Health & Social Care

No work in the health and social care sector is completed in isolation. Professional relationships are paramount to the delivery of safe and effective care and support and an understanding of these relationships, and how they are formed, is essential if you are considering pursuing a career in the health and social care sector.

This unit aims to introduce you to the many different relationships that you will encounter within the health and social care sector; whether with colleagues, senior members of staff, other professionals within the sector or individuals who require care and support. By doing this unit you will apply communication and relationship building skills in a practical way, considering how different factors, including context, can impact on the building of positive relationships. You will also be introduced to the concept of the person-centred approach which will help with your relationship building skills.

Everyone is different and everyone has rights. Promoting equality and respecting diversity and rights in health, social care and child care environments is essential in today’s very diverse society. Whatever role you have, or aspire to, in health, social care or child care, an effective practitioner must be able to provide care that meets the needs of individuals and that supports their rights. Many individuals who use health, social care or child care environments can be vulnerable and dependent on others; this means that practitioners’ attitudes, values and prejudices can significantly affect the quality of care, individuals who require care or support experience.

This unit will help you to understand the implications of diversity on practice and also the effects of discriminatory practice on individuals who require care or support. You will also gain an appreciation of how legislation and national initiatives can support and promote anti-discriminatory practice.

Strategies used to promote equality, respect diversity and support individuals’ rights will be examined. You will develop your ability to recognise both good and discriminatory practice in care situations. You will develop your judgement and decision-making skills to choose appropriate responses to care situations and determine a course of action to promote the equality, diversity and rights of individuals in care settings.

What does it mean to be ‘safe’? Safety and being safe is a basic human need. Consciously or subconsciously we all take practical steps to stay safe. All individuals have the right to work in a safe environment and individuals who require care or support also have a right to be safe in health and social care contexts. As a result, there are responsibilities that practitioners must actively promote in order to provide and maintain a safe environment for colleagues and the individuals who require care and support.

This unit introduces you to health, safety and security in health and social care. You will acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to equip you in maintaining a safe working environment for yourself, your colleagues and individuals who require care and support. You will learn how legislation, policies and procedures work to reduce risks in health and social care and the consequences of not following them. You will also learn how to respond to different incidents and emergencies with health and social care settings.

We eat, we breathe and we control our bodies, as well as responding to the external environment, but why and how? This unit will help you to understand why these essential processes are so important in maintaining life. You will learn not only about the structure and function of some of the cells and tissues involved, but how they form organs and body systems that then have to interact to ensure that the body can provide the conditions necessary for thought, co-ordination, movement and growth.

This unit aims to introduce you to the basic structure and functions of the body systems involved in everyday activities and maintenance of health, including cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive systems. You will also understand the part played by organs such as the pancreas, liver and kidney. You will investigate the systems and organs involved in detecting and responding to change such as the nervous system as well as the eyes and ears.

Unfortunately, things do go wrong and each system has well-known diseases and disorders. Also, as individuals grow older, they are likely to be affected by malfunctions as a result of degeneration. Some of these will simply be inconvenient; others will be life-changers. You will understand the effects on individuals and what has to be done on a daily basis to enable them to lead as full and independent a life as possible.

Eating is a daily activity for most of us. How does what we eat impact our health? What is healthy eating? How do we promote healthy eating? As future practitioners, it is important to understand the impact of nutrition on well-being and health. Rising levels of obesity are leading to increases in heart conditions, diabetes and liver disease. To the NHS, the costs of treating ill-health caused by poor diet are soaring. Many health and social care practitioners are involved in the provision of meals, so it is important you understand and can explain good nutrition.

This unit introduces nutritional health and the components of good nutrition. You will have the opportunity to scrutinise different foods, consider their health benefits and investigate how to support other people to impact their health and well-being.

Infection and disease can kill; the human body is constantly exposed to vast amounts of germs, micro-organisms and disease. Infection control is of paramount importance in settings such as hospitals and residential homes, but equally it must be maintained when care is provided in other settings. In this unit you will learn about the importance of infection control and you will be introduced to methods that help to prevent the spread of infection. All of this will enable you to apply infection control methods in the workplace.