Social Care Assignment: Role Play Of Health Care Practitioner & Their Client
Question
Task: For social care assignment, you are required to take part in a role-play scenario in order to demonstrate your one-to-one working skills. Alongside this exercise you will write a reflective essay on the skills required when working one-to-one within the human services.
The role-play exercise will cover the practice of one-to-one working with a client requiring health or social care services. Students must agree in your pair what role-play activity you are going to choose. It must be a simple example of an issue that a service user might come to talk to a practitioner about. Avoid more complex role play scenarios e.g. those related to some form of abuse.
In reality your role-play will take a maximum of 8 to 10 minutes. In this time, you will complete 2 mini role-plays. In one you will play the role of the professional/practitioner/service provider and your partner the role of the patient/client/service user. In the second you will play the role of the patient/client/service user and your partner will play the role of the professional/practitioner/service provider. This is so that you both gain experience of being a service provider but also experience what it is like to be a service user. You have to audio record your role play and submit this as evidence.
The written part of the assignment is an explanation and analysis of the role-play that you completed. The reflective essay is an individual activity, therefore both of you should write your reflections independently.
Answer
Introduction
Health and social care services in the UK have developed over the years, and have stood to meet the expectations of its citizens. As opined by Hunt et al., (2019, p. 4976) with regards to the context of social care assignment, health and care services are tasked with providing services related to healthcare. The UK's health sector is composed of both private and government players, the services being provided are considered the best across the globe. The regulations of this sector are formulated by the Department of Health and Social Care (Charlesworth and Johnson 2018). This body formulates the use of medicines and treatment procedures that need to be executed and followed across the UK. This body is also entrusted with the distribution of funds to various health care government foundations like NHS, Ministry of Health Services and Local authorities tasked with carrying out the healthcare-related work at the grassroots level (Nyashanu et al., 2020, p. 461). This essay has focused on the reflective analysis that intends to comprehend the role of a health care practitioner and their client, to meet the said objective two mini role plays were conducted by me and my partner and each of us reversed our roles to get a better idea of each role. The analysis of this role played by me has been depicted in this essay.
Brief explanations of the role-playing setting
The interplay initiates with me being a registered health practitioner, who has been catering to the health care needs of the nation for the past fifteen years. A client whose role is being played by my friend comes to visit me at the healthcare facility with chest pain. The patient was old and was very concerned about his health along with associating the chest pain with Corona Virus emphasizing that it is the extended symptom of covid which he was diagnosed with two months ago. The hospital was crowded with various patients with severe conditions and I had to attend to all. I asked him to sit for the preliminary tests and wait for the results but he was being very impatient and constantly perturbed the staff with questions. I tried to address his issues but after a time it was becoming a problem as he was demanding complete attention and complained of negligence. It created a commotion as I was also annoyed with his pestering and hovering over the same issue regarding whether the chest pain is fatal enough to kill him within an hour. I snapped back at him and asked the other staff to take him to the waiting room and wait with the other patients to be tested as his symptoms were hardly indicating anything fatal requiring emergency services.
The negative aspects of the conversation here can be highlighted with the right resources to address the needs of the elderly. The dearth of staff also made it difficult for the health practitioners to attend to a patient for a long time as we had to attend to a long list of patients. I could have addressed his concerns better, calming him down and talking to him regarding his fear.
The converstaion:
Me (Health practitioner): Hello sir, how can I help you today
Patient: I have chest pain and I think it's due to covid which I had. I need immediate help as I think I will die soon.
Me: sir may I know your age
Patient: 76 but what difference does it make. I am old so you want me to die?
Me: No sir, it's just that we have to collect information regarding the patient. Kindly fill this form and wait for your turn to get tested and meet the doctor
Patient: I cannot wait I need to see the doctor now. It's important and I’m going to die and you will be responsible for it.
Me: Sir as you can see there is a lot of patient waiting for their turn to meet the doctor and you need to wait your turn
Patient: No I want you to check me now. I do not have much time left
Me: Sorry sir, you need to wait, I cannot do anything about it
Patient (to the other patients waiting): Run away, go to better clinics, they are irresponsible people not caring about emergencies of old men. I will sue you, people!!
Me: If you do not wait and keep quiet I will have to ask the security to show you outside.
Patient: You will throw me away?? Great... I'm leaving… you lost a customer today.
Reflection 1 (as a health practitioner)
Description: The above interplay was staged at my residence; during the study off I got on the weekends. The interplay consisted of two characters: me and my friend, who also takes the same lectures as I do and has the same assignment for work. The objective of the interplay was to get an idea of the impact the recent pandemic has had on the health services of our nation and efforts were made during the course to suggest or figure out what possibly went wrong and how it can be corrected in the future scenarios.
Feelings: The initiation of the play was smooth with a general question to me about the availability of a bed for admitting patients suffering from chest pain. As the conversation progressed towards the topic of discussion and various issues like the rise in the number of deaths and lack of oxygen cylinders, I was overwhelmed while discussing the plight of the patients I saw. I think it was a very difficult time for every citizen of the country and especially for doctors like us, who had to make choices as to whom to save, among their patients.
Evaluation: It was a learning experience, as a depth discussion on the topic was made and valuable inputs were provided by my client. I also pointed out the figures to illustrate the seriousness of the issue. However, due to a lack of prerequisite knowledge on social behaviour, I did face a bit of difficulty in grasping the sociology terms being used by my client. A mix of positive and negative responses was received from my client, and it seemed to me that he was not clear about various topics.
Analysis: The interplay went well because I had planned the whole process with detailed sketching of each and every point of discussion. Also, since it was supposed to be short audio I had to ensure that all points are discussed during the course of the play. The planning of the events helped me to wrap up the two interplays in the specified time limit and with discussion on almost all points.
