CID460 Health And Social Care

Identified and evaluate the professional standards, ethics and codes of practice guiding the practitioner work for professional in nursing home.

 

You have outlined some of the strengths of the codes of practice etc. relevant to nursing homes, but you need to consider some of the possible limitations of these codes of practice etc. too. For example, you could consider the need for ongoing training of staff to ensure codes of practice are maintained, and this could present issues for smaller businesses etc. Make sure you consider some of the limitations.

You need to mention 2 different ways of measuring the services you have outlined, such as the structure/process/outcome indicators discussed in the materials. You then need to show some similarities and differences between the measures you discuss – for example, you could look at a measure that produces qualitative data, and a measure that produces quantitative data, and you would then be able to explain some of the similarities and differences between these types of data. Make sure you talk about specific measures that could be used, and include at least one similarity and one difference between these measures.

Identifying and evaluating the professional standards, ethics and codes of practice 

Strengths of the codes of practice

The standard of conduct is being set by codes of conduct which is expected from the healthcare professionals. It outlines attitudes and behaviour for the healthcare workers. The codes of conduct ensure that the standards are met by the workers, whether the workers are carrying out their role appropriately and determine the areas for supporting continuous professional development. The codes of conduct direct the healthcare workers in nursing homes to carry out their roles and responsibilities in an appropriate manner.  

• The healthcare workers should make sure that they can answer for their omissions and actions.
• The healthcare workers should uphold and promote dignity, privacy, well-being, health and rights of the people who use the care services.
• The works need to collaborate in order to ensure the delivery of safe, compassionate and high-quality support and care to the patients (Franklin, 2013).
• The communication flow between the workers needs to be appropriate for ensuring the safety of the people.
• Respecting the colleagues and people who use the care services.
• Promoting and upholding diversity, inclusion and equality.
• Improving the quality of support and healthcare through professional skills and knowledge.    

Limitations of the codes of practice

The codes of practice need to be followed by healthcare professionals in nursing homes but appropriate training is required by them. If the healthcare workers are not able to understand the importance of a code of practice then it would be difficult to execute within the nursing homes. Thus, enjoining training of staff is considered to be important for ensuring the codes of practice are maintained. However, the small organizations face problem in providing training to the staffs. The lack of adequate financial resources creates problems in carrying out the training programmes. Apart from this, recruitment and retention of the healthcare workers are also considered to be a major challenge for the small nursing homes. The high turnover of the staffs creates problems in following the codes of practice and ensuring high quality of care to the patients. The lack of adequate skills and knowledge among healthcare workers creates barriers to adopting the codes of practice. Thus, training is necessary for regular intervals but it needs financial resources within nursing homes.       

Comparing and contrasting two means of measuring the services of nursing home and domiciliary services

Nursing Homes

“Quality Initiatives (QIs)” is used for measuring for domains of care that are psychological, pharmacological, functional and clinical. It assists in measuring the quality of the services provided to the patients in the nursing homes by the staffs. The feedback gathered from the customer’s assists in determining the issues that are being faced by them and improving the necessary areas. The quality of the services should be as per the standard (Buttigieg, Rathert and Eiff, 2015).

The “Structured Quality Indicators” are used to measure the quality of the service provided. The data used are relatively inexpensive and rousingly available. The structured quality indicators are used for measuring the process of the service.  The performances of the staffs are taken into account for improving the quality of care.

The two measuring methods are being used to measure the quality of the services provided by the staffs of the nursing homes. However, the difference between the two methods is that Quality Initiatives (QIs) produces qualitative data and structured quality indicators produce quantitative data.        

Domiciliary services

The “Quality Benchmarks” are being used by the domiciliary care for monitoring the quality of the services provided by the staffs. The organizations use this framework for measuring the performance of the staffs and the quality of the services that are being provided by them. The quality assurance system can be applied with the help of this framework.

The “Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)” are being used within the Domiciliary Care services which are considered with the results for the clients. It assists in measuring the review rate of the services. The care is concerned with balancing the focus on the indicators of the appropriate practice and a satisfied and well-trained workforce.

The two measuring methods are being used to measure the quality of the services provided by the staffs of domiciliary care. However, the difference between the two methods is that Quality Benchmarks produces qualitative data and Key Performance Indicators produce quantitative data.

References

Buttigieg, S., Rathert, C. and Eiff, W. (2015). International best practices in health care management. 6th ed. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald.

Franklin, D. (2013). Nursing homes explained. 3rd ed. New York: Algora Pub.