Principles for implementing duty of care in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings.
Understand how duty of care contributes to safe practice.
1.1) Explain what it means to have a duty of care in own work role.
A duty of care is a legal obligation imposed on a carer requiring that they adhere to a good quality and standard of care. It is my duty to take care of vulnerable adults and to ensure that their needs and well-being are looked after. I exercise reasonable care with respect to individuals’ best interests, this includes protecting service users from any harm or abuse that may occur and avoiding any acts that could result in injury but it also means respecting service users and giving them choices. I am proficient enough to ensure that every service user is taken care of in a reasonable, responsible and respectful manner. It is my role to ensure that my duty is carried out safely and effectively working alongside my organisation’s policies and procedures’.
1.2) Explain how duty of care contributes to the safeguarding or protection of individuals.
My organisation and I have a duty of care to ensure that the service users we care for are safe, protected from abuse by other service users, staff, carers, friends and family. I therefore work within the safeguarding policies and procedures and it is important that I receive adequate training so that I can recognise and understand signs of abuse. It is my duty to record of all relevant information when an accident or incident occurs in the workplace. It is my responsibility to report any improper conduct or suspicion that I think may contribute to abuse. Duty of care and safeguarding work together because it’s my duty of care to provide protection and safety for a vulnerable adult whilst at the same time respecting their needs and choices. The Whistleblowing policy in my workplace makes it clear to me and to staff that it is staff’s responsibility to report improper conduct that compromises service user safety whilst ensuring confidentiality and protection from abuse for service users.
Know how to address conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between an individual’s rights and duty of care.
2.1) Describe potential conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between the duty of care and an individual’s rights.
It is my duty of care to support service users with their medication and to ensure that they are in good health. I support an individual with her medication and on one occasion she refused for me to administer the tablets. I encouraged her and explained to her that she needs to take her medication so that she can keep in good health but she still refused. I therefore gave her some time and space for her to reconsider and calm down; approximately half an hour later I returned back to support her with her medication but she said again that she didn’t want her tablets. I therefore recorded what happened, entered this also in the message book and completed an incident sheet. Her doctor was then contacted to explain that she refused her morning medication and to check that everything will be alright although she missed her morning medication. It is the service user’s right to refuse this service if they want to. It is my duty of care to ensure that service users are supported accordingly and when they refuse a service that I record and report this. People with a learning difficulty have the same rights as anyone else in deciding whether or not to engage in a particular activity. It is important as it is my duty to ensure service users’ safety. For example a service user may be a smoker and insist on smoking in her bedroom at night instead of in the smoking room and ignores all advice from staff who are concerned about the safety of everyone. Another example could be a service user who is a little unsteady on his feet but decides he wants to go out and use a bus or train instead of a taxi; he may be at risk of falling and injuring himself, staff and/or others