5 important care worker qualities to have

There are various roles and responsibilities a care worker will have. Here we go through the 5 qualities needed for care workers.

5 qualities a care worker needs to be: 

1 – Caring

2 – Supportive  

3 – Respectful

4 – Observant

5 – Resilient 

Here are the 5 qualities in more detail:

Caring 

Being caring is so important. You are the person who will often see the service user at their best and their worst. We need to show our compassion and care towards those we care and support.

Supportive 

The service users we support can go through difficulties and therefore it’s important we are supportive. We should remember to ask the individual if they need any help or support.

Respectful

Individuals should be provided with dignity and respect. We should ask the individual if they need privacy and how we can support them with this. We should also communicate how we are going to help them.

Observant  

The ability to be observant is so important. If you are supporting an individual with care and respect, you should be able to notice signs that something isn’t right. This is important as the right support at the right time can make a massive difference to individuals.

Resilient 

Resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties. Some days you may be shouted or sworn at or even have something thrown at you. Resilience and the ability to bounce back is so important. 

As a care worker, you’ll have good days and not so good days. You’ll see the triumphs of individuals learning a new skill. Though you may also see the lows, where an individual is having a difficult day or coming to their end of life.

Know that as a care worker you are appreciated and we thank you for supporting individuals who require care and assistance.

If you’re looking at becoming a care worker, here are some resources:

• Becoming a care worker blog – click here
• Prospects – Care manager role profile – click here
• Department of Health and Social Care – Job roles – click here
   

Do you have any other qualities you feel a care worker should have? Comment them below!

The top 10 skills and qualities needed for a care manager

There are several responsibilities a care manager will undertake within their role. Here we go through the top 10 skills needed for care managers.

Top 10 skills and qualities a care manager needs:

1 – Resilience

2 – Problem solver

3 – Compassionate

4 – Responsible

5 – Leader

6 – Responsive

7 – A team player

8 – Understanding

9 – Communicator

10 – Listener 

Resilience

Resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties and bounce back. When the tough gets going, you cannot getting going.

Problem solving

Sometimes as a care manager there can be problem after problem after problem. This is often because you are supporting and managing so many people with varying needs and abilities. Thinking on your feet is important and an ability to resolve issues is important.

Compassionate

Being compassionate is so important as you are supporting individuals lives. There will be times you may need to have difficult conversations and so compassion should shine through.

Responsible

As a care manager you have a lot of responsibility and therefore you need to be responsible. You are not only responsible for yourself, but for your service users and your staff.

Leader

This one goes without saying. There is a time to be a manager and a time to be a leader. When problems are arising or difficulties within the team, a care manager is the role model. They need to lead their team to success.

Responsive

Not only do you need to be a problem solver and resilient. You also need to be responsive. Responsive to your service users and staff.

Team player

Whether you support a small team or large team, you need to build team relationships. It’s also not just about the staff team, you should all be rooting to provide the best possible care and support to the service users you are supporting.

Understanding

Service users and staff may go through difficulties and so it’s important to be understanding. Work through the difficulties with the staff and ensure they do not feel alone. Very much so like our attitude should be with our service users.

Communicator

A care manager needs to have effective communication skills. They need to be able to provide clear and concise instructions. They also need to ensure their communication is person centred for each individual.

Listening

Similar to being understanding, there is an importance placed on listening skills. You want to have an open door policy or structure where service user, their families and staff can approach you.

If you’ve read this and feel down that you have areas to improve on. Do not worry. We all have strengths and areas to improve on.

And if you are feeling overwhelmed, J. Sidlow Baxter has some wise words: 

“What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.” 

It can be hard sometimes, but a PMA or positive mental attitude can be just the thing to give us a buzz and take action.

If you’re looking at becoming a care manager, here are some resources:

• Prospects – Care manager role profile – click here
• Skills for Care – Manager – click here 
• The Care Training Company – Our blog – click here

Do you have any other qualities or skills you feel a care manager should have? Comment them below!

Providing an effective training room for care professionals

Learning and development is important. And some of this can be provided through training. However, one thing that can sometimes be overlooked is the training room. Here we look into providing an effective training room.

Why does the training room matter?

