Unit 3: Personal Development In Care Settings Assignment

Introduction

The role of a healthcare assistant is pivotal in modern care settings, requiring a delicate balance of technical skill, emotional intelligence, and adherence to legal standards. To excel in this field, students must understand their specific responsibilities, ranging from patient safety to social support, while navigating the statutory requirements like the Care Act 2014. This article explores the essential frameworks of professional practice and provides comprehensive Assignment Help for those documenting their journey toward becoming a qualified care professional.

Main Body

1.1 Own role duties and responsibilities

There are several duties and responsibilities for the role in care settings, such as healthcare assistant, which are discussed below:

• Ensuring safety: The healthcare assistant ensures the safety of the patient and the prevention of any type of risk involved in the patient’s treatment (Skills for Care, 2024). This is focused on ensuring the safety protocols and assurance that the cleanliness is managed. The healthcare assistant also ensures that the equipment used is cleaned and sterilised and avoids any such kind of threat that can affect the person’s health.
• Supporting health based need: The healthcare assistant works in giving health based support to the patients. This involves the help in medications and diagnosis, recording the patient progress on wellbeing, reporting it to the senior professional, etc. (Skills for care, 2025). This works as the guide and support to the medical professional and plays great role in the smooth medication of the person seeking the care.
• Emotional and social support: The healthcare assistant helps in building the relationship with the patient that leads to emotional support and fulfils the social need. This makes the individuals receiving the treatment feel better and shows improvement in the diagnosis.

1.2 Standards and agreed ways of working

It is necessary to identify the standards, legal requirements and agreed ways of working that can impact the knowledge, understanding and skill for the completion of the job. The standards are the minimum level of performance of the job, which must follow a certain code of conduct (Tang et al, 2022). Based on National Occupation standards, it involves providing the care with the person’s dignity, taking the consent and providing the person-centered care. For example, to work in this sector as a healthcare assistant, there is a requirement to complete the Care Certificate. Thus, this improved the knowledge that complying with this requirement is necessary to work effectively as a healthcare assistant.

The legal requirements for the smooth functioning of the healthcare assistant requires to know the certain laws prevailing in the nation. These laws include legislation such as The Care Act 2014, which states that the regional authorities have the responsibility to provide for the health-based needs of the people. This needs to be understood by the healthcare assistant for better practice.

The agreed ways of working mean the healthcare assistants have agreed to work under the policies of the organisation. The different organisations have different polices that healthcare assistant needs to know for working as per the requirement (Stephens et al, 2024). For example, the Safeguarding policy gives knowledge to the healthcare assistant on empowerment, protection and accountability in the workplace.

1.3 Ensure that your values do not obstruct the working practice

The role of a healthcare assistant needs to be professional and systematic so that it can meet the standards of the work. The healthcare assistant is needed to ensure that the personal feeling, beliefs and attitude do not impact the working practice. For example, if a healthcare assistant is vegan but, due to the profession, they may be required to prepare a meat-based meal for the patient for the completion of the job in a required manner (Symvoulakis et al, 2022). The worker can ensure that these personal feelings, beliefs and attitudes do not obstruct the working in the following ways:

• Self-awareness: This helps in the role of healthcare assistant by reflecting on their values and become aware of self. By forming an understanding of their own values, the worker better manages their own beliefs and professionalism in the working.
• Open-mindedness: The Practice of open-mindedness by the healthcare assistant leads to the understanding of the various perspectives and ideas (Alshammari et al, 2022). This benefits in easily adopting to the practices that does not meet own values but are required in the professionalism.
• Professionalism: Maintaining professionalism helps the healthcare assistant to distinguish between personal feelings and work-related practices. This helps in preventing the obstacle that may be created by the bias in the work.

2.1 Reflecting on work activities

Reflection means reflecting on one's values and gaining in-depth knowledge of the experience. Reflecting on the own work activities is an important way to enhance knowledge, skills and practice.

