Introduction
Working relationships play a vital role in ensuring effective and high-quality care delivery within health and social care settings. Understanding professional boundaries, agreed ways of working, and partnership collaboration is essential for care workers to perform their roles ethically and efficiently. This assignment explores the differences between working and personal relationships, the importance of job roles, quality assurance, and partnership working, offering valuable insights for students.
1.1 A working relationship is different from a personal relationship
A working relationship refers to a formal relationship that occurs at the workplace with individuals such as co-workers, superiors, and so on. On the other hand, personal relationships are quite informal, intimate and close and often occur outside the workplace. Working relationships can be in the shape of cooperation with co-workers and supervisors to furnish the best delivery of care while personal relationship is a kind of informal interaction to build rapport with the patient. Apart from this, the working relationship is bound by the duties, policies, procedures and rules as agreed ways of working (Beckel and Fisher, 2022). For instance, care workers follow rules and regulations while maintaining working relationships, whereas there is no need to adhere to any rules, regulations and policies in personal relationships. It is usually unequal as one person knows greater personal information of the other. For example, in the working relationship of care worker and care receiver, the care worker is more aware about personal information of the reviver. However, personal relationship is equal as well as mutual as both individuals are closely aware about each other’s personal information.
In addition, the working relationships are limited or constrained by the time and location as it remain within the boundaries of workplace, offices, care home within the working hour. However, personal relationship is not confined to a particular location as they can be maintained in all places. Moreover, communication is also one of the factors that differentiate working relationships and personal relationships. In a working relationship, communication is formal and adheres to a hierarchy. For instance, care workers communicate formally to convey messages or information to their co-workers and superiors regarding a client`s health condition. On the contrary to this, communication is casual and emotionally driven in personal relationship, within it a person share thoughts, idea, opinion and perspective in a free manner.
1.2 Different working relationships in care settings
In the care setting, there are various kinds of working relationships maintained, such as:
Care staff and service user: One of the working relationships maintained between the care workers and patients as well as their families. The care worker communicates and supports the patient by providing different care services as well as conveying the information regarding the service seeker's health, outcome, care plan, and so more. This kind of relationship helps in building a rapport with the patient and leads to aids in generating better outcomes. Although sometimes care workers develop a fondness for patients, professional boundaries remain the same.
Inter-professional relationship: This kind of relationship occurs between several healthcare professionals within the care setting. For instance, a relationship between care workers and doctors (Melo et al, 2022). Within the care setting, this kind of working relationship or collaboration allows discussing patient health outcomes, changes in their vital signs, sharing expertise, as well as making decisions for improving service user health outcome.
Intra-professional relationship: It is a kind of relationship where several members with the same profession work together to furnish quality of care such as a relationship between two care workers. The working relationship plays a crucial role in a care setting to enhance teamwork, manage workload, provide peer support, and so more, leading to better care services and professional development.
Relation within care staff and managers: One of the working relationships in a care setting is maintained within the care staff as well as managers. The interaction or relation between the two professionals motivates openness, safe expression, and productivity. In context to this, care worker can freely share their concern and ideas with the managers.
These are some of the main relationships that prevail within the care setting.
2.1 Significance of following the agreed scope of the job role
The agreed scope of the job role refers to the responsibility of the work to be performed. An employer provides the employee with the job description and agreed ways of working within the organization that includes protocols, policies and procedures. The concerned document furnishes details of the scope of job role as well as individual responsibilities and accountabilities. It acts as a guideline for the care worker regarding performing their role; therefore, adherence to the agreed scope of the job role is important to increase the efficiency and productivity of the individual. When the care workers stick to their job role by adhering to the agreed scope of the job role, then work can be done more efficiently and effectively (Hakanen, Bakker and Turunen, 2024). In addition, it declines overlapping as well as duplication of the task, resulting in furnishing better services to patients and declining chances of occurrence of any kind of error. In addition, another importance of following the agreed scope of the job role includes encouraging the individual to perform within the professional boundaries.
For instance, the awareness of care workers in regards to their role, responsibility, and accountability level helps in performing the role ethically and professionally, it aids in overcoming chances of any unethical practices within the role. Moreover, following the agreed scope of the job role allows the care worker or other professional to stick to the job role, results in gaining expertise in the areas, and allows the individual in career advancement. The agreed scope of the job role clearly defines the role and responsibility of each individual within the organization As a result, it plays a significant role in enhancing teamwork or collaboration with others in the care setting, reducing the chances of conflicts and ensuring better delivery of the services. In addition, when employees are effectively aware of their roles and responsibilities, they are more likely to engage in the work, which leads to greater job satisfaction.