You may believe that it’s the trainer and their content, presentation skills and resources which make the training. And they do. However, the training room also matters. A poorly thought out training room can cause lack of engagement from the learners.

The training room should facilitate the trainer and learners outcomes. Without an effective training room, it can become difficult for the trainer to achieve the outcomes and the learners may too have difficulties. 

How can we create an effective training room?

Now we’ve looked at the why, let’s look at the how. There are various ways an effective training room can be planned out. Here are just some examples:

• Room temperature
• Layout
• Space (equipment/resources)

Room temperature

Room temperature is important. You may have felt sluggish or tired in a room before, even though you had a great nights sleep. And this could be due to the temperature. If the room temperature is too cold or too warm, it can be very off-putting to the individuals. Now we probably will never achieve the perfect temperature, as some will prefer to be a bit warmer or bit cooler than others. Therefore try to find the happy medium. Don’t forget if it’s stuffy in the room, open up the windows if you can.

Layout

The layout of a room can facilitate active participation from learners. The ‘wrong’ layout can cause a lack of discussions and engagement. Many training sessions, courses and qualification can require group activities. They can form a significant part of some topics or subjects. Thus the room layout should allow for discussions to take place

For example, using a horse shoe effect can enable learners to converse with more people than the standard 2 people to a table. Though the layout could instead involve tables being put together in a square or rectangle. Again these can provide more communicate and collaboration between one another.

If you are holding a training session (or even a meeting), remember to think about the layout. This may determine some of the success of participation between the learners or staff.

Space (equipment/resources)

Trainers will use various resources from whiteboards, flip charts and more. Some will use one and others may use several. The size of a room is just as important as the layout. Flip charts, whiteboards, interactive boards etc can play a part in the participation of learners. Not only this, a room which is very small can be hazardous. For example, if a trainer is facilitating moving and handling or positive handling, the room needs to be spacious. If it’s not, it can cause potential injury to the learner and/or the trainer.

Therefore bear in mind the space of the room and the layout together. Some layouts will not be possible to achieve.

Final thoughts

It’s not just about the ability of the trainer, the environment can be as important. In conclusion, if you plan for a more effective training room, the learners and trainer should achieve better outcomes.

Let us know how you’ve organised your training room

Choosing the right care training company

Choosing a training provider can be a minefield, particularly if you are unsure on how to choose the right one for you.

It’s important to find a care and clinical training organisation which aligns with you and your values. One which can provide person centred care to suit the requirements for your service users, staff and the organisation.

There are 5 main areas to think about and they include the:

• people

• certifications

• price

• reviews

• accreditations 

The people

It can important to know how the people at an organisation are. Do they seem interested in what you do or do they just want to take the booking? Do you feel they align with their mission statement, values and vision? A training provider should be all about providing valuable learning and development to enable the learners to be knowledgable and skilled in the training area.

The certifications

What qualifications should the trainers and/or assessors have?

For many organisations it is expected that a trainer has a minimum of a Level 3 Award in Education and Training. Though, there are trainers who have not achieve the minimum as believe they are occupationally competent with their experience.

Similarly to this, organisations typically expect an assessor to have a minimum of a Level 3 in assessing. The qualification can depend on whether they are assessing vocational achievement, workplace assessments or both.

The price 

Price is an important factor for everyone. Ask yourself this… Does the provider you are looking at offer value and therefore is the cost equivalent to this? Do they mention practical based activities or role play opportunities for seemingly practical led sessions.

The reviews

When looking at reviews, we should look at quality and not just quantity. Quantity can provide a good overview, though we should not discredit smaller or just recently opened providers either. More so, some organisations would rather work with a small group of companies than work with many organisations. Therefore the amount of reviews may be very little. If you are an avid review reader, reflect on the content on the feedback. Does it mention words such as valuable, innovative, creative, relevant, engaging, motivating etc?

The accreditations

Like with reviews, it can take time for an organisation to be able to achieve an accreditation and again we should not discredit them straightaway. There are various accreditation, endorsed and quality mark schemes. For example, Skills for Care can endorse learning providers where they must submit evidence to show how they are meeting the standards expected. Similarly, training providers can have their service and/or activities accredited by various CPD organisations. 

