Workplace Safety And Health Assessment Task

Fire Safety Check

Response One

Professional practice ideally refers to the work that an individual performs as well as the conduct that they maintain while carrying out their duties in relation to their profession. Profession in this cases comprises the occupations that mandates lengthy periods of education and training. For example, nurses are required to perform or rather utilized the evidence based education and apply it within the healthcare practice.

Response Two

Self-evaluation involves the process of critically and systematically observing and analyzing one’s own professional actions and the consequential results in an aim to mitigate the unwanted outcomes as well as improve on them. In other words, self-evaluation is the evaluation of an individual’s professional work by themselves. This process is therefore important in my professional practices since it primarily enables me to evaluate my actions and their repercussions. In such cases, I can be able to identify any mistakes and be able to prepare for them in the future or rather improve on them. It is also important since it entails a lifelong learning journey where I am encourage to review and evaluate the practices in place and as such be able to incorporate the best practices in my profession.

Response Three

Values, beliefs and behaviors are held different and as such prioritized differently within the workforce. For instance, values such as respect, trust, creativity and perfection can be critical in energizing the workplace in such a way that they promote cohesion and collaboration among workmates. Nonetheless, this can primarily be achieved if such values are aligned with the values of the organization. Alternatively, cultural beliefs or ideologies can significantly impact on how an individual interacts with other workers within a workplace since the workplace is comprised with individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Additionally, some behaviors such as workforce bullying can impact negatively on a workplace since it would be difficult for other workers to co-exist with the worker is a bully.

Response Four

Type of Feedback	Example	Importance
Two Way Feedback	Supervisor asks a student of what they have learnt from a given activity	Enables the feedback to improve the situation. Gives room for the sender (supervisor) of the message to become the learner and hence improve on the situation.
Open Feedback	Manager asks workers to raise their issues with the organization’s culture and give their response anonymously	Key in improving the organization. Enhances employee retention and engagement in the workplace.
Evaluative Feedback	I received a high grade and got praised for the effort that I put on the task.	Enhanced motivation to maintain the level of performance. However, since I improved personally, the work related task that I performed was not improved upon by other workers.

Response Five

The internal support network that enhances my work comprises internal informal learning activities which involve frequent and mandatory training programs that are provided by supervisors. I have realized that through these programs, I can be able to retain the knowledge and skills that are cascaded by these supervisors and also incorporate them within my specific unit of practice. Hence, I get to learn from the experiences, skills and expertise from my superiors.  The external support network that enhances my work practice entails the external informal networks education and training activities that are conducted by talent development professionals. These education activities are majorly important since they directly contribute to my performance improvement. Through the training, I can be able to intersect the work related activities with the best practices that have been taught.

Remaining up to date with Safe Work Practices

Response Six

Maintain self-care has been important in fostering the patient-nurse relationship since by encouraging self-care, the patient builds trust on the nurse and as such, the patient becomes more willing to work with the nurse in executing the treatment plan or rather complying with medication that has been allocated to the patient. Also, self-care, makes the patient feel important, valued and confident. I have realized that these factors are essential in promoting better patient outcomes and also improving patient satisfaction.

There are a number of signs and symptoms that may indicate that one’s wellbeing is out of balance including; dissatisfaction with the work being done (career/area of practice), experiencing trouble while concentrating, reduced network of friends and difficulty while socializing, contradicting beliefs between one’s own beliefs and that of the area of practice, and increased exposure to risks of diseases.

To address the above mentioned signs and symptoms, the following are some of the strategies to do so;

• Be engaged in a happy relationship
• Conduct an evaluation to understand whether the area of practice is satisfactory
• Alter the nutrition diet
• Exercise regularly
• Ensure that cultural and religious beliefs are aligned with those of the workplace and also strive to get my cultural ideologies understood within the workplace

In my workplace, I have tend to seek specialist advice when I am presented with the opportunity to change the roles that I perform. I seek support so that I can understand whether the new roles that I am allocated will coincide with my values, beliefs and most importantly, my area of expertise. Another notable opportunity occurs when I am entrusted with handling a relatively new concept. In such cases, I seek advice in order to be able to fully address the issue at hand and ensure patient safety and provision of care that is equitable to my profession and which doesn’t jeopardize my practice.

Part A: Own practice

Among the three learning styles, I have identified myself as having a visual learning style. This type of learning entails the utilization of charts, graphs, maps and diagrams by learners in order to gain comprehension. In the future, I will be able to channel my focus on reading so as to understand better and faster instead of focusing on other types of learning. In addition, I think that in the workplace, people have different learning styles and as such, they need to be reflective of each other’s learning styles in order to collaborate and work together.

