Roles and Responsibilities in Health and Social Care – Assignment Sample

Introduction:

Healthcare services place majorly emphasis on treating, diagnosing and controlling as well as preventing some mental or physical diseases, injury, illness and disability. It also includes providing care or aftercare to the people with such requirements. On the other hand, social care services tend to make focus on supporting the people with their day-to day tasks and empowering them to get included in the social interactions and safeguarding them from abuse or harm etc. Additionally, nurses, professional doctors, social or care workers, occupational therapist etc., are the key professionals play a vital role in delivering the high quality services. This assignment will highlight roles and responsibilities of the HSC workers when delivering care as well as mechanism for reporting the poor practice. Additionally, this assignment will also highlight the several roles and responsibilities of regulatory bodies that inspect HCS provisions.

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Task 1: Show understanding of the main roles and responsibilities of Health and Social care workers when delivering care.

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Scenario

To fulfil the requirement of task 1.1 let’s consider you have recently joined the health and social care sector as a medical receptionist. In your new role, your supervisor has tasked you with studying the various responsibilities of professionals working within this field. This includes understanding how each role in health and social care (midwives, carers, nurses) contributes to protecting and caring for individuals.

Additionally, you are responsible for observing poor practices (negligence, poor hygiene, etc) within the workplace and reporting any instances you may encounter against task 1.2. For this, you must demonstrate your understanding of reporting poor practices by writing a dummy report to your manager (you can choose any practice such as the rude behaviour of nurses or unhygienic healthcare practices). This exercise will help you gain insight into the essential functions of health and social care workers and the importance of maintaining high standards of care.

1.1 Explain how health and social care professionals protect individuals in their care

Midwives, nurses and carers are accountable to protect the people at the time of delivering care. Midwives are responsible for providing timely and safe care to the patients in order to enhance their health and well-being. They are also accountable for nurturing the positive interaction with the people to protect their confidentiality. In addition, the midwives are also responsible to inspecting and monitoring the pregnant women to safeguard their health and well-being (Okafor, 2021). To provide the effective care midwives are also evaluating the care requirements and writing care plans as well as carrying out the screening tests.

On the other hand, nurses and carers are accountable to adhere with the care standards, procedures and policies. All the healthcare professionals such as nurses or carers are answerable for working under the specific care standards to safeguard the individuals. To provide the effective care, the healthcare professionals are responsible to comply with all the rules and regulations of the various legislations such as Human Rights Act, 1998, Equality Act 2010, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Mental Capacity Act 2005 etc. According to Human Rights Act 1998, the healthcare professionals are accountable to safeguard the people by providing them basic rights to the life which includes freedom from torture, freedom of thought and right to a fair trial etc. Apart from this, providing person-centred care is another responsibility of HSC professionals to safeguard the individuals in their care (Abbas et al, 2021). In this, nurse and carers work in partnership with the people in order to provide quality care and support. In person-centred care, the HSC professionals are accountable to treat the people with compassion, dignity and respect when delivering care.

Safeguarding and protection is another role of nurses and carers to protect the individuals in their care. When HSC professionals come in the contact with the people then they must ensure that their health and well-being is safeguarded and protected or not. Additionally, at the time of delivering care the HSC professionals are also responsible to support the individual’s empowerment. If the healthcare providers are supporting the empowerment of the patient then they are more likely to involve in their life decisions and own care plans to improve their health and well-being.

Apart from this, general practitioners like doctors are accountable for taking medical histories of patients, diagnosis illness, conducting physical examinations, developing treatment plans and prescribing the medications to enhance their health and well-being. In addition, general practitioners are also responsible for educating the patients about their health and providing referral of specialist when necessary.

1.2 Discuss the mechanisms for reporting poor practice in Health and Social care.

In the context of HSC, the poor practice is when nurses and carers are not able to offer satisfactory healthcare services to the individuals. For example, unhygienic healthcare practices, poor hygiene, negligence, rude behaviour of nurses ate the poor practices in the HSC. Unhygienic healthcare practices are considered as one of the common practice in the healthcare settings which create problems in provide effective care to the patients (Søvold et al, 2021). To report this poor practice to the CQC and NMC, it is important to follow the various mechanism such as organizational whistleblowing policy, document or make record of the incident, escalate a concern and report the concern externally.

