The importance of continually improving my knowledge and working practice is to make sure that I am fully aware of and can adhere to all the current Health and social care standards
The importance of continually improving my knowledge and working practice is to make sure that I am fully aware of and can adhere to all the current Health and social care standards, legislations and guidelines for good practice in my place of work.
Ensuring that I improve my development enables me to keep up to date with my knowledge and skills and change proactively to make sure the service myself and my staff offer our residents is appropriate and relevant so that we can care for our residents effectively. This will benefit not just myself but also the staff, the organisation and the residents on the unit that I manage.
Skills for Health recognises that the majority of the future workforce is already employed a highly skilled and flexible workforce is through continuing professional development.2009:30
As a professional, I have a responsibility to engage in continuous professional development.
Managing a nursing unit where there is a team of 35 staff members which includes 8 registered nurses, it is important that I take action in keeping my skills and knowledge and seek to improve my capabilities across the range of task I carry out daily. This is especially important to me as I am not a registered nurse. Continually improving my knowledge is essential to my role and ensures I have the skills and knowledge to create the best for the organisation that I work for.
I need to be aware of most up to date legislations and guidelines, and the well fare requirements. As a unit manager of a nursing unit it is even more vital that I am aware and up to date with the above, as part of my role is to guide, support and influence other staff to do well in their own roles.
As the manager of a nursing unit I am responsible for others such as staff, my residents, the residents’ families and visitors etc. so it is imperative that I am knowledgeable in all areas of management to enable me to manage effectively and within the legislations set out by continuing my professional development as seen important for my career to progress and develop into other roles.
As with all aspects of working in a healthcare setting there is a risk of facing potential boundaries and barriers to professional development. However, it is the responsibility of the workplace to recognise the challenges and put in place strategies to eliminate or reduce them.
As a unit manager I make sure that the staff who I am responsible for have adequate regular supervisions and capture the training and support hey require to develop within their role. Although we have a bi monthly supervision staff do not necessarily have to wait until it’s their supervision to request or highlight a particular area to develop in. This also applies to myself as the manager, I don’t wait till supervision to address an issue or put names down for further training. Professional development needs to be continues and not by appointment.
Sometimes the nature of the work and the restrictions of the service can also be a barrier to staff who are willing to attend training but I cannot relieve them from the unit to attend otherwise there is inadequate staff cover for the unit. I have found that allocating staff to attend training on their days off if better. We are fortunate that our organisation has set aside funds to support staff development so staff get paid to attend external trainings.
95% of my staff on the unit speak English as a second language. I have come to find that language is an extremely important barrier that I needed to overcome in order to support the staff members within their role on the unit and in order for them to develop. The delivery of a service becomes very difficult when language is a barrier. The residents could not always understand the staffs way of speaking and nor did the staff always understand what the resident were saying. In order to overcome this, I arranged through my HR department for the staff with language difficulties to enrol in ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) courses at our local college.
People’s personal lives can also become barriers when it comes to personal development. Sometimes staff may want to develop into higher roles and take on more responsibilities but have not been able to do so due to their personal lives. These could be disabled family members they are responsible for or young children of their own to look after.
