Autonomy In Health And Social Care Essay

A Care workers job function is to ‘provide personal care to people of all ages. Servicing people who require support as a result of a disability or health concerns’(Bing) they assist vulnerable people with their day to day activities to enable them to live as independently as possible.
Care Workers main duties and activities can include, physical assistance such as ‘helping with personal care like washing, using the toilet and dressing, food preparation, feeding and giving out medication’ (nationalcareersservice.direct.gov) in order to help the service users have good hygiene and a good diet this will be carried out on a day-to-day basis. To ensure the safety of the service users who reside in a residential home, Care workers go with them when

they leave the residential home and return with them. Care workers will also help service users living at their own home with domestic work such as, housework, laundry and shopping. ‘helping clients manage their budget, pay bills and write letters’ (nationalcareersservice.direct.gov) helping service users manage their budget and pay their bills will allow them to continue living in their own home so Care workers may take on this duty for service users living at home. Additional responsibilities of a Care worker can include, ‘helping to organise leisure activities’ (nationalcareersservice.direct.gov) as this allows service users to achieve the intellectual life quality factor of engaging in activities.
In terms of variety, a Care workers job role can vary in the tasks required within their job role. For example, A Care Worker will carry out a wide range of task such as, getting to know the service users in order to build good relationships and communication, helping out with domestics like, food preparation and cleaning. Also, they help with feeding and giving medication to service users, going out with service users, this can be for shopping purposes or simply offering assistance by supporting them whilst out. Care workers help service users manage their finances and handle bills. In addition, Care workers have to take records during their day to day work with service users in order to give feedback to others regarding the service users care requirements. Therefore, Care workers can be seen as having a wide range of responsibilities and tasks, because they are required to take on many responsibilities compared to other jobs, for example, ‘assembly line’ jobs, in which workers only carry out one task. A day as a Care worker
Care workers have little autonomy in their job role, autonomy is ‘freedom from external control or influence; independence’ (Bing), external control or influence in this sense can be seen as people such as, handlers or supervisors who may tell workers what specific task to carry out and what decisions to make when delivering care services.

Care workers have little autonomy as they report to supervisors and take meeting to instruct them on the best decisions to take when delivering care. Therefore, they don’t make independent and professional decisions themselves as follow set rules which restricts the level of which they are autonomous practitioners. Autonomy comes with accountability and responsibility. Although Care workers have little independence, they have designated responsibilities that comes with their job role. They also have a responsibility to abide by the policies and procedures set up by the health organisation, for example, the principles of care, which is ‘the way health, social care and early years providers should behave towards individuals in their care. A care worker should treat an individual in the way that they would like to be treated and they should work in the best interests of the individual.’ (bing.com). Care workers are responsible for acting according to the principles of care when delivering care. As this is stated in their contract of employment and professional codes of practice. They also have a responsibility to conform to relevant

legislation such as, the Health and Safety at Work Act, which requires ‘employers and the self-employed to protect people other than those at work ‘e.g. members of the public, volunteers, clients and customers) from risks to their health and safety arising out of, or in connection with, their work activities.’ (hse.gov.uk). These responsibilities are important in the safe guarding of both Care workers and service users, and Care workers can be held accountable if something goes wrong. They can be held at fault by Service users, through a duty of care, legal responsibility and through civil law and health and safety. In addition, their employer can hold them at fault because they have signed a contract in which they have agreed to take responsibility and accountability for their actions.
Care Workers often work in teams alongside colleagues, for example working as a team within a residential care home to share responsibilities regarding residents.

They can also work with a number of varying practitioners, and in different agencies in which Health, Social Care and Early Years workers work in partnership. Furthermore, Care Workers can also work in Multi-Disciplinary Teams. ‘Multidisciplinary teams consist of staff from several different professional backgrounds who have different areas of expertise. These teams are able to respond to clients who require the help of more than one kind of professional.’

(communitycare.co.uk).

Who with and to what extent?

Although, Multidisciplinary teams can assist clients who require the help of more than one profession, they can lead to problems. For example, there can be confusion concerning the roles and boundaries within situations because different professions have undergone different training and their professions will differ in culture. Also, there is usually many changes in the structuring and organisation due to what the service user requires at the time, so team members aren’t always clear on what is needed; this is a disadvantage to service users because, accurate care can’t be delivered as practitioner do not always know what is required. Another drawback of working in multidisciplinary teams is power dynamics, this is the way in which power works in a setting, some practitioners within a MTD may be considered to have more status than others. Practitioners that are a minority can feel marginalised, as they may sense they have a lack of power and their professional identity may suffer. This disadvantage’s both the practitioner and client, because the practitioner may have a reduced level of confidence within themselves which can lead to a lack of self-esteem; therefore, they can withdraw their professional input regarding patients which can negatively impact the care services given for patients. Additionally, ‘Social work, health, and education all have their own jargon, which can be alienating.’ (communitycare.co.uk) this can also be confusing and lead to miscommunication within multidisciplinary teams. Which can lead to inaccurate care for service users.
Within multidisciplinary team’s decision making should be shared. ’Any action to be taken should be a shared vision owned by all team members.’ (communitycare.co.uk). this can be difficult because different professions have different views. For example, Care works may have different priorities and loyalties to those of their colleagues because they specialise in contrasting areas, which can lead to different views on the best possible practice.
On the other hand, multidisciplinary teams are beneficial for both practitioners and service users. MDTs are beneficial for the people cared by them because they are more likely to receive accurate diagnosis as they are getting diagnosed by various health professionals rather than one. Be offered a choice of treatments decided by a group of experts, receive better coordination and continuity of care through all stages of cancer, be treated in line with locally agreed policies and national guidelines, be offered appropriate and consistent information, because the person giving the information should be aware of the team’s strategy for their care, have their physiological and social needs considered, and communication between different team members is better where they have a formal working relationship, therefore, care is more likely to be accurate.