• Identification of the skill gap: This helps in looking at the past event and identifying what went well or what could have been done better. This gained information helps in assessing the skill gap by learning and ways to implement them for improved working. This is necessary for the healthcare assistant to identify the knowledge acquired based on past experiences. This also leads to the formation of strategies to resolve any issue found so that they might not hinder the smooth working practice (Bourke et al, 2025). For example, a healthcare assistant, due to the free check-up camp, was unable to manage the pack schedule in the last event held by the organisation. By reflecting on that experience, the healthcare assistant identified that time management skills are lacking and the development of the same may help in effective practices in the future.
• Continuous learning: The healthcare assistant, through the reflection, can continuously learn and improve for better work. This helps in giving the tools and techniques to evolve in the role on a long-term basis. This is effective for healthcare practices that meet the changes and requirements with time professionally.

2.2 Own knowledge meets standards

There are certain codes of conduct, such as the Code of Conduct for Healthcare Support Workers and Adult Social Care Workers in England. These set standards for the healthcare assistant to be able to perform by matching with these set adherence (Raunkiaer et al, 2025). The knowledge, skills and understanding to meet these standards can be assessed in the following way:

• Identification of the work if meeting the standards: The knowledge of the standards helps the role of the healthcare assistant to understand whether their own performance is meeting the code of conduct or not.
• Data collection and analysis: In the role of a healthcare assistant, it can be done by collecting the information on the performance and the code of conduct through various sources such as co-workers, feedback from the senior, etc. Further, the data is analysed, which gives an understanding of the same and helps in the personal development of the healthcare assistant for effective professional practices.
• Refection: Reflecting upon the gained information helps the healthcare assistant in forming an understanding of the current performance. It can plan for the development for the better future working that does meets the standards (Hamdan Alshehri et al, 2021). This provides quality-based care to the patients by keeping them up-to-date with the industry and continuous learning for enhanced working.

2.3 Ability to reflect on work activities

Reflection is a crucial ability that is needed by healthcare assistants to reflect on their work activities. This is essential in understanding what is lacking in the current working practices in the healthcare setting (Merkel and Schorr, 2025). Describing the experience on the past event that the healthcare assistant has experienced. For example, a healthcare assistant has recently found that they gave an additional dose of the medicine to the patient during the practice session. Feelings involved in the role are the feelings experienced in the situation. For example, the healthcare assistant was so nervous and lost confidence in the practice that time. Evaluation tells about the experience that can be good or bad at that time (O’Malley et al, 2023). For example, the healthcare assistant learned a lot during that practice session, such as empathy and patient handling. The inability to manage the difficult situation was felt as challenging.

The analysis draws findings based on the evaluation. For example, a healthcare assistant found that there was a lack of stress management, which needs to be developed to handle the situation more professionally. The conclusion finally summarises the whole experience of the worker. For example, a healthcare assistant, due to giving the overdose of the medicine in the practice session, got panicked and could not handle that. It was found to be the lack of stress management that would be beneficial to act more in a professional way. The action plan follows the systematic guide to develop the lacked ability (Arjama et al, 2024). For example, stress management will be developed by attending the webinars and reading books within the time frame of 2 months by the healthcare assistant.

3.1 Sources of support

Learning and development are significant for the healthcare assistant for improving and meeting the needs of the working practices in a better way. Several sources are beneficial in the learning and enhancement of the healthcare assistant mentioned as below:

• Formal support: As the role of healthcare assistant, the support is seek from the superiors, senior managers and peers. The manager provides the knowledge that can help in skill requirement and current working of the worker.
• Informal support: The support gained from informal groups formed by the healthcare assistant while working with the colleagues that helps in assessing the need to develop.
• Supervision and appraisal: Through supervision, the healthcare assistant obtains the performance appraisal that can help in identifying the need for the training (Riwitis and Navarroli, 2024). The supervision also helps in gaining the information on what is incorrect about working and how to correct it at the same time.
• Within the organisation: There is training provided by the organisation which helps the healthcare assistant with the required knowledge.
• Beyond the organisation: There are several coaching and seminars that helps the healthcare assistant to gain the required skills for better working practices.