2.2 Access to full and up-to-date details of agreed ways of working
Agreed ways of working refer to the policies and procedures of the organization that outline how the employer expects and wants employees to work. The care worker is required to act according to the agreed ways of working to attain efficient delivery of the care services to the service user. The concerned individual can access full and up-to-date information on agreed ways of working by liaising with the employer or human resource manager of the organization (Prastyaningtyas et al, 2023). The care worker, by communicating with the associate, can get full information of agreed ways that help the individual to implement while performing the role. Furthermore, care workers can access ways of working by evaluating and reading legal documents, organizational policies and rules & regulations.
The job description includes details of skills and responsibilities that need to be performed while doing the job. It also helps the care worker in providing information of agreed ways or working and overview of the way they need to perform at the workplace. Clear communication with the employer, manager also plays an important role in access up-to-date information of agreed ways of the working. Also, by reading the company`s employee handbook and logging in to the employer`s website, the care worker can get all the information on the agreed ways of working. Thus, performing the role within the care setting by the ways of working allows the care worker to maintain consistency in their work and mitigate the likely chances of the errors.
2.3 Works in line with agreed ways of working
It is one of the main factors for the care worker to work in line with the agreed ways of working. Through following the policies and procedures of the company, care workers can ensure that they work correctly and appropriately while following the legal and regulatory requirements of the healthcare industry. The important agreed ways of working for the care workers are ensuring respect and autonomy of the patient, furnishing quality services, working with dignity, etc. (Siraj et al, 2022). To work by agreed ways of working, to maintain dignity and ensure respect for the patient, the care workers keep personal and sensitive information of the patient confidential and share it to only authorized persons. Apart from this, working by agreed ways of working allows the care worker to work in a quality manner and, as a result, helps in overcoming chances of misunderstanding and errors.
In addition, works in line with agreed ways of working encourage the individual to perform duty in the responsible as well as accountable manner. The agreed ways of working also include the details of the procedure that need to be followed, equipment that can be used, and so on. Thus. When the care worker follows the agreed ways of working, it ensures the safety of the individual as well as the care workers from the potential environment. Thus, working by the agreed ways of working allows the care worker to cater their services with efficiency, consistency and accountability while complying with the legal rules and regulations (Babapour Chafi, Hultberg and Bozic Yams, 2021). Thus, agreed ways of working with the employer act as a key part of the individual role as a care and support worker. Hence, working in line with agreed ways of working ensures that tasks are carried out appropriately, legally, and safely.
2.4 Contribution to quality assurance process to promote positive experience for person receiving care
Quality assurance procedure is defined as a process of continuous monitoring, evaluating, and enhancing of healthcare process to minimize errors, restrict adverse events, as optimize patient outcome. The main aim of the procedure is to improve patient satisfaction, enhance healthcare efficiency, and promote evidence-based healthcare practices (Nickel, 2025). In the role of care worker, to contribute to the quality assurance process, it is crucial to maintain standards by adhering to the guidelines and protocols. It enables the care worker to furnish quality of care to the patient. For instance, by reviewing and updating the care plan of the patient by collaborating with the health professional, care workers ensure better care services to service users, resulting in enhancing positive experience.
Furthermore, via continuous improvement, the care worker can effectively contribute to the quality assurance process. Results in improving the quality of care for patients. Also, continuous monitoring and evaluation allows in bring effectiveness in providing care. For instance, regular review of patient outcome as well as monitoring vital signs aids in identifying patient`s health condition. This enables the care worker to provide services accordingly and helps in enhancing and promoting the patient`s experience in an effective as well as efficient manner (Feng et al, 2022).To enhance the positive experience of the person receiving care, the care worker needs to review patient outcomes, collect feedback from patients as families to know about what patient feels, as well as conduct audits. Taking feedback from service user and their families helps in making necessary improvements while delivering the services to enhance positive experiences.
