Lmcs_Nvq_4_Workbook_Unit_A1

NVQ LEVEL 4 LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT FOR CARE SERVICES AWARD | WORK BOOK UNIT A1 | | | TRACY JOHNSTON | | NVQ LEVEL 4 LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT FOR CARE SERVICES AWARD TRACY JOHNSTON WORK BOOK UNIT A1 Q1 A. At present, in my current Deputy Manager role, I am responsible for the Registered Nurses and Senior Care Assistant’s supervision within my home. BUPA request us to carry at least six supervisions throughout a period of one year. I also monitor continuously the progress of the Registered Nurses who are allocated Care Assistants in the home to undergo their supervision in the same way as required. These sessions are used to address issues or areas to implement best practice. They are used to increase knowledge to our staff. It also gives the staff an opportunity to express any issues they feel as an individual that they maybe encountering. The appraisal system is in place with is required on a yearly basis and my Home Manager and I divide the staff between us to undertake these. I have completed those for this allocated year and can be accessed where required. (WP 27& WP29). B. Leadership materials such as study provided by BUPA for example the new QRISP documentation that is going to be implemented in the near future. I attended the study along with my Manager and this then allows us to cascade the information and knowledge down to the Registered Nurses and Senior Carers in the home. BUPA provide various study days for me to attend and keep my knowledge up to date so I can manage and develop my staff. News briefs are often sent through to the home to keep us up to date of changes in the company. C. Appraisal carried out by my Home Manager at the beginning of the year. Close working open relationship with my Manager who feeds back on my progress daily or on the other hand advises where I could do things in a different way where needed. Offered this place on LMCS to progress in my professional role within the BUPA Company. Supervision carried out by my Home Manager when required. Every day within my role there are lessons to be learnt and I continue to reflect on my practice throughout. D. Regular Heads of Department meetings carried out (aimed on weekly basis). Nursing/care staff meetings held. Residents/Relatives meetings held on monthly basis at varying times to target all relatives. Currently in my role undergoing official complaint from relative which is assisting me in attempting to change practice in the home by acknowledging relatives concerns and issues and cascading information across the board where required. (WP6, WP8, WP37, WP19) Q2 On a yearly basis, customer satisfaction surveys are sent to residents/relatives. Once all the information is collated the organisation asks for an action plan which my Home manager will share with me and we will both look at the areas that may need addressing, if improvement is required. WP6 shows on my employee action plan various objectives. Following this, when carrying out QUEST Audits on the resident’s personal plans every month; I have devised an action plan document to run alongside the Audit document. This tool allows me to go more in depth to what’s required and what has been highlighted in the audit. When completed the nurse signs to say the actions have been carried out. This is then filed with the Audit to show how I have carried out requirements that need to be met. CQC Outcome 16 involves the Regional Manager visiting the home to monitor compliance in accordance with CQC. Usually my Home Manager carries these visits out but at present I am carrying out the roll as Acting Home Manager with requires me to participate in these visits and address any requirements in a timely manner. Q3 A. Appraisals carried out on yearly basis for staff, one to one or group supervision sessions, Heads of Department Meetings on weekly basis & Staff meetings. B. Staff training is promoted and staff are paid to attend the provided training. Active participation and involvement is positively encouraged. Sometimes it is feasible to let staff attend in work hours if staffing levels are satisfactory. This is encouraged and priority given more so for those with high weekly contracted hours for example 42-48 hrs per week. C. I am currently increasing my knowledge and becoming more involved with inductions of care staff. Senior Carers have been carrying out Care assistant induction programmes under my supervision. I recently carried out the latest new RGN induction programme but have yet to carry out a preceptorship programme for newly qualified nurses. I am responsible for my own clinical updates and do so as my Deputy role requires but clinical and management skills combined. These are required by the NMC and any new knowledge obtained I cascade downwards with the use of supervision. D. News briefs are sent regularly to the homes allocated people i.e. Managers, Deputies, and Heads of Care. Policy updates are sent across regularly from the organisation. Weekly report sent from the home to Regional Manager to highlight any identified needs. E. When new ideas occur it is better to implement these following discussions with relevant persons. Implement them on a temporary basis obtaining feedback until satisfactory feedback is obtained. Work in the way where you would do the task yourself but obviously workload and position contributes to delegation. F. As mentioned previously, appraisals, one to one supervision, group supervision and meetings. Previously we used a group session called ‘Take Ten’ which helped us deliver information to various members of the staff team incorporating supervision sessions. This was a good was of communicating throughout the home. At present we are considering re implementing it. (WP39, WP37). Q4 As shown in WP6, Employee action plan objective requires me to focus on Quality issues which have a bearing on the overall success of the business. This includes reducing staff sickness by seeing the staff member on return to work and follow the policy on sickness. Improve wound management by ensuring wounds and dressing regimes are being documented correctly and that the cycle of the wound dressing regime is continuous with no lapses. Regular checks on medication including audit attempting a GREEN scoring and if any lower addressing the areas highlighted via supervision. Being allocated a place on the LMCS course to increase the present