There are many questions you can ask a training provider and we hope that some of these give you some questions to ask, if you are unsure.

Whether you choose us or another organisation, we hope we helped in your search to find a likeminded training provider.

Let us know in the comments below what you look for in a training provider?

Why you should consider having a Facebook group for your care team?

Having a simple and accessible communication procedure is important. There are various applications that can be utilised to share information to your care team. But have you considered a staff Facebook group to manage it?

Why you should consider having a staff FB group?

More and more organisations are beginning to use social media platforms as a way to keep in touch with their teams. In fact there are some organisations and individuals who have created groups for support workers, activity coordinators and care managers to network. They can be quite easy to set up and have various settings you can include to manage it.

Here are some reasons why you should consider having a staff FB group:

• It’s free
• It provides one place for all staff to communicate
• There are various rules & protections you can include
• You can include topics for finding resources easily
• Many of your staff may already be using Facebook
• Create events linked to the group
• It’s interactive – you can gain feedback through questions and create polls
• You can turn it into a learning resource using the social learning option

Ways to manage a staff FB 

Now you know some of the reasons why you should consider using a staff Facebook group.. Let’s look at how to manage it.

There are various settings and options including:

• Privacy settings
• Admin and moderators
• Rules
• Social learning groups 

Since Facebook gives so many options, we’ve spilt the descriptions below.

Privacy settings

• Privacy settings for groups can either be public or private. Currently a within a public group, anyone can see who is within the group and what they post. Whilst the members of a private group are the only who can see whose in the group and what they post.
  
• A group can also be visible or hidden. Anyone can find a visible group in the search function. A hidden group is only visible to the members and so invitations to individuals are required to access the group.
• If a member of staff leaves, you can either remove them from the group or block them.

Admin and moderators etc 

• You can set individuals as admin and moderators within the group
• You can also set up keyword alerts. If any member uses a word or phrase you do not wish to have within the group, the admins will be able to review the content and take action if required 

Rules

• Facebook enables a rules option which the admins of a group can create up to 10 rules
• You also have the option to use example rules such as ‘be kind and courteous’ and you have the option to personalise too
• Not only can you write a rule including up to 50 characters, you have up to 200 character to write a decription
• You can amend the rules at any time

Social learning groups

If you are looking at using your staff Facebook group as a learning tool, this is a great option.  A social learning group is where you can organise posts into a unit or series. For example, you could have an induction section, policies and procedures, epilepsy awareness and more.

Though in a standard group you aka general group you can have topics, the unit option has more capabilities. For instance, you can allow members to show their progress whereby they can select ‘done’. This enables the members of the group to see who has completed this tasks. This can be beneficial for staff to prompt and motivate one another to complete any remaining and new units. You can also allow members to share when they’ve completed a unit. Again this is a great additional for staff to show they’ve completed it and you could even tie in a reward for when units are complete. Another great capability is the option to reorder units. Say you have included a new unit which needs to be before a section, you can access this option on Facebook on a web browser.

If you already have a group, you can change it to a social learning group within the group type section in group settings.

In conclusion…

A staff Facebook group can help bridge the gap between its care team. There are various settings you can action to enable confidentiality. They are a create place to provide information and resources and be shared with your whole team. So if you hadn’t already considered having a Facebook group before, are you now?

Here are some guides for Facebook:

• Facebook – Help Centre – click here
• Facebook – Education Centre – click here 

Here are some Facebook groups for care managers and care professionals:

• The Outstanding Manager Online Network – click here
• Networking In Care – Connecting Care Professionals Group – click here
• Registered Managers Group – click here

Let us know in the comments below if you have a staff Facebook group for your care team? Is it working for you?

Mental Health First Aid

Mental health awareness is so important. It is particularly important for those working in caring roles.

What is mental health?

Mental health is how we think and how we feel. We can have good mental health and we can have mental health difficulties or problems. Individuals could describe themselves as feeling burned out, stressed or overwhelmed. There are many other ways an individual could describe how they feel too. There are various types of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, schizophrenic and others.