3.2 Process for agreeing on a personal development plan

The personal development plan is a systematic tool that guides the development of the capabilities and knowledge that are required to work effectively. This is prepared based on the found skill gap that needs to be improved to meet the working requirement by the healthcare assistant (Korytkowski et al, 2022). This follows the whole process of agreeing on it with the manager:

• Analysis of the current work: The manager, through supervision and appraisal, helps in knowing about the skill gap that needs to be enhanced to meet the standards of the healthcare practice. The Healthcare assistant also, through self-assessment and reflection, assesses the need to develop in the future for better working.

• The preparation of the PDP: It is prepared by the healthcare assistant with the manager. The manager helps in the setting up of the goals, activities and time within which it can be completed (Edelman et al, 2021). For example, there is a need to provide the training on first aid to the healthcare assistant. This will be achieved within a specific time through on-the-job training by the manager and this plan was developed by the healthcare assistant and manager.
• Continuous monitoring: This involves the monitoring that is done by the manager on whether the goals have been achieved or not. It focuses on the follow-up and feedback of the working practices and training provided. This tells about the results and the future need to make the changes and further development.

The following should be involved in the process of agreeing on the PDP:

• The individual- The healthcare assistant for whom the PDP is created needs to be involved.
• Carers- Other carers play a crucial role in the training and learning process of the healthcare assistant, which are needed to be engaged.
• Advocates- The advocates are engaged in gaining the knowledge of any law and legislations on healthcare by the healthcare assistant (Cottrell, 2021).
• Supervisor, line manager or employer- These play a crucial role in making the healthcare assistant available with the facility and resources for the learning.
• Team members- The team can also get the same training as the healthcare assistant, which also needed to be included.

3.3 Contribute and agree to own personal development plan

Contributing and agreeing on the PDP is done by the healthcare assistant with the involvement of the manager. It helps show the qualities possessed and lacked by the healthcare assistant (Eriksen et al, 2023). It also shows the objectives made in the PDP that are to be followed for the skill improvement of the healthcare assistant. Below is an example of the way to contribute and agree to the own personal development plan:

“Accompanied by my manager, I was fully involved in the preparation of my PDP. Through the supervision, it was found that I need to work on gaining the Level 2 Diploma, on which my manager also agreed with. For this purpose, the time frame set is 12 months and during that period, I need to report to the leader as well. In another supervision, it was found that there is a requirement for the First aid training which will be provided for 4 month.”

Area of development	Activities	Resources	Time
Level 2 Diploma	It will be achieved by enrolling in a course.	Laptop, Wi-Fi-connectivity and books.	12 months
First aid training	This will be developed through on-the-job training.	Book for guide, note-making and pen.	4 months

4.1 Learning activity improvement of own knowledge

Several learning activities help in improving healthcare assistant knowledge, skill and understanding of the better working practices. The different learning activities are formal training, meeting with professionals and peers, self-directed, mentoring programmes and reflective practices. Formal training is the training programme that is provided by either the organisation or another external agency in the role. It has significance in providing the opportunity to learn and grow in the working practices (Shenoy et al, 2023). This involves the various courses that can be off-job or on-job that help in acquiring the knowledge of the better practices in the role. For example, through the training on First aid, the healthcare assistant was then able to perform CPR on a patient, which saved the person's time. This attainment of knowledge is effective in broadening the functioning of the healthcare assistant and fulfilling the duty in a better manner. It is also beneficial in widening the career prospect of the caregiver and leading to the delivery of the quality of services with professionalism.

4.2 Reflecting on a situation has improved my knowledge

Reflecting on certain healthcare situations can help in improving the knowledge, skill and understanding of the healthcare assistant. For example, as in the role of a healthcare assistant, it once happened where the overdose of the medicine was provided to the patient and was unable to handle the situation, which led to stress and a panicked situation. Later, by reflecting upon it, the healthcare assistant found that there was a need to manage the stress (Hwang et al, 2021). The situation gave the understanding of the requirement to maintain a calm environment in the care setting when it was not a big case and the dose was still minimal. The event has led to gaining of the knowledge on the skill lacked which are the decision making at that time. As a healthcare assistant, it was identified that there is also a need to manage the list on the proportion of the dosage when giving the medication. This is effective in developing the decision making at that time with that information by healthcare assistant. It equips the understanding that will help the healthcare assistant to work systematically and as per the standard in the future.

