Personal and Professional Development

Task 1: Identifying and displaying the skills of a higher education student

It is important for the individual to develop academic skill set in order to achieve success in academic career. In the health and social care learning, the individual also focuses on developing academic skill set for completing the health care education and degree courses in order to progress ion the professional career and work as health care professional in near future.

Problem based learning skill is important academic skill in the health and social care academic career, where the individual must have the ability to develop problem based learning activities (Santana et al., 2018). There is several case study analysis and patient information and assessment, through which the individual is able to develop own understanding and come to know several techniques and treatment in the health care institution. Hence, for completing the academic courses in the health and social care, it is essential for the individuals to develop the problem based learning skill to improve own creativity and efficiency to work as a successful health care provider in the future professional career (Adams and Walls, 2020).

Information Technology (IT) skill is important academic skill in the recent era of globalisation, where the institutions digitalise their operations and management in order to achieve organisational excellence. In this regard, for achieving success in personal and professional career, the individual must have IT skill set for adopting latest technology in managing the organisational operations (Wickström et al., 2020). Through IT skill set, the individual can gather a vast range of information and data related to the health and social care services across the globe and develop own understanding and knowledge in order to complete the academic degree courses in health care. For becoming a successful health care professional, it is hereby essential for the individual to improve IT skill in order to adopt innovative techniques to handle the health and social care services, managing the institutional operations and maintaining patient dignity by providing quality services (Wickström et al., 2020).

Critical thinking and information gathering skill set is also important for completing the academic courses successfully, where the individual must have the capability of gathering information through authentic sources of information to improve own understanding and knowledge about the treatment facilities and latest health care equipment. Critical thinking and information gathering skill set provide a scope to the individual to improve creativity and innovation for working efficiently in near future as well as complete the academic courses successfully (Cosgrove, Corrie and Wolever, 2021). Through this skill, the individual would also be able to represent the critical perceptions and information informant of others and make effective decision for maximising patient care (Cosgrove, Corrie and Wolever, 2021). For academic courses, the critical thinking and information gathering skill set is hereby advantageous for the individual to develop in depth understanding about the patient care and management in the health care institutions.

The above mentioned skills are hereby beneficial to progress in the academic career and achieve success in the health and social care career path.

Task 2: Personal and professional development

Introduction

For Personal and professional development, it is necessary to review the skill set and knowledge that are required for achieving the academic and professional career success. In the health and social care settings, Personal and professional development is mandatory for the individual to meet the career objectives within effective time, through skill improvement and health care knowledge enhancement (Miller et al., 2017). Through reflective assessment, it is possible to create good planning of Personal and professional development in order to improve knowledge and skill set of the individuals for working efficiently in the health and social care settings. This reflective assessment hereby provides a scope to utilise the model of reflection for Personal and professional development and create action plan so that it would be possible to enhance personal and professional skill set to work as a health and social care service provider.

Reflective assessment

The reflective assessment is beneficial for reviewing own skill and capabilities for further improvement of knowledge and skill to work as an efficient health and social care service provider. The Gibb's reflective model is beneficial to reflect upon own knowledge and understanding as well as identify he key challenges in order to perform in the academic and professional career (Edward et al., 2019). As per the Gibb's reflective model, the stages are description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan, through which the individual can analyse own strengths and acknowledge the challenges for further improvement. The action plan will be developed for adopting the new skill set and improve knowledge for performing efficiently in the health and social care setting.

Description

Description is the first stage as per the Gibbs reflective model, where the individual can describe the own understanding and knowledge in working with the health care settings (Katoue et al., 2021). As a health and social care professional in the nursing care home, it is important to have in depth knowledge about the treatment process and patient care, where I try to utilise my own skill and academic knowledge to participate in the care home and develop good care plan for the patients. I also try to gather experience in managing health and safety of the patients, which is crucial in the health and social care setting, for protecting the lives of the individuals and creating values for them. Hence, the academic knowledge and skill set such as critical learning and information about health care practice are helpful for me to work as an efficient worker in the care settings for maximising the livelihood of the individuals in long run.