 Additionally, Whistleblowing policy is considered as one of the critical mechanism that reports the unhygienic healthcare practices effectively to the CQC or NMC. This mechanism is process through which HSC professionals can report their concerns if they suspect any poor practices or illegal act within the company. This policy contain the information related to whole process of reporting regarding the person to whom the incident can be reported and actions to take if there is requirement to escalate a concerns. 

 Along with this, document or make record of the incident is another mechanism for reporting the poor practice i.e. unhygienic healthcare practices. The manager is accountable to record of the poor practices can be documented by adding accurate and valid details of the details such as reasons behind happening of incident and health related challenges face by the people. Apart from this, report your concern is another mechanism for reporting the poor practice in HSC (Alderwick et al, 2021). For reporting about the unhygienic healthcare practices the manager is accountable to use different methods like verbal communication in which the complete details of incident is discussed orally. This method helps in providing the descriptive report of the incident in order to make sure that all the essential information are communicated effectively. On the other hand, report your concern externally is another mechanism that is used by the manager to reporting the unhygienic healthcare practices. In this mechanism, the HSC professionals speak their concerns to the several external organizations such as CQC (Care Quality Commission, Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) etc.

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Task 2: Show understanding of the importance of regulatory bodies in delivery of high-quality care

2.1 Explain the roles of regulatory bodies that inspect health and social care provision.

2.2 Explain the roles of professional bodies in regulating professions within health and social care.

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 In task 2.1 you will explain how regulatory bodies contribute to maintaining and improving care standards. In this regard, you can discuss the role of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the medicine and healthcare products regulatory agency, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence etc. You can also check their websites for guidelines, policies, and inspection reports, as these often outline their core functions.

For task 2.2 you will identify the professional bodies that are responsible for the management of Health and Social Care professions. In this regard, you can discuss the key roles and responsibilities of professional bodies such as Health Education England, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Health and Care Professions Council etc.

2.1 Explain the roles of regulatory bodies that inspect health and social care provision.

Regulatory bodies are majorly emphasis on safeguarding and ensuring the safety of the individuals. Care Quality Commission (CQC), National Health Service (NHS), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) etc., are the significant regulatory bodies of the UK. These bodies are accountable for framing the code of conducts and standards for care workers and midwives in order to protect the health and well-being of the public. The key aim CQC to make sure the providence of effective, safe and quality care services to the individuals. The major role of CQC is to register, evaluate, monitor and grade the healthcare services that offered and takes corrective actions against the poor practices in order to protect the individuals. Additionally, this regulatory body is also providing the guidelines to the HSC providers and also ensures that they meet the quality and safety standards of the care to offer effective care to the people. Dignity and respect, person-centred care, safety etc., are important standards of CQC. In the context of person-centred care, the nurses or carers are accountable to provide personalized care according to the preferences and needs of the people (García‐Sánchez et al, 2022).

Apart from this, NICE is another regulatory body that was developed in 1999 with the objective of enhancing the quality of NHS care and treatment. The key role of NICE is to offer the guidelines to the care professionals and suggests what works well in order to accomplish the positive results and cost effectiveness. Setting the quality standards is another role of NICE to enhance the quality of care for the people. In addition, this regulatory body also provides the guidelines for the public health and suggests some strategies in order to make sure the healthy living like smoking cessation. On the other hand, NHS is another regulatory body of the UK that inspect the provisions of HSC in order to provide quality of care to the people. The key motive of this body is to offer good healthcare to all irrespective of their capacity to pay. NHS is providing the services of offer more hospitals, beds, an easy appointment system, medical specialists for the elder patients. Another role of NHS is to fostering the healthy living and preventing poor health which are important to reduce the health inequalities (NHS, 2024). Additionally, HSC is setting directions and coordinates the actions across the public health and adult care, health and care system as well as NHS in order to provide quality of care.

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is another regulatory body that is responsible for regulating medical devices, medicines and blood supplies in the UK. The key mission of this body is to protect the health and well-being of public by ensuing that these products are effective and safe or not.

