It is very important that a care worker balances rights and responsibilities. Care workers can do to by making sure:
- Treat everyone equally
- Not giving attention more to one service user then other.
- Making sure their rights don’t overcome each other’s.
Sometimes the unavailability of resources can create tensions in care settings. For example in Queensland service users enjoy spending a day out altogether, however there’s only a little amount of staff to take them out, to solve this problem the care worker can take a few one day and a few another day.
In care settings sometimes the rights of a service user are in conflict with the responsibilities of the care workers.
Example:
It is morning and a service user, Mr Smith, is awake in bed, feeling quite bored, and wants someone to assist him to get up, washed and dressed straight away. However, several of the residents in the home suffer from incontinence and have awoken in wet beds, and the carers are seeing to them first, and as the home is short staffed it may be a while until they get to Mr Smith.
Mr Smith has a right to get up when he chooses, and leaving him feeling bored in bed may make him feel frustrated, unvalued and that his needs are not being met. However, in a situation like this the staff at the home must allocate their time on the basis of need. Situations such as this cause ethical dilemmas and show that it is not always possible to fully satisfy the rights of every service user. However it could help to explain to Mr Smith why he has had to wait, so that he understands why he had to wait and knows that he was not just being ignored.
Sometimes tensions arise due to a lack of resources, and quite often the demand for particular services or equipment outweighs what the setting is able to provide. This is why organisations must set priorities for the allocation of resources, by weighing out the costs and benefits of doing one thing, versus another, (resource.com).
Role boundaries
The roles of every care worker are clearly described in the job description and the procedures which would be followed are included in organisational policies. No care worker should break the boundaries of their role to meet the rights of the service users they are caring for. It would not be acceptable for a care woke to break the role boundaries by:
- Starting a personal relationship with a service user
- Dealing with financial issues for the service users
- Getting involved in family disputes and disagreement
- Showing favouritism
- Imposing your own views and beliefs upon a service user.
Care workers are encouraged to be as objective as possible when working with service users and not to be become emotionally attached. If working with a service user for a long period of time, an emotional attach may form. Such a situation could be very difficult, so they become subjective rather than objective.
They may wish to care for the service user entirely on their own being very critical on any other care worker who is trying to carry out their role. For example Jane the care worker was very close to one of the service users and she would do almost everything the service user asked her to do, this was not right as she was not treating other service users equally, and was only giving attention to that one service user, this caused tension between the care workers as they were not pleased with this, and they used to always get complaints from other service users.
Legal requirements:
Legislation in care settings are set to make sure they help maintain the rights of service users. All health, social and early years setting have legislation set to their settings have to work within the boundaries for legislation, both in a relation to staff and to service user.
Some of the legislations that are applied to Queensland are:
- Access to Health records.
- Care Standard Act.
- Data Protection Act.
- Humans Right Act.
- Race relation Act.
It is important for all the care workers to understand their responsibilities in relation to legislation. To break legislation could result in criminal proceedings. However sometimes tensions can arise between the organisation and the service user because has work between the boundaries and the law, but service might be seeking solution which is outside the boundaries of the law.
- Access to Health Records-Allows service users to have a look at their personal files and medical records.
- Care Standard Act-Set care standard need by an individual in care settings.
- Data Protection Act. - Protecting data from damage and misuse, this is related to storage of data and accessing it.
- Humans Right Act. - Giving users the right to freedom form torture, protect their life.
- Race relation Act. - Prevents individuals from discriminating each others race.
These are the laws and breaking them is very serious crime and can result in going to prison.
Care settings are obligated to work within the boundaries of the law. Tensions can arise when a service user seeks a solution to something outside of such boundaries.
Example:
A service user is discovered to have been regularly using cannabis, a class B illegal drug, which his nephew brings to him on visits. When confronted by the care worker the service user explains that he uses it to ease his back pain, as he had found the treatments on offer for it to be relatively ineffective, and that the drug is the only thing that gives him relief from the pain. He then asks the care worker not to tell anyone about it, and promises to be discreet, and only smoke it privately in his room.
In this situation the service user is asking the care worker to keep something confidential, however as it is information regarding illegal activity the carer must report it, and stop it at once. Furthermore smoking the drug may help the service user`s pain, but be causing him other health problems, and in this situation there is also a danger to other residents in the home, as smoking in the building could cause a fire. The requirements of the law must be followed.