3.1 Significance of working in partnership with others
Work in partnership refers to an action of sharing resources and responsibilities as well as agreeing to work in collaboration on a mutually supportive and cooperative manner. In the healthcare setting, working in a partnership is quite important as it allows the healthcare professionals to develop a creative and innovative way of interacting as well as communicating with each other. It helps the individual to break down barriers between self that act as a hindrance to attain the personal goals. When a person works with others in a partnership, they can attain greater skills and abilities, which allows them to accomplish the task more efficiently. In healthcare, when care professionals work in partnership with others, it enables them to divide their responsibilities and, as a result, helps in effectively managing work that is crucial at the time of an emergency or pandemic. In addition, working in a partnership allows the care workers to tackle complex and diverse situations with greater speed as well as efficiency (Haesevoets et al, 2021). Apart from this, working in partnership with others provides learning opportunities to professionals in terms of gaining new skills and expertise. For instance, when the care worker and healthcare professionals work in the partnership, it helps both the providers to gain and learn new things from each other that can be used by both of them to deliver better services.
Working in partnership allows the two individuals to learn and be aware of the diverse ideas, perspectives and opinions. This diversity within the partnership results in the generation of innovative solutions, and as a result, it allows the healthcare providers to focus on better decision-making. Quick and timely decision-making skills are quite important for the care worker. Hence, partnership working is important in healthcare to gain knowledge of diverse perspectives, learning opportunities, as well as declines pressure of workload.
3.2 Ways of working that aid in enhancing partnership working
Partnership working is considered as a collaborative effort within two or more individuals to attain a common objective. In health and social care settings, partnership working plays a crucial role. Here are some ways to improve partnership working in a significant manner:
Clear communication: One of the best ways to improve partnership working is to focus on clear and open communication. First of all, for better partnership working, it is important to communicate the objective of collaboration as well as the given role and responsibility of each member to avoid misunderstanding. For the enhancement of collaboration working, it is quite crucial to provide freedom of voice to each partner to openly and freely express their ideas, opinions and perspectives (Carvalho and Santos, 2022). Further, emphasis should be given on active listening to demonstrate respect for the partner's opinion. When all members feel respected and valued, then it results in improving the partnership. In addition, maintaining transparency by sharing all significant information and updates is important to avoid conflict and chaos. Thus, it is considered as a potential way to enhance partnership working.
Scheduling regular meetings: Regular scheduling of meetings is another way to improve collaboration with others. Conducting meetings allows the parties involved in a partnership to remain aware of important information as well as provide opportunities to share ideas, perspectives and views. It is a one of way to enhance mutual understanding that is quite effective for enhancing partnership working.
Demonstrating respect and empathy: For the succession of partnership working, respect and empathy are important factors. For instance, in a partnership working between care workers, each partner must get the opportunity to express their views and opinions, as they should be listened to and taken seriously by others (Jankelová and Joniaková, 2021). It motivates the partners to generate creative and innovative ideas, which leads to improving partnership working.
3.3 Recognition of skills and approaches required for resolving conflicts
Conflicts can occur at any place. Within healthcare, it can occur between healthcare professionals, patients, administrative people, and so on. For conflict resolution, several skills and approaches are important, that is as under;
Active listening: This skill is important in conflict resolution to listen and understand the reason and opinion of each involved party. It allows in uncertain that each party feels heard and understood as well as allows in get solution by listening to all.
Empathy: It is the ability to identify the emotions of others and to understand an individual`s perspective on a situation. The skill plays an important role in understanding each member`s perspective and the best solution concerning the conflict.
Communication Skill: Good communication skills are one of the prime requirements to resolve conflicts. It helps communicate the point of view of the involved parties to each other to solve the conflict as soon as possible (Thornhill-Miller et al, 2023).
Problem-solving skill: It is a skill of recognizing and solving problems proficiently. The skill is crucial to recognize the root cause of conflict between two people and, according to the same, assist in generating solutions as well as appropriately implementing them.
However, various approaches can be used in conflict resolution, such as:
Collaboration: It is a mutual approach where both conflicting parties come together to get a solution that satisfies both (5 Strategies for Conflict Resolution, 2025).
Avoiding: It is a conflict resolution approach where both conflicting parties ignore the situation with the hope that it can be solved automatically with time.
Compromising: It is considered as a lose-lose strategy, where both conflicted parties give up factors of their position to solve conflicts.
3.4 Get support and advice about
Partnership working
Within the health and social care setting, partnership working plays an essential role in furnishing quality services to service users. Therefore, it is important in healthcare to provide sufficient support and advice to develop a better working partnership. Providing training opportunities is one of the best ways to support partnerships working within the organizations. For instance, within the healthcare organization, to enhance the skill of partnership among the care workers, focus is given on organizing workshops and seminars to learn about collaborative practices and strategies to attain partnership goals. In addition, partnership working can be supported via furnishing required guidance to the care workers by seniors or experts. This helps the healthcare professionals to work effectively in a collaborative manner while understanding the importance of their role and responsibilities in an efficient manner.