Part B: Reflective practices

One notable situation in the workplace concerns an occasion where one colleague was insistent on handshakes and hugs with other colleagues as a way of showing his friendliness and communicating better with the other employees. However, another colleague of mine found this behavior to be irritating and uncomfortable and so, she made a point of avoiding the handshakes and the hugs. When the former colleague insisted on these practices, the latter accused the former of sexual harassment unknowingly. It took a confrontation between the two colleagues and the supervisor to sort out the issue and it was realized that the colleague who filed an accusation regarding sexual harassment was deterred by her culture from handshakes and hugs especially from individuals of the opposite sex.

Case Study

In this situation, legal aspects that could be raised may comprise the rights of women and the need to protect equality between both men and women. These aspects may arise because it might be taken that the male colleague was invading the privacy of the other colleague and that he was disrespectful to her because of her gender. Alternatively, ethical considerations concerning whether the behaviors were acceptable or not may also arise. For instance, it needs to be determined whether the handshakes and the hugs were appropriate or not for both parties involved.

My involvement in this situation was somewhat minimal since I was asked by the supervisor to give an outside opinion regarding the incidences. Nonetheless, my advice was that the two had not communicated properly to be able to understand the cultural differences that coexisted between the two colleagues.

Even though I did not seek additional support from others, I have come to notice that it would have been worthwhile to identify another colleague with similar cultural affiliations so that they can give their opinion regarding the issue as well.

Personally, I have developed my communication skills from this situation. Before I engage in any form of communication with my colleagues, my first priority is to identify any cultural differences that might arise and which might also act as a communication barrier. After this identification, I tend to devise the best possible way to eradicate the cultural barrier so that effective and smooth communication can commence.

In regards to my own values, beliefs and behaviors, I have come to understand that I need to readjust the cultural rigidities that may be prevalent within my values and beliefs. For instance, I have accepted that what I value and believe to be true might not be valued and believed by another individual and so I have to respect their values and beliefs too.

In the future, in the event that I am involved in such a situation, I would ensure that I make a prompt intervention into the matter before it escalates to certain levels where for example, one colleague accuses the other for sexual harassment. Had this miscommunication been addressed timely, then there wouldn’t be any complaints from the female colleague. Additionally, there is need to incorporate training in the workplace regarding the cultural differences that might be existent among the colleagues in the workplace.

My work role involves working directly with the patients where I can diagnose and manage common and chronic illnesses in different patient populations including children, adults and the acutely ill. Also, I perform physical examinations and, order and interpret diagnostic tests. Most importantly, I strive to maintain formidable relationships with the patients in order to assist them in the recovery process. In this process, I encourage and incline them to give their personal views regarding their well-being thereby ensuring that they are involved in the treatment plans that have been formulated for them.

Work Role	Practice or process	Identified improvement
Directly related to an industry code/standard of practice	Diagnostic tests interpretation	Improving safety standards by reducing nursing errors.
Duty of Care	Ensuring provision of care coincides with guidelines of practice.	Practitioners need to work in accordance with the relevant standard of care.
Work role responsibilities	Taking patient samples, swabs and checking temperatures.	Working as a team of professionals.
Work role boundaries	Dual roles when working with the same patient populations.	Clear distinction of the duties, rights and limitations of all the involved staff.

Personal Development Plan

One method to improve professional performance is by focusing on communication and connection. In this light, one needs to improve their clinical skills as well as interpersonal skills. These improvements will ensure that clients are approached in a friendly and welcoming manner which will further be reflected on the services being accorded to the patient or rather the client. Another method to improve professional performance is by gaining a clear understanding of the patient’s background. While dealing with patients, nurses as professionals need to approach patients and attempt to comprehend their views and ideologies or alternatively get their perceptions regarding their health.

My goals are related to the current and emerging developments especially when the issues of patient autonomy and nurse practitioner shortages are taken into consideration. Patient autonomy emphasizes on the need to take into consideration the views of the patient regarding their own health and hence, by ensuring that I obtain timely consent of the patient prior to any assessments or treatments, I will therefore ensure that I foster patient autonomy. Also, with the increase in shortages of nurses, there has been work load and related fatigue that have negatively impacted on the productivity of nurses. Therefore, my objective to improve productivity and support my reports with clinical evidence will be essential in reducing the work load as well as improving productivity.eclaration.