Mental health in the workplace

Mental health is just as important as physical health. Let’s not forget that workplaces have a ‘duty of care’ towards its staff under the Health and Safety at Work (1974). If we are experiencing poor mental health it could affect our productivity and/or performance. This in turn could affect the workplace from the clients, other staff and visitors. It is particularly important to support mental wellbeing within care organisations as care workers have responsibilities to provide care and support to others. Often the individuals they support are vulnerable and so may require high levels of care and support. A positive workplace culture can boost staff morale, productivity and performance. It can also decrease staff sickness and facilitate a high level of staff retention. This can help to facilitate appropriate and safe levels of staffing. 

How can you do more?

There are various things you as an individual and as a workplace. Here are some ideas:

• learn the sign and symptoms
• check in with your colleagues and staff
• have an open door policy
• be empathetic – not sympathetic
• speak openly about mental health
• have discussions and team meetings regularly
• share mental health resources
• provide mental health awareness training
• provide mental health first aider training

What is a Mental Health First Aider?

A MHFA isn’t someone who provides a diagnosis or offers professional support. Nor do they provide therapy. Instead they provide helpful information and may suggest professional support and others forms of support. A Mental Health First Aider will learn about the signs and symptoms to be able to offer appropriate support. They will actively listen and show empathy to the individual. They are there to guide the individual to get support/help, oppose to trying to fix them.

You can access MHFA through Mental Health First Aid England. The MHFA course is a 2 day face to face course or currently it is offered online through online learning and live video calling sessions. Additionally, MHFA England can also offer mental health awareness courses too. They have 3 MHFA for adults, young people and armed forces.

Whilst it is not mandatory to have a mental health first aider, Charlotte (Director and Trainer at The Care Training Company) says ‘upon attending the MHFA course, I realised just how important having a deeper understanding of the signs and symptoms of various conditions is. I learnt the key principles of helping others in their time of need and how to direct them to appropriate support. I would highly recommended all workplaces to access and/or provide MHFA training through MHFA England.’

If you’re looking for more information, here are some resources:

• MHFA England – Book a course – click here
• MIND – Types of mental health problems – click here
• YOUNGMiNDS – What is mental health? – click here
• The Care Training Company – Our blogs – click here

Comment below what information, resources and/or training your organisation uses to build on your workplace mental health awareness?

An overview of autism

What is autism?

Autism is a lifelong developmental condition. It is also known more commonly as Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). Though previously was called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It affects social communication, interaction and imagination.

Day to day difficulties:

Individuals can have difficulties in social communication, interaction and imagination. Though it is a spectrum condition which means individuals will have various levels of difficulty from person to person.

Some individuals can struggle with understanding social cues. They can often require information to be clear as they may take things literally. For example, if you said ‘pull your socks up’, some individuals may then pull their socks up. In addition to this, individuals may have difficulty understanding jokes or sarcasm.

Individuals may not give eye contact and can have difficulties in understanding your emotions and feelings. They may be unable to decipher your tone of voice or facial expressions.

Supportive strategies:

There are various strategies we can put in place. For example, we need to give time for individuals to process information and therefore this may mean being patient to receive  an answer. Here are some supportive strategies:

• social stories
• objects of reference
• visual timetables for routines
• picture cards or PEC cards (pictorial exchange communication)
• be clear in your instructions and give time to process the information

So how else can we support individuals?

Well the National Autistic Society identified 5 key areas which individuals can have difficult with. These are:

• Time to process information
• Social situations can cause anxiety
• Unexpeted changes can cause anxiety
• Noise, smells and bright lights can be distressing
• Individuals can experience feelings of overwhelm and cause a ‘meltdown’

It is important to highlight key areas and to spend time to identify ways we can reduce if not limit these difficulties. For example, ensuring the environment is suitable and accessible. This can be achieved through using dimmed lights instead of using brighter lights. Other ways could include being aware of the volume of the television or radio station etc. 

Want to learn more about autism – click here to book our autism awareness course.

References

*National Autistic Society (2018) Autism Facts and History. Available from: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/myths-facts-stats.aspx. [Accessed: 12th July 2020] 

**The NHS Information Centre, Community and Mental Health Team, Brugha, T. et al (2012). Estimating the prevalence of autism spectrum conditions in adults: extending the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Leeds: NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care

The importance of personal development

Personal development is different from professional development. Though they are equally important and there are crossovers too. Sometimes it can be difficult to sit down and take the time to reflect on where we are now and where we want to be. It can be particularly important for care professionals. Let’s have a look.