4.3 Importance of CPD

CPD refers to the process that follows the continuous monitoring of the skills, understanding and knowledge of the healthcare assistant. This is the individual learning not only through the training, but also with the continuous working and experience with time. There are several benefits of CPD, which are given below:

• It helps keep the healthcare assistant up to date with the recent trends in the care sector industry. It is essential for the improved knowledge and meeting the working practices standards.
• CPD also gives confidence to the healthcare assistant and enhances self-esteem for better quality work in the care delivery service (Hysong et al, 2021). This leads to the belief to tackle the challenges with more positive approach and ability to make the resolutions in the difficult times and enhance the decision making.
• This leads to an increase in the expertise of the healthcare assistant, broadens the area of working practices and provides quality service in an improved manner. For example, several types of CPD help in gaining expertise, such as mentoring, coaching, peer observation, learning courses, etc.

4.4 Feedback develops knowledge

Feedback is the process of gaining the review on one’s performance of the work in the care setting. This can be achieved from others such as team members, other colleagues, those who use their healthcare services, families, carers and advocates (Nayakarathna et al, 2022). There are several benefits of the feedback in the development of the knowledge, skills and understanding of the healthcare assistant.

• Feedback leads to the access of the qualities that are currently possessed by the healthcare assistant and those which are lacking for the fulfilment of the role in the care setting. For example, once the feedback from the senior that gave the information on the technique to handle the equipment could have been more efficient if learnt properly. It resulted in improved performance while using the equipment.
• Feedback from the team members and colleagues helps in the skill improvement that can help the healthcare assistant to practice in a better way (Serra and Zacarés, 2022). For example, once it happened, the feedback on skills given by the peer led to the knowledge in the area of improvement of the communication skills by the healthcare assistant.
• Feedback from the families helps in providing better treatment to the patient. This is also beneficial in the identification of the activities to be done to improve by the healthcare assistant.

4.5 Record progress about personal development

PDP can help to access and record the progress made by the health worker during the time of personal development.

Skills	Activities	Resources	Time	Status
Stress management	This will be acquired by working on mindfulness and learning the basic tricks of managing calm under pressure through online sessions.	Laptop, internet connection and online course.	2 months	Done
Time management	This will be developed by joining the webinars to manage the schedule and reading the books and blogs on it.	Laptop, internet connection, books, blog posts, etc.	3 months	Done
Qualification in care	It will be attained by enrolling in a nationally recognised government aided programme that is the Diploma in health and social care 2.	Laptop, Wi-Fi-connectivity, study guide, course book and materials.	12 months	Ongoing
Basic healthcare services	This will be developed through the on-job training session on first aid treatment.	Book for guide, note-making, diary and pen.	5 months	Pending

Above is the PDP that is expanding the progress made on the development objective. This also gives details on the area to be enhanced and the activities for the same (Monaro et al, 2021). It also provides the resources for it, the time required and the current status on the progress made.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the progression of a healthcare assistant depends on a continuous cycle of reflection, feedback, and structured learning. By aligning personal values with professional standards and utilizing tools like Personal Development Plans (PDPs), practitioners can ensure they provide high-quality, person-centered care. Embracing lifelong learning not only fulfills academic requirements but also enhances the safety and well-being of the individuals within the care system.

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References

Books and Journals

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Bourke, E.M., Douglas, N., Nehme, Z., Knott, J., Craig, S.S. and Babl, F.E., 2025. Qualitative Exploration of Health Care Professionals’ Experiences Caring for Young People With Acute Severe Behavioral Disturbance in the Acute Care Setting. JACEP Open, 6(1), p.100030.

Cottrell, S., 2021. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Edelman, L.S., Drost, J., Moone, R.P., Owens, K., Towsley, G.L., Tucker-Roghi, G. and Morley, J.E., 2021. Applying the age-friendly health system framework to long-term care settings. The journal of nutrition, health & aging, 25(2), pp.141-145.