For the health and social care workers, it is important to have good academic skill set and knowledge about latest treatment and patient care for working efficiently and meet the career objectives (McFarlane et al., 2018). I try to work with others for gathering experience and knowledge for better performance. I contributed in the patient care and management starting from patient diagnosis, assessment, communication with the individuals, developing good care plan for the benefits of the patients. During the professional career, I also have continuous support from the health and social care managers and doctors for maximising patient care. The major challenges faced in the workplace are such as internal conflicts, resistance to change and lack of trust on other health care professionals, which raise difficulties for me to cooperate with others and work as a team. Health and social care service is a complex task where cooperation and communication among the health care professionals are mandatory (Sagorika and Hasegawa, 2018). However, I faced the challenges of lack of cooperation, poor communication, mistrust, and lack of bonding with each other, as well as internal conflicts.

Feelings

I feel that, it is important to work as a team in the health and social care settings, so that it would be possible for me to gather vast range of information and improve own knowledge through sharing information. The team members must be cooperative and communicative with each other for maximising patient outcome which would be safe and effective for the patients (Wickström et al., 2020). In this context, the health and leader and management team focus on enhancing partnership working practice for personal and professional skill development (Adams and Walls, 2020). I always seek help from the senior management team in the care settings, in order to understand the critical situation and adopt new technologies to treat the patients with quality care. I also focus on utilising my academic skill set such as knowledge gathering skill, time management and IT knowledge for developing good patient care plan. I feel that, if we work as a team, the existing challenges can be mitigated in long run for maximising the professional career objectives.

Evaluation

Personal academic knowledge and professional skill set are important for the health care workers to work proficiently and analyse the patient needs in order to provide the best quality care and treatment to the individuals (Santana et al., 2018). The major personal skill in the health and social care context are such as IT skill, knowledge in health care management, time management and active listening are effective for gaining in-depth knowledge and improve the efficiency to work as a successful professional (Sørensen et al., 2020). On the other hand, the professional skill set is also important to work in the health and social care setting, where the professional skills are such as empathy, teamwork, communication and cooperation, working ethics, flexibility management, problem solving, critical analytical and decision making skill (Cosgrove, Corrie and Wolever, 2021). These are essential to develop good care plan for the patients and treat them with the best quality care.

As a health care professional, I try to improve my academic knowledge and personal skill of time management, active listening and empathy so that I can work with others. I also try to improve my IT skill in order to adopt the latest technology for patient management. In the recent era of digitalisation, IT skill and knowledge is helpful for me to improve my efficiency in patient management. Additionally, the knowledge of health care services, medicines and latest treatment further provide me a scope to work efficiently and create values for the patients. However, I have faced the challenges of poor communication and lack of cooperation that deteriorates my performance as I cannot share the information and get support from others. There are also other challenges such as lack of management, poor participation, presence of unskilled workforce and internal conflicts, which raise difficulties for me to work with others and achieve the career objectives in long run.

Analysis

Through the reflective assessment, it is possible to identify major strengths of working as health care professionals and the strengths are good academic knowledge over the health and social care activities, knowledge in IT, evidence and problem based learning style and time management, which are beneficial for me to work proficiently in the health care institutions. The major weakness are such as poor communication and cooperation skill set, lack of leadership skill and poor decision making skill, which will hamper the working process in the healthcare. Hence, it would be beneficial for me to overcome my weakness so that I can mitigate the existing challenges and work productively by utilising the academic knowledge, IT skill and organisational resources for maximising safe and effective patient care. The leadership skill and critical decision making skill are important for me to manage the internal health care professionals such as doctors, nurses, general physicians, therapist, psychiatrics, health care managers, social workers to develop good decision for patient care and management.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, it is essential for the health and social care professional to improve academic knowledge and skill set for working efficiently in the health care setting. It is a critical job, where the cooperation and communication among the doctors, nurses, general physicians, therapist, psychiatrics, health care managers, social workers, government and the social communities as a whole are mandatory in order to maximise the wellbeing of the individuals. I always try to utilise the latest technology and adopt innovative practice in order to manage safe and effective patient care. The major challenges that I have faced in working in the care settings are lack of communication and non-cooperation, poor management, mistrust and lack of bonding in the team members, as well as lack of skilled and clinically knowledgeable workers in the health care institutions. In this context, I would like to develop my communication and cooperation skill set so that I can enhance workplace interaction for better working practice. In addition to this, I wish to develop leadership skill in order to manage the workers and develop partnership working practice, so that I can lead other health care workers towards achieving the future success. The IT skill set and improvement of the critical problem solving and decision making skill are also important for me to achieve the future professional career objective by supporting efficient patient care and management.