What is personal development?

It’s all about developing our values, skills, talents and potential. One of the benefits of personal development includes resilience building. When working in care, resilience is one of those things that typically can only be learnt, not taught. There are times at work you may feel down, uncertain or stressed. This could be due to an individual showing behaviours that challenge, which you are unsure how to approach. Whilst learning ways to manage behaviours through professional development may help provide you strategies to manage the situation. Resilience is more about your attitudes and values, gained from experiences. Personal development is all about growth, you may not achieve your goal each time, but you’ll be continually working to better yourself.

Why is personal development important?

Personal development is important as it can enrich not only our work life, but our personal life too. It is about being proactive and actively working on yourself, your values, your skills. It can provide benefits such as:

• build self-awareness
• provide a sense of direction
• make clear goals
• encourage, prompt, motivate
• facilitate resilience

There are many more reasons it is so important too.

So what type of things do you need to think about? Keep reading on for more,

Here are some things you can think about?

Reflection enables us to plan and take action.

Here are some questions to think about:

• where are you at now?
• what are your strengths?
• what support do you need?
• what could you improve?
• are there any gaps in your knowledge or skills?
• what are your goals?
• are your objectives and goals SMART?
• is the current care plan and care planning procedure working?
• what do you want to achieve?

If you’re looking for more information, here are some resources:

• The Care Training Company – Our blog – click here

 Let us know in the comments below… What is one of your personal development goals for this year?

Supporting individuals during an epilepsy emergency

Having a seizure can become an emergency situation. Here we look at how to support individuals in an epilepsy emergency.

What is an epilepsy emergency?

There are various ways to define an epilepsy emergency, though one of the common ones is a seizure lasting a significant time. However, not all seizures require medical attention or an ambulance.

When would a seizure be considered an emergency?

A tonic clonic seizure which lasts 5 minutes or longer is usually deemed as an emergency. The reason for this is that this is the typical length of time an individual will require some form of emergency treatment. Individuals may require various rescue medications at this point. Though individuals can have a protocol which states other times such as 3 or 4 minutes or longer. This is dependent on the individual and their medical professionals. A seizure which lasts 5 minutes or longer is called ‘prolonged seizure’. It can also be due to an individual having another seizure before recovering from the previous one.

Why is ‘status epilepticus’ an emergency?

When an individual is in status epilepticus it is when their seizure lasts 30 minutes or longer. If an individual has a seizure lasting 30 minutes or longer. It can cause brain damage, organ failure and in some cases death. Therefore it is important to get medical treatment as deemed in their protocol. 

Other epilepsy emergencies

There are additional epilepsy emergencies which can arise and these include:

• where an individual has become injured as a result of epilepsy (e.g. a head injury)
  
• a seizure which lasts longer than usual (usually 2 minutes or longer)
• the amount of seizures is more than usual
•  an individual does not gain consciousness within 10 minutes 
• when you feel concerned about the individual

Remember if you are uncertain, call 111 and they may be able to advise you. The caller may direct your call and request for a Doctor or the paramedics to to attend. If you believe the individual is in immediate danger, call 999 and request an ambulance.

How can we support an individual with epilepsy?

The first thing is staying calm.

It can be scary whether it’s the first time or the 100th time. Though it is important to stay as calm as you can. Remember to breathe. Breathe in through your mouth, momentarily hold your breath and then breathe out from your mouth. This can help calm you.

Understand their condition

When working with an individual with epilepsy, you should know the key information to be able to support them. Typical areas may include knowing what their seizures look like, when to call for medical attention and how to support them. Familiarise yourself with their care plan and any emergency care plans or protocols. Remember individuals will have different protocols based on the type of seizures and their experiences.

Be reassuring.

You should reassure the individual, during and after the seizure. They may not be able to hear you, but this is still important. It provides the individual with respect. Additionally, the individual may be able to hear and see you, though this may not be obvious to you.

Maintain dignity.