In such a situation it would be very important for the care worker to remain objective, and not have their judgement clouded by their feelings, and sympathy, for the service user. As a care worker may have to care for the same person for a number of years, and an emotional attachment may form, so that they become subjective rather than objective, which could cause difficulties
Tension between organisational policies and service user’s needs
In Queensland Organisational policies are very important; it identifies tasks of care. A policy tells us how things should be done for example keeping confidentiality, health and safety of service users or even their treatments. Organisational policies cannot be broken just to meet service user’s needs. Tension can arise if care workers start to break a right of the service user. Problems can occur if one service users know other service users confidentiality, this will be breaking the law which can result in care workers to go prison.
Recently In Queensland, a care worker give private information of a service user to another service user the care worker took out everyone’s personal information due to lack of security applied to the files. It was care worker broke the law of confidentiality, due to this the care worker had to go spend 6 years in the jail.
Tension within individuals
Sometimes individuals service users’ mood changes, or at times they are suffering from mental illness or are confused about something or maybe the have taken offence at something that has been said or may have misunderstood a point that has been made, There are many reasons they service users might feel the tension coming up. Sometimes they feel nervous for no reason this is called post-traumatic stress disorder.
Whatever the reason the service user could be:
- Aggressive
- Withdrawn
- Isolated
- Angry
- Upset
Care workers have a responsibility to make sure they approach that individual so that they can calm their selves down and the care worker should try to understand their point of view. With doing service users and care workers will build a good relationship between them. It will take time to take out that service user feeling.
Nicole who is 32 years old, her mother had died due to illness, and the illness was continuous as she had found out, she was worried that she might catch the illness and might die, she used to stay in her room all day crying, one of the service users used to ask her if anything was wrong, but she wouldn’t tell them, this build tension between the Nicole and the service user, when the care worker found out the reason, the care workers tried their best to help her out.
There may be times when tensions arise within individuals causing them to feel ‘at odds with themselves’, which could possibly be due to mental health issues, or because they are confused. Such situations could cause a person to become withdrawn, upset or even aggressive, which in turn could cause problematic behaviour. The care worker involved must use their communication skills to calm down the service user. The carer will need to respond empathetically to the service user`s point of view, and try to resolve any issues with them. Just telling someone off for unruly behaviour is unlikely to solve the problem, for example if a child is behaving badly in a nursery by yelling at the care worker and purposely try to break toys, it is unlikely the behaviour would stop if he was just told off. The underlying issues must be addressed; he could be acting out because he is being bullied by another child, in which case the carers must try to put a stop to it, he could be upset because a pet died or be feeling ‘second best’ since the birth of a sibling, in which case he would need reassurance and comforting.
Tensions may also occur between service users; this could be due to arguments, inappropriate language or irritation at the other`s behaviour. Whatever the case, the care worker must adopt a polite, calm and non-confrontational manner in talking to them, in order to come to a solution or compromise. Using active listening and effective communication skills are essential if a solution is to be found.
Tension between service user
There are occasions when tension erupts between service users. This could be for a variety of reasons, for example:
- Emotional distress using
- swear words
- Difficulties over choosing TV programmes
- Irritating behaviour
- Poor personal hygiene
- Aggressive behaviour
Tension mainly happens when two of them don’t agree on the same thing causing them to have conflict amongst them. This kind of situation can be resolved if care workers talk to service users in a nice, calm manner as this way care workers can listen to their situation and help them to find a solution.
Joan, May and Amy in one room helping each other clean up, Joan and may were having a conversation about a incident that happened a week ago, and did not include Amy in the conversation, when she tried to talk they spoke over her, Amy got angry and she thro a brush at one of them and they all started having an argument, a care worker came running in, and tried to solve the situation by talking to them and trying to make them understand that by having an argument, they are not helping, they should how to work together happily, the care worker talked to them in a quite and a nice tone.
Tension between service user and the organisation
There are many rights of service users that overcome their responsibilities. Queensland service users have many rights which are:
- Confidentiality
- Choice
- Not to be discriminated against
- Practise their culture and beliefs
- Make a complaint
- Safety and security
- By given clear and accurate information
Organizations must comply with these rights, to do so they have to provide safe and secure environment for all who uses these facilities. Organisational policies are very important in care settings which identify tasks of care workers in specific to their work. Organisational policies are specific to a particular care setting identifying responsibilities. The role of any policy is to ensure that service users’ rights are upheld, and care workers are providing guidelines so that the best possible care is available.
If a service user has been kept waiting for their treatment or received poor quality care, this can create tension between them and the organisation. The care worker should deal with the situation carefully to make sure that the service users’ rights are being fulfilled.
Tensions can arise in care settings for numerous reasons, and depending on what the situation calls for; resources will have to be allocated as fairly as possible and on the basis of need, boundaries of the law must be respected, and tensions between and within individuals must be negotiated to come to amicable solutions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE BOOK, OCR