2.2 Explain the roles of professional bodies in regulating professions within health and social care

Professional bodies are emphasis on offering guidance and support in the interest of own professionals and members. Professional bodies are also accountable to setting code of conduct and standards like regulatory bodies. Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Royal College of Nursing (RCN), General Medical Council (GMC), and Health and care Professions Council etc., are essential professional bodies of the UK that plays major roles in enhancing the quality of life. RCN is considered as one of the key professional body of the UK that provides necessary guidance, support, opportunities and training and professional developments to the nurses, midwives and carers. This body allows HSC professionals to meet the requirements of the high-quality of care to the people to enhance their health and well-being (Masterson et al, 2022). Another role of RCN is to foster the collaborative working within the healthcare companies to enhance the outcomes and people’s safety as well as eliminate poor care practices and reduce the risks. In addition to this, RCN plays a role in depicting the healthcare challenges and determining the best practices or innovations in the nursing at the time of working in partnership with the global bodies. (RCN, 2022).

On the other hand, another professional body is NMC that plays an immersive role in setting and enforcing the educational, professionals and training standards for the carers and nurses with the objective of ensuring health and safety. Another role of this body is to maintain a register of qualified professionals by following the procedure of registration such as evaluating their knowledge and skills as well as verifying their qualifications. NMC is also playing the role of investigating the challenges and complaints as an outcome of lack of skills and training, professional misconduct and issues related to health and safety. This professional body also helps in offering guidelines, resources and support to the professionals in their growth and development of career (Bogossian and Craven, 2021).

Apart from this, HCPC is another professional body of the UK that regulates various healthcare staff based on 15 professionals such as arts therapists and radiographers, biomedical scientists, operating department practitioners etc. The key role of HCPC is to frame the ethical practices and performance based standards for the HSC professionals who are included in the care services with the objective of safeguarding the people. Additionally, HCPC is also approving the programs of training and education which are designed for professionals and maintain register for them.

 HEE (Health Education England) is another professional body that is accountable for training, education and development of health workforce in the England. Its role is to make sure that whether NHS has right number of staff with the effective skills or positive behaviour or not to provide high quality of care to the patients.

Task 3: Evaluate the role of the inter-professional team in delivering Health and Social care.

 3.1 Explain the roles and responsibilities of the inter-professional team in meeting care needs in the case study.

3.2 Assess the difference between multi-disciplinary and inter-professional team working

3.3 Assess the potential barriers to team working and how they could be overcome.

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Scenario:

For task 3.1 imagine you are a part of an inter-professional healthcare team, where your supervisor has assigned you a task to evaluate the team's performance. This assessment involves comparing how effectively your team meets patient care needs relative to a multidisciplinary team working within your hospital's cardiac wing. Through this comparison, you'll observe each team's approach to care, roles, and responsibilities in addressing patients’ needs, as well as how effectively they collaborate to provide comprehensive healthcare. This task will help you understand the roles and responsibilities of each member of an inter-professional team and how they contribute to meeting patient care needs.

For task 3.2, assess the difference by clarifying the definitions, focusing on how multi-disciplinary teams involve separate assessments and care planning, while inter-professional teams emphasise integrated, collaborative approaches.

Further, in task 3.3 you are required to identify and assess the common challenges like communication breakdowns, conflicting professional hierarchies, or differing goals among team members. To address this you can discuss strategies like regular team meetings, conflict resolution practices and shared decision-making frameworks to illustrate practical solutions for each barrier.

3.1 Explain the roles and responsibilities of the inter-professional team in meeting care needs in the case study.

Inter-professional team refers to a group of professionals where all the individuals who are belong from different backgrounds are collaborate in order to ensure the effective and proper delivery of purposes and goals (Anderson et al, 2021). In the context of hospital's cardiac wing, speciality care providers, mental healthcare providers, nurses practitioners, occupational therapists, pharmacists, dieticians etc., are inter-professional teams that meets the care needs of the people in relation to multidisciplinary team.

Speciality care providers: These are the professional care workers who are accountable for determining and evaluating the HSC needs of the people. The key role of this inter-professional team to provide the emotional supports and supporting counselling services to the people. Speciality care providers are working in the collaboration with the family members of the individual to enable effective communication and determine any modifications in their health to report (Ekornes and Øye, 2022). This inter-professional team is also accountable to support the people and their family members in evaluating the significant resources such as financial aid, health insurance and other community services.

