USER AND CARER INVOLVEMENT IN PRACTICE

User and Carer Involvement in Practice



User and Carer Involvement in Practice

Introduction

Through this essay, I am going to analyze and demonstrate the understanding of User and Carer involvement basing it from my clinical area. Chosen scenario shall be described and analyzed in order to expose the dilemma that confronts the User and Carer involvement at the my clinical area. Conflicting professional issues on the other hand shall be identified and critically analyzed. My role as a nurse shall be discussed along side with relevance recommendations for future professional practice. Gibbs reflective cycle (1988) shall be incorporated in this study as it gives clear description of situations, analysis of feelings, evaluation of experiences and most of all encourage researchers to examine what they need to do next in case a similar situation arises again. (Gibbs 1988) .Confidentiality shall be maintained throughout this essay and in accordance with the NMC (2004) Code of professional Conduct.

The 1991 patients' charter is regarded as the culmination of this consumerist policy, having a strong emphasis on patients' rights, patient choice and information for the rights of patients. It is on the same basis that I was highly convinced that the first step to user and carer involvement is the development of a two way communication system.

The reflective cycle (Gibbs 1988)

Gibbs' reflective cycle can be really useful in making you think through all the phases of an experience or activity. In our example, we missed out Gibbs' 'Evaluation' phase, and have gone back and added in some thoughts about what our Health Visitor got right - clearly her first session with the family was not all bad. As a practitioner it is easy to be too conscious of the things that didn't go well. Don't be too hard on yourself! The Evaluation phase makes you think about the positive as well as areas for improvement.

Management, Partnership and User Involvement in Health and Social Care

The concept of participation is very much an in vogue concept within health care circles, so much so, that new ways to move the balance of service user involvement is consistently being evolved and developed to procure a better understanding of what the service user is experiencing and also needing to improve, develop and pseudo-manage their levels of care and intervention with a firm voice. This active community participation is not a new concept; it is primarily as suggested by Rifkin (1990) that: There is no agreement among planners and professionals about the contribution of community participation to improving the lives of people, some completely dismiss its value altogether, while others believe that it is the “magic bullet”, that will ensure improvements.

Even with a lack of consistent agreement the notion of community participation has been a continual development concept when planning, managing and engaging services for improving communities. Despite this lack of agreement, community participation has remained in vogue, and as such been a fundamental ingredient for programme planning and development. Equally, Arnstien (1969), in her analysis of participation, developed ...