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Introduction Of Level 5 Leadership For Health And Social Care Assignment
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Professional development suggests being in the process of learning and developing new skills through proper knowledge and career training programs after entering a professional career. Professional development also includes being up-to-date with contemporary trends. This development process is beneficial for both employers and employees. The present study is offering a piece of knowledge about the importance of professional development for leaders in the field of health and social care. A theoretical understanding of this concept is provided in the study. During this development process, the importance of knowledge and practice, barriers, several systems, and sources, and the necessity of being up-to-date is also discussed in this study.
Understand the principles of professional development
Importance of knowledge and practice
Development in the professional career includes an expansion of an individual’s knowledge base regarding professional fields. It also develops the confidence level, and potentiality, and can provide opportunities in the work field. All the purposes of this process do not get fulfilled until the individual possessed a prior adequate knowledge regarding his or her work field. One of the key features of this process is to meet the knowledge gap. Continuously practicing professional development for the leaders in the field of health and social care ensure the availability of high-quality intensive care and services (Ramani et al. 2019). The role of a leader is to recognize and develop new skills for the staff in the field of health and social care to meet the requirements of the industry.
Necessary Practices: The employers must define the goals of the development program for the employees. The management must make understand its leaders and the other members why should they participate in this program. There is a demand of choosing a good program director, who can design effective segments of training programs and can provide continuous support to the professionals. There is a fundamental requirement of allowing flexibility while designing Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
A few more practices that are effective in the field of health and social care are attending conferences and participating in several workshops arranged by the management, and gathering knowledge about a certain subject in which an individual invests their interest. The individual can involve in a relevant course related to their job roles. Experienced members of the organization can guide their new colleagues, and this can be an effective practice of CPD.
The context of the importance of knowledge and practices for CPD required theoretical support. Here the six stages of Graham Gibb’s Reflective model are relevant for formulating the practices required for CPD. This framework requires examining the experiences of an individual (Adeani et al. 2020). This model suggests first, understanding the description of the experience about one’s own potentiality and effectiveness. Second, clarifying the feelings and thoughts regarding the experience is essesntial.
Third, it is important to make an evaluation on the experience about the effectiveness of the individual, whether it is high or low. Then there is a requirement to make an analysis of the situation of the individuals in their professional careers. A firm conclusion can be helpful to meet the knowledge gap. Finally, an action plan is required to design for enabling the CPD.
Barriers to professional development
There are several barriers regarding CPD, especially for individuals who are in the health and social care sector. Some of the barriers that are usually faced by professionals are;
- Tight Schedule:Health and social care professionals must go through a busy schedule and they also require a lot of mental pressure. It is difficult to fit extra learning into their working days, as they are associated with emergency services, and there is no stability in their working hours. Here is a solution to this problem, professionals from the health and social care sector can take on-the-job training (highspeedtraining.co.uk, 2021). Senior colleagues can guide them; observation can be the learning tool.
- Shortage of Staff: The organization consists a shortage of staff and demands more time from the existing staff the organization. It creates the same problem the lack of time for any additional activities. Here the management of the organization must understand the demands of retaining and recruiting staff for increasing the effectiveness of all levels of staff.
- Shift Patterns: The healthcare sector provides 24 hours services, which is why many professionals must work at night. It makes it more difficult to fit a relevant course regarding the work field within the daily routine. Here the leaders or the management of the organization can provide flexible learning scopes, and open learning resources.
- Lack of Funding: Economic resources for arranging additional activities aiming at CDP for the professionals can be a hurdle. Here the management may keep in mind, that value of knowledge and effective skills for the workforce is also required for organizational growth.
All these barriers and hurdles can be overcome if there is a strong need, drive, or motivation to enhance professional development. Here the need hierarchy theory originated by Maslow is relevant in this context.
The theory suggested a hierarchy consisting of 5 types of needs. First, the physiological needs suggested the need of getting salaries to afford daily accessories. Once the lower level of needs is satisfied the individual will go to fulfill the next level of needs. The second level of needs is safety needs, which are concerned with job security, a hygienic work environment, and the compensation systems of the organization. Then comes the social needs that concerned with the interpersonal relationship of the individual with others co-workers within the organization. The fourth level of needs is the esteem need, which is a higher-level need that is related to the competence level, self-respect, power, and status of the employees (?tefan et al. 2020). Finally, self-actualization needs suggested the need to getting aware of one’s own potential fully. It includes the drive for growth and self-contentment. CPD is mainly related to the last two levels of need. If the three levels of lower levels of need are satisfied then the individual tends to satisfy higher levels of needs. Here the effect of CPD takes place.