 Mental healthcare providers: It includes counsellors and psychologists, they are playing immersive role in meeting care needs of the patients as compare to multi-disciplinary team. In the context of hospital’s cardiac wing, they are collaborate with each to provide quality of care and services to the patients for enhancing their health and well-being. Mental health care providers are accountable for offering emotional and psychological health services to the people who require them. In the cardiac wing, this inter-professional team are accountable for providing therapies and prescribe particular prescription to cure the mental health disorders. As compare to multidisciplinary team, the mental healthcare providers are also helps in providing strategies that are valuable for the people at the time when they are suffering from depression, anxiety and stress effectively.

Occupational therapist: This inter-professional team are providing the services in the form of assisting the people to build and regain the competencies which are essential for their daily living. Additionally, another role of occupational therapists is to provide support to their clients to recover from incident or injury with the help of therapeutic treatments.

Primary care physicians: This inter-professional team is collaborate effectively in order to provide comprehensive care to the patients (Stephens et al, 2022). Primary care physicians assist the clients by providing physical therapeutic treatments. Another role of this inter-personal team is to provide the support to the people by conducting their physical examination to determine their health condition and assist them to regain their physical competencies by recommending some exercises.

3.2 Assess the difference between multi-disciplinary and inter-professional team working

 Multi-disciplinary team is defined as group of professionals where individuals belong from various backgrounds work independently in order to make sure the effective delivery of their common purposes and goals (Leadbeater et al, 2021). The inter-professional and multi-disciplinary team working are distinguish from each other.

3.3 Assess the potential barriers to team working and how they could be overcome.

Working in a team is not an easy task for the professionals to provide the quality of care and best services to the patients because they experience wide range of potential barriers such as communication gaps, lack of trust, ineffective leadership and social loafing in teams. Communication gap is considered as one of the common barrier that is face by the professionals while working in a team. For working in a team effectively, it is crucial to have proper communication skill in order to understand others and illustrate own perspectives (Zajac et al, 2021). This barrier is breaking the teams or raising the conflicts from which the professionals are not able to provide quality of care to the patients. To overcome this barrier it can be important for healthcare professionals to listening to others actively and asking the open questions to the team members of the provided information is not consistent and clear.

Additionally, lack of trust is another barrier that hampers team collaboration and teamwork while providing the care to the people. In the context of healthcare, trust is considered as one of the let factor that helps in building the trust among team members. Without trust, the team members are feeling uncomfortable in sharing ideas, providing feedback and transferring knowledge. To mitigate this barrier it is important for the professionals to communicate honestly and openly with the team members as well as setting the clear boundaries to enhance relationships. Another barrier to teamwork is ineffective leadership and it directly affects the performance of healthcare professionals to provide quality of care to the individual (Charef and Emmitt, 2021). In every healthcare organization it is important to have true leader because it is a source of motivation, encouragement and guidance for the team members from which they are influence to provide better care and services. To overcome this barriers, the healthcare professionals need to build strong leadership skill and becoming a motivator to provide clear vision.

 Apart from this, cultural difference is another barrier to team working that directly impacts the provision of services to the patients. In the healthcare organization, all the people in team are belong from diverse culture and background so they are not able to understand roles and responsibilities due to diverse language and communication style. From which they are unable to provide better and high quality of services to the patients. To overcome this barrier, the healthcare professionals need to provide cultural training to the workforces from which they gain knowledge and improve skills to provide better care to the patients.

Conclusion:

 In the end of assignment it has been concluded that, Healthcare professionals such as carers, Midwives, nurse etc., are accountable to follow all the rules and regulations of the essential legislations such as Human Rights Act 1998, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 etc. To report unhygienic healthcare practices, the mangers can be accountable to follow various mechanism such as organizational whistleblowing policy, report the concern externally etc. In addition, CQC, NICE, NHS, DHSC etc., are the regulatory bodies they perform roles of providing quality of care to the people for enhancing their health and well-being. On the other hand, RCN, NMC, GMC etc., are significant professional bodies that provide essential support and guidance to the HSC professionals to provide proper and quality of care to the patients. Additionally, specialty care providers, mental healthcare providers etc., are inter-professional teams and they put all the efforts to meet the care needs of the patients. At the time of doing work in team, HSC professionals are facing the barriers of communication gap, lack of trust etc.