knowledge I hold to possibly obtain a Home Managers post later down the time line. Q5 On a regular basis changes occur within the care provision regarding Legislation, organisational and regulatory issues. Depending how these are managed then depends on the impact it may have on the service. When implementing the ‘Resident of the day’ system, an organisational change process began. After announcing the change initiative confusion was increased. Fear of the unknown, not being able to cope with the new patterns and old rules overlaying new rules are reasons for confusion. Communication was an ongoing process during the change. Supporting people during the change process and facilitate learning of the skills that are needed to deal successfully with the new system is essential. In order to institutionalise the changed behaviour, consistent rewards are necessary. Sometimes we have no choice but to implement these changes and with this system I adjusted to specifically fit our individual home. The routine has proved beneficial to the provision of our service where care plans are being reviewed once a month not only by the named nurse but by different nurses with different views of an individual, resident’s rooms are being deep cleaned within the cycle thus improving infection control issues. Residents have stated at the last residents/relatives that they are feeling the benefit of the system. (KS). Q6 Clinical supervision involves establishing professional relationships that, not withstanding other benefits, are concerned with safe and effective nursing practice. It is important that supervisors and supervisees are able to work together constructively. Supervisors and supervisees should, therefore, consider their roles and responsibilities outside supervision and how these might influence the supervision relationship. Supervision is one of the most important tools we have when managing our team as it provides a methodical system for ensuring that responsibilities are delegated and gives us a chance to provide our team with feedback. Within my role as Deputy I tend to use this tool as a form of delivering information across to my team where they can then role it out to other members of the team. It also gives us an opportunity together to express any concerns the individuals have about practice in the care home. The National Minimum Standards say recommend that staff should have “regular recorded Supervision” at least six times per year. There should be more frequent supervisions if there is no regular contact with their manager/team leader. Appraisals, also known as performance reviews, are carried out yearly in the home for all staff members and take a much broader view than that of supervision. It leaves room for both the manager and supervisee to provide a written summary of how they feel things have gone. Within my current home it tends to be written by the manager and asks the individual to bring with them any additional information they would like to add. When doing appraisals you do need to be prepared. You should never be unprepared as there is a danger that an employee going into an unprepared meeting with their manager could feel unappreciated leading to subsequent lack of motivation. Within our home at present we do not ask the employee to prepare some preliminary paperwork assisting them in reflection upon their work but looking forward I think this is a good exercise for both parties. (WP 27, WP 39). Q7 All new technology which is available to enhance practice is greatly received even if sometimes a little apprehensively. When training is provided it almost certainly takes the individual away from the workplace. Training opportunities are much more varied now and can include a distance learning course which can involve a variety of media, on-line or computer based training, which are now on the increase. Currently within the BUPA Company, we have an online system called BUPA-Live. Bupa launched a global social networking site Bupa Live designed to be accessible 'anywhere, anytime'. Bupa Live currently has more than 7,500 registered users, a figure that is growing at a rate of 450 per month, and has been used in much more creative ways than originally thought. It was used to support the consultation process during a redundancy programme, giving 900 employees 22 private areas to discuss their concerns. The site has generated more than 3,000 blog posts, in excess of 3,200 discussions and 450 videos since its launch in May 2009, and has generated estimated cost savings in excess of £158,000 through enhanced collaboration and engagement. A brave move that has enjoyed consistent growth, and generated an impressive return on investment. Bupa live was found and is a key driver in helping the business to collaborate. It’s a tool to allow networking, working together, sharing information and ideas. It doesn’t replace our intranet – it’s meant to work alongside it. All employees can access Bupa Live – because it’s on the internet, you can access it anywhere at any time. This is one example of the latest scheme bringing staff together in BUPA with new technology. (KS) Q8 Reflective practice is that people learn based on experiences and then reflect on experiences. If people do not reflect on practice they will learn little from it. Schon (1987) identified two forms of reflection – reflection in action and reflection on action. Reflection in action is the process of reflection when you are working. Reflection on action refers to the process of thinking through and perhaps discussing the incident with other people. Reflection in action is short-term and only from your own perspective. Feedback from others will enhance reflection on action. Some advantages to developing reflection include, enhancing our problem solving skills, attribute more value to our care role, increase our self-esteem and develop self awareness. There are also possible implications if we do not reflect in practice. Health care workers could repeat mistakes, stay at a minimum level of competence and never change what they do until instructed to do so. Reflective practice can be contagious. If you open up discussions and start talking about your practice you could find that other colleagues will appreciate the chance to start doing the same. This will create a healthier environment and the residents should also benefit. It can be a gentle process of initially just asking questions about the ‘what, when, how and why’ of care tasks. It is important to feel positive about reflective practice. Q9 Learning needs should be identified on an ongoing basis, from the point of recruitment right through the individual’s employment with the company. Supervision and appraisal are the most significant opportunities to identify learning needs and plan methods to meet them. The work of Kolb (1984) and Honey and Mumford (1986) explain preferences in depth regarding learning. From the learning cycle, Kolb developed the idea of a number of learning styles. Honey and Mumford (1986) built on Kolb’s work to create learning styles questionnaires and exercises to enable individual to identify their preferred learning style. Honey and Mumford refer o four learning styles:- ACTIVIST Enjoy the experience itself. They want to be ‘doing’ and having new experiences and challenges. They may be thought of as people who like to dive straight into things. If adopted by the workforce would initially be beneficial to all where staff embrace new ideas and practices. They can become bored when an activity stops and will want to quickly move onto the next rather than dwell on reflection of the last activity. This would detract from continuity within the provision and would not encourage reflective practice. REFLECTOR Spend time reflecting. Reflectors mull over things before reaching a conclusion. They observe and gather information and use plenty of time to think over. They tend to be good listeners but again reflectors have weaknesses which could affect the length of time taken to achieve a task given. THEORISTS Theorists are logical thinkers. Theorists are often perfectionists and don’t appreciate a flippant approach a subject. They focus on underpinning models, principles and theories to inform their thinking. They seem objective, but also very cautious. We see elements of more than one style in our own learning. Experience may assist us in being more flexible in drawing on the range of learning styles. And one of the skills of management is being adaptable to enable staff to develop. Honey and Mumford (1986) suggest that individuals tend to have one preferred style, which may be the style you revert back to when under pressure. A mix of all the learning styles would surely be a style that would benefit the worker and provision as a whole. Used alone, the above style of learning would initially work but would soon become a problem if myself and the entire workforce adopted the solely. Q10 Effective time management is a necessity commonly needed by anybody expecting to successfully manage the typically busy lifestyles we live today. Coordinating business, social, and family activities can be a very stressful task. Without establishing some sort of time management system you are inviting tension and chaos into your life. Task Listing The first order of business for anyone juggling a hectic schedule is to first list the things you want to accomplish. Certain sizable tasks will require that you break them down into the steps that are involved and needed to actually complete the task itself. When developing your 'to do' list you will also be able to note the estimated amount of time you'll need to complete each task. Task Prioritization Review your list and begin to prioritize each task. Certain things may be more important or time sensitive than others therefore you will schedule for their completion first. During this stage your focus is simply to 'rank' your list according to their respective priorities or associated deadlines. Task Scheduling Here you want to 'arrange' for the actual completion of each task on your list by 'working' them into your schedule. Using their rank in priority and their estimated time of completion you can now put together a 'workable' plan for when each task will be done. Be realistic and don't try to over book yourself. It'll will only make you frustrated and discourage you when you can't complete all the tasks. It will also increase your haste which will invite error resulting in the inefficient use of your time. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2766298 Appropriate delegation and the use of an effective diary have assisted in the improvement of my time management since commencing this course. Q11 Within the BUPA organisation there are many resources available in order to provide information, support and progress learning to staff members. The folder which is available relating to people development within the company provides a list of accredited courses which are provided by the company. Although these are available I have to say that the distance to travel is not always convenient for the staff at my current home. Most of my current staff do not drive therefore depend on the company paying for train fares to the venue this also of course increases the length of the actual travel. The intranet is accessible which also holds up to date policies and information. Sometimes this is difficult to access even for me as we only hold 3 computers and on many occasions these are in use. Nurses and carers within my current home do not have direct access to the intranet. (WP6. WP7) Q12 Annual appraisal from my immediate line manager helps me acquire qualitative and quantitative information but also I obtain daily feedback from her also. Over the past 5-6 months I have been Acting Home Manager due to my Home Manager being allocated at another home. I have been receiving evaluations from the regional manager on the monthly Outcome 16 Visits. This has been very positive feedback which had boosted my confidence in that temporary role. I also undergo supervision session with my Home Manager to highlight any areas required for attention in the home. (WP5). Q13 As a Registered Manager responsible for the provision there is a requirement to complete the Registered Managers Award provided by the company. The regulators will have expectations of me as leader and manager based upon the Care Standards Act 2000 and other relevant legislation. If you are a Registered Nurse, there are also the requirements from the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) regarding study days and practice hours as requirements. The expectations and requirements of CQC (Care Quality Commission) for a Registered Home Manager are highlighted on their website www.cqc.org.ok . (WP 7). Q14 A Brown and Bourne (1996) identify supervision as ‘the primary means by which an agency-designated supervisor enables