Different sources and systems of support
Some of the sources and systems of support for the CPD are continuing education, research, required skills-based training, job performance, and increased duties and responsibilities. Many other systems that are included are; the identification of needs, planning development activities, reflection on the learning, and sharing learning with others. Self is the main organization where professional development is processed.
The looking-glass self-theory by Charles Cooley (smart model) is relevant in this context. This theory suggested that individuals’ perceptions of themselves depend upon the reflection of others about themselves (Siljanovska and Stojcevska, 2018). Here, the main three components of the theory are; an individual’s perception of how other see them, an individual concerned with the assessment other makes of them, and the individual building their self-image as per the responses of the others.
Figure 3: Looking Glass Theory
Self-image is an important factor in the context of CPD, in case an individual’s self-image is not that healthy then the confidence and competency levels will be low. Here, CPD is required to boost the competency levels of a professional. While there is a healthy self-image, the individual is more likely to look for opportunities for development.
Factors regarding being up-to-date
It is necessary to be upgraded with several aspects of the professional career to meet the demands of the industry. The advancement of technology upgraded medical science and other fields related to the health and social care sector. The leaders of this sector must be updated with the current trends of the industry.
The preferences of the clients are an ever-changing aspect of this sector and the organization must meet those demands to be a well-equipped organization. The growth of the organization makes its employees more effective. The health professionals who are associated with the surgical division need to be aware of the innovation of new medical tools and they needed to develop their skills according to the mechanism of the new tools (Harper and Dickson, 2019). Changes in organizational goals and vision can be accessed if the individuals are updated. The clarification of the organizational goal is required for producing effective performances.
As it is discussed, earlier that one of the effective practices of CPD is mentoring junior professionals. There can be a possibility of a generation gap, which is why it is necessary to be updated.
Conclusion
Professional development follows various steps as well as it is affected by various factors. It includes various skills which are needed to be developed in the person and to learn those skills proper knowledge, practice as well as making an effective decision is required, but to achieve these qualities and skills they go through various situations. Thus, they need to deal with those obstacles and go ahead to build perfect appearances. Hence, to develop a perfectly professional appearance the person would take help from different sources and systems, and along with that, they would overcome the barriers and obstacles that come on their way to development.
References
Journals
- Acquah, A., Nsiah, T.K., Antie, E.N.A. and Otoo, B., 2021. Literature Review on Theories of Motivation. EPRA International Journal of Economic and Business Review, 9(5), pp.25-29.
- Adeani, I.S., Febriani, R.B. and Syafryadin, S., 2020. USING GIBBS’REFLECTIVE CYCLE IN MAKING REFLECTIONS OF LITERARY ANALYSIS. Indonesian EFL Journal, 6(2), pp.139-148.
- Akella, D., Gibbs, A., Gilbert, B., Henry, B., Lee, V., Mathis, D. and Williams, V., 2021. Critical reflection and communities of practice as professional development strategies for educators. International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education (IJCDSE), 12(1).
- Cox, J.L. and Simpson, M.D., 2020. Cultural Humility: A Proposed Model for a Continuing Professional Development Program. Pharmacy, 8(4), p.214.
- Harper, L.M. and Dickson, R., 2019. Using developmental evaluation principles to build capacity for knowledge mobilisation in health and social care. Evaluation, 25(3), pp.330-348.
- Ramani, S., McMahon, G.T. and Armstrong, E.G., 2019. Continuing professional development to foster behaviour change: from principles to practice in health professions education. Medical teacher, 41(9), pp.1045-1052.
- Siljanovska, L. and Stojcevska, S., 2018. A Critical Analysis of Interpersonal Communication in Modern Times of the Concept “Looking Glass Self (1902)” By Charles Horton Cooley. Seeu Review, 13(1), pp.62-74.
- ?tefan, S.C., Popa, ?.C. and Albu, C.F., 2020. Implications of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory on healthcare employees’ performance. Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, 16(59), pp.124-143.
Websites
- highspeedtraining.co.uk, (2021), How to Support Professional Development in Health and Social Care, Available at: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/professional-development-in-health-and-social-care/#:~:text=Supporting%20professional%20development%20in%20health,the%20demands%20within%20the%20industry. [Accessed on: 11th November, 2022]