particular challenge when writing essays, I could change my whole
perception of myself as an essay-writer.
Strategy 1: free-writing: This technique helped me write and think
Strategy 2: mind mappingI used a mind map to plan and organize all my
content
The great benefit of including reflection in my learning is that, by
understanding why I do something in a particular way and recognizing how I
feel about it, I can spot where my strengths and weaknesses lie. This gives
me the chance to build on my strengths and develop strategies to minimize
my weaknesses. I have also learned to use the feedback on my assignments
as a guide to improving my style and presentation.

4.2 Give an example of where reflecting on a situation has

helped improve your practice.
We all meet challenges within our working environment, this is where
reflective practice can be implemented, to improve how effective we are in
monitoring and recording individuals' progress this can be done thought
supervisions and/or discussions with team members to adapt and improve
our own practice to meet the needs of individuals thought better strategies
used to improve outcome for all involved.
I have experienced problems with the people living with the dementia
condition. I work with and found it difficult. I sat down with my manager in
supervision who then assessed the situation we talked about things which
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needed to be worked on and may try a different approach. On returning to

the situation based on the knowledge and the understanding I had gained I
felt better in control and more confident. I had gained on reflecting on the
situation with my manager better understanding and more confidence to
deal with my feelings and practice, I was able to deal with the matters
affecting me a lot better.

4.3 Explain giving real examples of how the use of feedback

from others has helped develop your knowledge, skills and
practice
Its important to receive feedback on my performance as a social care work
so people can tell me what I do well and what areas I could make
improvements. Critical analysis and evaluation refocuses my thinking on my
existing knowledge and helps generate new knowledge and ideas. As a
result, I may modify my actions, behavior, treatments and learning needs.
I have faced significant problems submitting assignments on time for my
course when I was studying in the university. Although I have always met
deadlines in the past, but that year I have had major personal demands on
my time, including the need to work part-time as I am a mature student
living at home, having to provide care for myself. This began to affect my
studies, leading to missed academic deadlines for a key assignment. To solve
this, I discussed and agreed an extension for the most pressing assignment
with my personal tutor, restructured my hours with my employer to allow
time to complete the remaining assignments on time, and work additional
hours after my assignment deadlines had passed. As a result, I passed the
relevant modules.