Eriksen, A.A., Fegran, L., Fredwall, T.E. and Larsen, I.B., 2023. Patients' negative experiences with health care settings brought to light by formal complaints: A qualitative metasynthesis. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 32(17-18), pp.5816-5835.

Hamdan Alshehri, H., Wolf, A., Öhlén, J. and Olausson, S., 2021. Managerial and organisational prerequisites for the integration of palliative care in the intensive care setting: a qualitative study. Journal of nursing management, 29(8), pp.2715-2723.

Hwang, J.H., Choi, Y.J., Kim, M.S., Yi, S.E., Park, Y.S., Kim, J.H., Yoon, J.Y. and Shin, D.S., 2021. Job analysis of nurse care coordinators for chronic illness management in primary care settings: Using developing a curriculum process. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing, 51(6), pp.758-768.

Hysong, S.J., Arredondo, K., Hughes, A.M., Lester, H.F., Oswald, F.L., Petersen, L.A., Woodard, L., Post, E., DePeralta, S., Murphy, D.R. and McKnight, J., 2021. Essential Indicators of Quality in Primary Care Settings: An Evidence-Based, Structured, Expert Approach. medRxiv, pp.2021-09.

Korytkowski, M.T., Muniyappa, R., Antinori-Lent, K., Donihi, A.C., Drincic, A.T., Hirsch, I.B., Luger, A., McDonnell, M.E., Murad, M.H., Nielsen, C. and Pegg, C., 2022. Management of hyperglycemia in hospitalized adult patients in non-critical care settings: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 107(8), pp.2101-2128.

Merkel, S. and Schorr, S., 2025. Identification of Use Cases, Target Groups and Motivations Around Adopting Smart Speakers for Health Care and Social Care Settings: Scoping Review. JMIR AI, 4(1), p.e55673.

Monaro, S., Pinkova, J., Ko, N., Stromsmoe, N. and Gullick, J., 2021. Chronic wound care delivery in wound clinics, community nursing and residential aged care settings: A qualitative analysis using Levine’s Conservation Model. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(9-10), pp.1295-1311.

Nayakarathna, R., Neilson, H., MacDougall, D. and Cowling, T., 2022. Virtual care use in primary care or specialty care settings. Canadian Journal of Health Technologies, 2(8).

O’Malley, K.A., Sullivan, J.L., Mills, W., Driver, J. and Moye, J., 2023. Trauma-informed care in long-term care settings: From policy to practice. The Gerontologist, 63(5), pp.803-811.

Raunkiaer, M., Mikkelsen, T.B., Shabnam, J., Christiansen, S.R. and Jarlbaek, L., 2025. Community-based palliative care in two primary care settings–nursing homes and home care: a national survey. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 53(1), pp.90-97.

Riwitis, C. and Navarroli, J.E., 2024. Equitable Care in the Emergency Care Setting. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 50(6), pp.690-695.

Serra, E. and Zacarés, J.J., 2022. Development of generativity in long-term care settings: caregivers and older people growing together. Promoting good care of older people in institutions, pp.183-204.

Shenoy, E.S., Babcock, H.M., Brust, K.B., Calderwood, M.S., Doron, S., Malani, A.N., Wright, S.B. and Branch-Elliman, W., 2023. Universal masking in health care settings: a pandemic strategy whose time has come and gone, for now. Annals of internal medicine, 176(6), pp.859-861.

Stephens, M., Kelly, S., Chadwick, A., Clark, A., Walker, S. and Chesterton, L., 2024. Investigating the long-term impact of Interprofessional Education (IPE) initiatives in care home settings.

Symvoulakis, E.K., Volkos, P., Markaki, A. and Linardakis, M., 2022. Emotional discomfort scale: instrument development and association with general self-efficacy and data from an urban primary care setting. Cureus, 14(1).

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Online

Skills for Care, (2024). Additional Assessment Principles guidance. Online. Available through: <https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/resources/documents/Developing-your-workforce/Qualifications/Awarding-organisations/Skills-for-Care-JABQG-Additional-Assessment-Principles-guidance.pdf>

Skills for Care, (2025). Awarding organisations. Online. Available through: <https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Developing-your-workforce/Qualifications/Awarding-organisations.aspx>