Resolving conflicts
In the healthcare setting, conflicts can arise between healthcare professionals, care staff, patients and other people. Resolving conflicts on time and in a rapid manner is crucial to maintaining a productive and positive environment. In case of conflict within the organization, an individual can get support from internal resources such as human resources managers, supervisors or trusted colleagues. Effective communication with these professionals helps in gaining advice on the matter as well as the required intervention to solve conflicts (Soriano-Vázquez, Cajachagua Castro and Morales-García, 2023). Furthermore, a mediator plays a vital role in solving conflicts on complex and dynamic matters by facilitating communication between two parties to get timely solutions. Also, if a conflict concerns a legal issue, then support can be received from legal authorities, such as a court, to resolve the conflict appropriately. Apart from this, within a healthcare setting, if a general conflict can result in stress and anxiety, then the individual can get support from friends, colleagues and families. They help the individual by providing their view, perspective and insight about the situation. It can aid in solving the problem effectively and efficiently.
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References
Books and Journals
Babapour Chafi, M., Hultberg, A. and Bozic Yams, N., 2021. Post-pandemic office work: Perceived challenges and opportunities for a sustainable work environment. Sustainability, 14(1), p.294.
Beckel, J.L. and Fisher, G.G., 2022. Telework and worker health and well-being: A review and recommendations for research and practice. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(7), p.3879.
Carvalho, A.R. and Santos, C., 2022. Developing peer mentors’ collaborative and metacognitive skills with a technology-enhanced peer learning program. Computers and Education Open, 3, p.100070.
Feng, J., Phillips, R.V., Malenica, I., Bishara, A., Hubbard, A.E., Celi, L.A. and Pirracchio, R., 2022. Clinical artificial intelligence quality improvement: towards continual monitoring and updating of AI algorithms in healthcare. NPJ digital medicine, 5(1), p.66.
Haesevoets, T., De Cremer, D., Dierckx, K. and Van Hiel, A., 2021. Human-machine collaboration in managerial decision making. Computers in Human Behavior, 119, p.106730.
Hakanen, J.J., Bakker, A.B. and Turunen, J., 2024. The relative importance of various job resources for work engagement: A concurrent and follow-up dominance analysis. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 27(3), pp.227-243.
Jankelová, N. and Joniaková, Z., 2021, March. Communication skills and transformational leadership style of first-line nurse managers about job satisfaction of nurses and moderators of this relationship. In Healthcare (Vol. 9, No. 3, p. 346). MDPI.
Melo, L.C., Lima, F.R., Bracarense, C.F., Ferreira, J.F.M.F., Ruiz, M.T., Parreira, B.D.M. and Goulart, B.F., 2022. Inter-professional relationships in the Family Health Strategy: perception of health management. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 75(03), p.e20210636.
Nickel, A.J., 2025. Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement Research. Respiratory Care, 70(2), pp.204-216.
Prastyaningtyas, E.W., Ausat, A.M.A., Muhamad, L.F., Wanof, M.I. and Suherlan, S., 2023. The role of information technology in improving human resources career development. Jurnal Teknologi Dan Sistem Informasi Bisnis, 5(3), pp.266-275.
Siraj, N., Hágen, I., Cahyadi, A., Tangl, A. and Desalegn, G., 2022. Linking leadership to employees performance: The mediating role of human resource management. Economies, 10(5), p.111.
Soriano-Vázquez, I., Cajachagua Castro, M. and Morales-García, W.C., 2023. Emotional intelligence as a predictor of job satisfaction: the mediating role of conflict management in nurses. Frontiers in public health, 11, p.1249020.
Thornhill-Miller, B., Camarda, A., Mercier, M., Burkhardt, J.M., Morisseau, T., Bourgeois-Bougrine, S., Vinchon, F., El Hayek, S., Augereau-Landais, M., Mourey, F. and Feybesse, C., 2023. Creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration: assessment, certification, and promotion of 21st century skills for the future of work and education. Journal of Intelligence, 11(3), p.54.
Online
5 Strategies for Conflict Resolution. 2025. Online. Available through: <https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/strategies-for-conflict-resolution-in-the-workplace >