Action plan

The action plan for achieving the future professional success will be developed further,

I would like to develop the professional skill set such as communication, cooperative skill, leadership skill, It skill and critical analytical and decision making skill set, which are mandatory to become a successful health care worker. My long term career objective is to become an efficient health care professional to protect the lives of the patients and maximise their wellbeing in long run by providing the best quality care and treatment. For achieving the aim, it is essential for me to develop these professional skill and personal knowledge, so that I can mitigate the challenges of internal conflicts, resistance to change, presence of non-clinical staff, misunderstanding and poor decision making practice. This will further provide me an opportunity to me to progress in the health and social care career path and achieve the career objectives proficiently. The academic skill set such as IT skill, knowledge in health care activities, critical analytical and information gathering skill are helpful for me to develop the personal and professional skill to manage the patients in the care settings. The academic knowledge and in depth understanding about the health and social care activities support my personal and professional skill improvement practice in long run, where I can develop strong health care team to maximise patient care and improve standard of living of the social communities by delivering the best quality care.

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Reference List

Adams, J.G. and Walls, R.M., 2020. Supporting the health care workforce during the COVID-19 global epidemic. Jama, 323(15), pp.1439-1440.

Cosgrove, F.L., Corrie, S. and Wolever, R.Q., 2021. An exploration of personal benefits reported by students of a health and wellness coach training programme. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, pp.1-17.

Edward, K.L., Walpole, L., Lambert, G., Phillips, S., Galletti, A., Morrow, J., Gow, J. and Hiller, J., 2019. Competencies and skill development in maternity care services in Victoria-A qualitative study. Nurse education in practice, 39, pp.55-60.

Katoue, M.G., Awad, A.I., Dow, A.W. and Schwinghammer, T.L., 2021. Interprofessional education and collaborative practice in Kuwait: attitudes and perceptions of health sciences students. Journal of Interprofessional Care, pp.1-10.

McFarlane, K.A., Judd, J.A., Wapau, H., Nichols, N. and Devine, S., 2018. How primary health care staff working in rural and remote areas access skill development and expertise to support health promotion practice. Rural and remote health, 18(2), p.122.

Miller, J.J., Lianekhammy, J., Pope, N., Lee, J. and Grise-Owens, E., 2017. Self-care among healthcare social workers: An exploratory study. Social Work in Health Care, 56(10), pp.865-883.

Sagorika, S. and Hasegawa, S., 2018. Designing a Soft-skill Cultivation Platform for Health Care Professionals (HCPs). In The 13th International Conference on Knowledge, Information and Creativity Support Systems (KICSS 2018).

Santana, M.J., Manalili, K., Jolley, R.J., Zelinsky, S., Quan, H. and Lu, M., 2018. How to practice person‐centred care: A conceptual framework. Health Expectations, 21(2), pp.429-440.

Sørensen, M., Groven, K.S., Gjelsvik, B., Almendingen, K. and Garnweidner-Holme, L., 2020. The roles of healthcare professionals in diabetes care: a qualitative study in Norwegian general practice. Scandinavian journal of primary health care, 38(1), pp.12-23.

Wickström, H., Tuvesson, H., Öien, R., Midlöv, P. and Fagerström, C., 2020. Health Care Staff’s Experiences of Engagement When Introducing a Digital Decision Support System for Wound Management: Qualitative Study. JMIR human factors, 7(4), p.e23188.