Unit 7 - Principles of Safe Practice in Health and Social Care
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
A.P1 Explain the implications of a duty of care in a selected health or social care setting.
A.P2 Discuss ways in which complaints and appeals procedures address failure in a duty of care in a selected health or social care setting.
A.M1 Assess the importance of balancing individual rights with a...
Unit 7 - Principles of Safe Practice in Health and Social Care
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Unit 7 assignment 1 safeguarding matters
Introduction
Duty of care is a moral or legal obligation to ensure the safety or well-being of
others. “employers have a duty of care to their employees” (Oxford Dictionary).
It is a set of responsibilities that professionals who work with vulnerable individ-
uals have to follow to keep service users healthy, safe and free from harm.
Duty of care could apply in a wide range of settings, including schools, nurs-
eries, hospitals, residential homes, clinics, dental practices and homes. Duty of
care could apply towards children, patients, any vulnerable adult or group or in-
dividual service user, such as yourself.
The principle of duty of care is that you have an obligation to avoid acts or
omissions, which could be reasonably foreseen to injure or harm other people.
This means that you must be accountable for your actions and anticipate risks
for your clients. It also includes knowing what to do when you are aware of
poor practice in your workplace and how to report it.
Nurses by virtue of their education have the ability, responsibility and the obli-
gation to help patients. Nurses are often placed in situations where they are ex-
pected to be agents for patients, physicians and the organization simultane-
ously, which may have conflicting needs, wants and goals when it comes to
duty of care.
Importance
Individuals have five main rights:
1. Choice
2. Confidentiality
3. Consultation
4. Equal and fair treatment
5. Protection from harm and abuse
Duty of care is a legal obligation that must be followed in order to maintain the
individual's rights and not compromise them in any way. This means putting
the individual at the center of your work and following the procedures your em-
ployer has set out.
Duty of care is a set of rules, protocols or minimum expectations of what you
must do and how quickly you must act in certain circumstances. For example, if
a child reports they have been physically abused by a parent or a mentally-ill
patient says they are going to commit suicide. In a health setting, it might be
to report that some equipment is faulty, incorrect or unsafe working practice,
bullying, signs of drug misuse, fraud or waste.
Service managers have to train their staff members to ensure they understand
their responsibilities when it comes to duty of care. They might do this through
their job description, appraisals, training courses and on-the-job training and
supervision.
Lapses or failure to do so could lead to conflict, risk, unnecessary suffering,
mistakes and accidents, legal implications or unlawful death in some cases. Un-
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,wanted consequences for you as a worker could include being struck off a reg-
ister, media attention, fines, demoted, disciplinary, imprisonment.
It’s important to balance individual rights as The Equality Act (2010) states that
you should treat everyone equality no matter what their sex, race etc.
The way professionals work in each health and social care sector is under-
pinned by a set of basic values that influence working practices and enable re-
lationships to be developed between service providers and users. It is impor-
tant to treat service users in a kind, friendly way same as you would wish to be
treated yourself. You must deliver care artfully, with compassion, caring and re-
spect for each patient's dignity and human rights.
Legal obligation - Nurses have a legal obligation to their patients, to the doc-
tors and the hospital trust they work in, visitors, themselves and is a unique po-
sition of responsibility. It is their duty and care to protect wellbeing and prevent
harm. You have to act in the 'public interest' because you have a duty to sup-
port and prioritize the welfare of the service users.
You should not take on tasks that you do not think you can perform safely.
Advocating the rights of individuals – Service users put their trust in you
and expect you to act on their behalf or express their views when they can't. It
is important for you to act on their request and do as much as you can within
your role. When it’s something you cannot do, you have to inform a manager
and make sure you don't keep any disclosures to yourself.
Protecting health, safety and wellbeing – Always take care of yourself so
you can take better care of your service users.
“When you are working with service users, you should be able to explain to
your managers how your actions were safe, fair, considered, and proportionate
or warranted.”
Source: Heath and Social Care Student Book 1, Pearson
Ensuring safe practice – Follow the safety expectations set out by your em-
ployer and the workplace, such as Health and Safety risks and hazards. Try to
help to minimize risk to yourself and others.
Code of conduct – Best practice when it comes to talking to service users,
how to talk and interact with them. How to be presentable and make the right
impression.
Balancing individual rights with risks – Deciding to go ahead with a risky
treatment or whether to put a relative in a care home can be a difficult deci-
sion. Acting in their best interests and what they would like to happen can be
two different things. Individuals have the right to give consent to things but are
not always allowed to take matters into their own hands. A patient might try to
discharge themselves, refuse medication, seek medical treatment abroad that
isn't available in the UK, want gender reassignment or even seek to end their
life through euthanasia. Human Rights can be interpreted differently by people
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, from different countries, backgrounds or circumstances and has to be looked at
individually.
Acting in a person's best interests – Unless a person agrees to let you ad-
vocate for them they can probably advocate for themselves. Some people can-
not speak for themselves at difficult moments and be properly heard, e.g. in-
fants, people with dementia and other vulnerable groups. They may need you
to help them make 'informed choices'. It is important to check whether the per-
son can do so themselves or give consent.
Case study 2: Wellings NHS Trust, Ward 3B
The patient, Lizzie, is vulnerable as she is in hospital and the nurses and ward
manager have a duty of care towards her. They must uphold her legal obliga-
tions to be protected and kept safe from harm and abuse. Her interest is to get
better, so the nurses must ensure she is monitored and treated properly, with
regular checks and no mistakes. She might be sedated and unable to meet her
own basic needs for health and safety. She has put her trust in the ward man-
ager and nurses and given them the legal duty to do things for her.
Hospitals have a non-delegable duty of care, meaning they are almost always
responsible for patients' wellbeing. However, Lizzie is an adult who expects mo-
ments of privacy even when she is in hospital, and having visitors is allowed.
She may wish to have the curtains drawn if she is getting changed or for other
personal reasons. She is entitled to have friends and family visit her at certain
times and for them to bring items into the ward, e.g. food, flowers or comfort
items. These things make her experience of being in hospital more like home
and may even help her recover better but comes with risks.
In the same way, a child under sixteen will usually have their parent stay with
them overnight in hospital and they will have delegated authority to take care
of their feeding and bathing needs instead of the nurse who is also present. It
makes the child feel more at home.
Some patients may refuse treatment, because they dislike the particular side-
effects of a drug, disagree with the treatment, think they no longer need treat-
ment, want to discharge themselves early, fear of injections, anaesthetic, diffi-
culty swallowing pills and other reasons. Patients have the right to refuse treat-
ment and not have things forced on them against their will. It is important to
respect dignity, privacy and Human Rights. You would have to be careful to ex-
plain the consequences of refusing treatment if there was a risk of them deteri-
orating.
At the end of the case study, Lizzie refuses to talk to the ward manager. This
could almost be seen as refusing treatment as she is refusing to be investi-
gated and therefore refusing to get better, which is why she is there. The ef-
fects of the medication side effects or paid might also means she cannot com-
municate well.
Failures in duty of care
1. Visitors
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