If you are in a room full of individuals, it may be appropriate to relocate other service users and staff. An individual may feel embarrassed and therefore limiting observers can support the individual. An alternative, could be sectioning of the space if temporary re-location is not possible.

Get help

As mentioned in the previous sub-heading, there are times when an ambulance may be required. If you have never called 999 before, it can feel overwhelming. Ask your workplace to create a simulation to build your confidence and lessen your anxiety in calling for an ambulance.

Want to learn how to support individuals with epilepsy and administer Buccal Midazolam?

Click the button to view our Epilepsy with Emergency Medication training

Where can you get additional information for epilepsy?

Here are some resources to various websites:

• Epilepsy Society – click here 
• Epilepsy Action – click here
• Book our epilepsy awareness course – click here
• Or book our epilepsy emergency medication training – click here

How to give constructive feedback effectively?

Do you sometimes struggle with not knowing what to say or how to say it when giving feedback? Here are some tricks and tips to help you the next time you aren’t sure how to construct your feedback. And some other suggestions for providing a professional environment and procedure.

What is constructive feedback?

Constructive feedback can be important in motivating and encouraging your care team. Constructive feedback is a way of providing specific and actionable information which facilitates improvements and outcomes. If done right, it can be highly motivating and facilitate better productivity and/or performance.

Here are 5 ways you could use to provide effective constructive feedback:

• the praise sandwich
• the medal and mission
• make it private
• personalisation
• set time

The praise sandwich.

This approach is involves 3 layers and it’s a tasty one at that. You start off with the first slice of bread by giving a positive praise. You then add the filing where you provide your constructive feedback. Note: the word ‘criticism’ is not used. You finish on the 2nd slice of bread where you end with another positive comment. For example, [name] I really enjoyed how you interacted with [name] today. I would like to suggest that you also attempt to prompt the other services users into the conversation. Though it was lovely to see the smile on [name]’s face during your conversation. Great work today [name]. Keep it up.

This way of giving feedback can be really effective is it noting the positives and the ways to improve.

The medal and mission.

This strategy is useful when the member of staff needs to take charge and complete a task. For this you provide the member of staff with their ‘medal’ using positive praise and you then give them their mission. For example, [name], I thought it was fantastic how you approached [name] using Makaton. What would be great next time if you could include some Makaton signing for the choices you gave? How does that sound?

This can be particularly effective if the individual needs to improve a certain task or skill.

Make it private.

There’s been times feedback has been given in the right space and the wrong space. A cafe, restaurant or open space isn’t the best place to give and receive feedback. Who wants to hear feedback when colleagues or members of the public can hear it? It’s like if we go to the Doctors, we would never expect to be given test results in the waiting room. Giving feedback in the wrong place can cause trust issues. The environment can play a big part in facilitating open and honest conversations.

Personalisation.

In many of the above examples, there has been a common theme. The person’s name. By adding in personalisation to your feedback, can enable the learner to truly believe in what you are saying. This is important as it can boost confidence and motivation. Be specific in what they have done and achieved recently. If you have primarily praised how they worked with the team, provide specific feedback for the individual staff member too. It’s also important that the feedback does not criticism the individual and is negatively personal.

Set time.

Those times we feel rushed, often cause us to feel deflated. So why are we rushing to give feedback and not giving enough time? It can make an individual feel undervalued or not part of the work family, if they are slotted a time just before you have to head off. If you are planning to give feedback to a member of staff, first identify the typical times you are interrupted. Plan the feedback around your most busiest times. Of course, we cannot always control them, particularly emergencies, though planning around the busier times should reduce interruptions.

In conclusion.

Many of us thrive on receiving feedback. It enables us to feel like valued member of the team. It can have a motivating and inspiring effect. It can also facilitating us to take ownership of how we behaviour, act, think and work. It can take some practice in feeling confident or comfortable in giving feedback. Try one or two of the above strategies and see how you get on.

If you’re looking for more information, here are some resources:

• Skills for Care – Building resilience – click here
• Mind – How to manage stress – click here
• Check out our other blog posts – click here

Have you used any of the above methods before? How did it make them feel? Did they go onto achieve even more? Let us know in the comments below!