staff, individually and collectively, and ensures standards of practice. The aim is to enable the supervisee(s) to carry out their work ... as effectively as possible’. Not only is it good practice to provide regular supervision, but the GSCC Code of Practice for employers (2002) and the National Minimum Standards (DOH, 2003) require that supervision is provided to all care staff. B Staff are to have regular, recorded Supervision meetings at least six times a year with their senior/manager in addition to regular contact on a day to day practice. Supervision agreements can help when devising the content and structure of the sessions. Agreements also demonstrate that there is a commitment to supervision, and that those involved see it as a valuable and important process. C A mediation function, which relates to the role supervisors, can play in mediating between the supervisee and senior managers/wider organisation. The supervisor may also feel that they act as the buffer between the two, in situations and conflict. D A performance appraisal is a method by which the performance of an employee is measured in terms of quality, quantity, cost and time. It consists of systematically evaluating an individual employee's job-related strengths and weaknesses and addresses adherence to a set of pre-defined organizational standards. E Managers whose inclination is to be directive and who find it difficult to let go and manage in a predominately participative manner often find that their own sources of advice and feedback are more limited. Providing a range of feedback as a manager is expected in our work role. Feedback can either be positive or negative. It is important to remember that both positive and negative can be constructive. Where feedback is constructive it will enable the person receiving the feedback to develop their practice. Feedback should always start and finish with a positive. F Reflection is not just about looking back – it is about moving forward. Reflection in action is about developing knowledge, skills and understanding so as to maximise these for the benefit of the people with whom we work with. It is important to remember that we have a key responsibility in both developing and then monitoring our own ability and reflective practice can help. If we observe colleagues in areas of practice that you think are particularly good we could invite them to share this with us so we can develop the way we do things. Adopting a reflective practice approach to our work will enable us to utilise more effectively the knowledge that we require. G Motivation is a key element of performance. Motivated staff are more likely to be more productive and committed, and to have lower levels of absence. Managers play a crucial rule in motivating staff, and theories of motivation can help managers to understand and identify the differences between individuals. McClelland (1988) identified three types of motivational need and suggested that each person fits into one of the relevant categories. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself. Extrinsic Motivation comes from outside of the individual. Common extrinsic motivations are rewards like money and grades, coercion and threat of punishment. H The term diversity refers to differences in the characteristics of individuals within the changing population. It is about creating a working culture and practice that recognise, respect, value and harness difference for the benefit of the company and the individual. I The ability to manage your workload and time is an essential element to being an effective leader. To get the best out of your workforce you need to value the importance of your own time and use it to its best effect. Time management is a fairly straightforward concept. It's the process of arranging and controlling how you spend your time in or out of work. By controlling your time you can cut out non-essential activities and achieve more, thus enhancing your career and getting more out of life. It can also make your job more enjoyable and rewarding, as time management teaches you to be more productive and to say no to impossible workloads. Time management is a highly important matter for most professionals as demands are placed upon any hard-working person with responsibility - demands that strain one's diary and one's character. If you are sometimes too busy, if you have deadlines that are impossible to meet, if you are disorganized and just can't seem to find the time to sort out your inbox, then time management can help you. J Contingency planning - Organisations prepare contingency plans in recognition of the fact that things do go wrong from time to time Contingency planning involves: Preparing for predictable and quantifiable crises Preparing for unexpected and unwelcome events The aim is to minimise the impact of a foreseeable event and to plan for how the organisation will resume normal operations after the crisis Contingency plans The contingency plan: * Identifies alternative courses of action that can be taken if circumstances change with time * Details standby procedures to enable the continuation of essential activities and services during the period of the emergency * Includes programmes for improving the business in the longer term once the immediate situation has been resolved Steps in drawing up a contingency plan * Recognise the need for contingency planning * Identify possible contingencies - all the possible adverse and crisis scenarios * Specify the likely consequences * Assess of the degree of risk to each eventuality * Determine risk strategy to prevent a crisis & to deal with a crisis should one occur * Draft the plan and identify responsibilities * Simulate crises and the operate of each plan Q15 In recent years a ‘learning culture’ has become increasingly desirable in the workplace, for a multitude of reasons. An organisation which prioritises learning can provide a service that is constantly being improved, thus benefiting the customer and creating a Competitive advantage. Consumer expectations are higher than ever, requiring organisations to obtain ever-increasing knowledge and expertise. It is widely recognised that for an organisation to be sustainable in the present climate, it is essential that it is equipped to adapt on a continual basis – and change is only useful if it is informed by learning. It is not only organisations that need to learn to be ‘change-able’, but the individual staff members.