Conclusion: I learned during this interplay that how discussion exposes the various layers encompassed within the answers of a question, and the use of to the point answers help wrap up the conversation in a limited time period. The other important aspect which I observed was how important and risky the job of a health practitioner is, and sticking to one's ethics during times of difficulty reflects the true nature of a person.
Action Plan: I tried my best to make the best out of the resources I had and the knowledge I have acquired over the years during this interplay. However, the time constraints enforced on the role play restricted my character in having at length discussion on several sub-topics which is also depicted during the play. Hence, in case if I ever get to repeat the above interplay I will ensure that there is a greater time limit for at length discussion.
Reflection 2 (as a client or a patient)
Concrete Experience: I was not expecting to have such an in-depth discussion on the impact of the pandemic on health care services. As I have relatively less knowledge about medical terms than my peers, it was a bit difficult for me to keep up with the pace of the discussion. However, the knowledge of social behaviour came in handy and helped me to provide inputs as an outsider who is not engaged in services of the health care sector. I also learned about the plight that doctors had to go through during this pandemic and the difficult face they had to go through. Also, I got a chance to share the perspective of an outsider with respect to the events happening in the country. Overall, it was a good experience to play two different roles at a time, and get a chance to experience perspectives on both sides.
Reflective Observation: The scenario during the second mini interplay was primarily focused on figuring out the possible solutions to the problem and considering the government's response to the hectic situation. As a client, I tried to provide an overview of the events that I witnessed during the heavy wave of the pandemic, and I tried to explain the whole scenario and point out the government's failings in controlling the situation in as concise a way as possible. However, I think I missed out on various points because it is a detailed topic and entail several layers which were supposedly missed during the course of short dialogues.
Abstract Conceptualization: As evidenced by (Topriceanu et al., 2021, p. 045813), the government lacked the required intention to lower the plight of citizens during the pandemic. During the course of the interplay, I realized how the common citizen was very much unaware of the inner functioning of the health care departments and how much they were being influenced by government decisions. I tried to provide as many valuable solutions as I could, but they did not seem legitimate to my peers and failed to stand against the interpretive questioning of my peers. If I ever get a chance to play a similar role in another role-play I will ensure that my arguments are backed by data and well-supported literature, which can be made possible through thorough preparation.
Active Experimentation: The experience and learnings gathered during the course of this interplay shall help in future to produce better arguments during debate competitions or preparations of epilogues. I think having open communication about such a complex topic is only possible in a relaxed atmosphere where one is not worried about crossing some personal boundaries and affecting the other person's sentiments. This inherent fear of lack of openness during the conversation was the prime reason I chose my friend to be a partner in this venture. I will try to mitigate these fears during future courses when I get to enact interplays or during debates. It was a valuable experience and on completion, I realized how this interplay helped me to point out my inner flaws and also highlighted my inherent abilities.
Ethics played a major role during the conduction of this interplay, as I had to ensure that although the part was being conducted with my friend I did not cross the boundaries of communication that hurt his sentiments. Health care service is tasked with the heinous duty of maintaining the oath of ethics to preserve human life at any cost (Rizan et al., 2021, p. 253). This pandemic stood as a challenge in the face of this oath. Doctors and healthcare professionals had a hard time maintaining a balance between personal integrity and staying true to one's duty. I too realized and highlighted such difficulties during my role play as a doctor. As a doctor, I had to collaborate with many people during these difficult times and had to ensure that the morale of our health group stood high so that we could work with complete dedication and motivation to save as many lives as possible. Encountering several deaths in a single day, and patients dying due to a late supply of oxygen could have shaken the nerves of any person, and the same was experienced by me. Although I tried my best to lower the death rates at least at my hospital, I drastically failed to contain the impact. As a doctor, I need to keep my values of humanity and integrity aside during difficult times, and this practice helped me in making difficult choices during the pandemic.
Analysis of Strengths and the weaknesses of the interplay or meeting
The meeting was initiated and conducted smoothly various points were encountered during the course such as the use of emergency powers by the higher authorities for its citizens. The major strengths of the meeting lay in the fact that it promoted the use of two-way communication and each counterpart was allowed to express one's view in detail, unlike epilogues which consist of a one-way conversation. One more added advantage of this interplay was that it is a much better way to discuss a detailed topic as the impact of the pandemic on health care service than a debate. The entailment of the fact that it requires each member to disguise and think of themselves as a role helped me to visualise and perceive the whole concept from my point of view (Adeani et al., 2020 p. 141). The other important fact that I realised during this interplay is that it helped me to comprehend and understand the complexities of the health care services and the impact they have to encounter due to the government and media pressure being put on them. A collaborative methodology as adopted by me and my counterpart has helped me to conduct this session in a proper manner. The major drawbacks witnessed and experienced by me during this interplay were lack of adequate time and the required prerequisite knowledge of medical terms which could have helped to discover the various unexposed layers of topics being discussed. As far as time restriction is concerned I had to ensure that at least the major points of discussion could be made during my role plays, or else it would have been continued for a much longer time.
Conclusion
The assignment written above tries to envisage all the objectives that have been asked to include during the production of this reflective essay. As stated in the introduction of the study, this essay is based on the idea of understanding the role of health practitioners, which had to be done through the enactment of role-playing exercises and then subsequent production of a reflective essay to demonstrate one's understanding acquired through the enactment. A sincere effort to cover all such points through the use of Gibbs and Kolb's Reflective model has been made during this essay, and it is ensured that the objective is fulfilled.
References
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.
Charlesworth, A. and Johnson, P., 2018. Securing the future: funding health and social care to the 2030s (No. R143). IFS Report.
Hunt, R., Bates, C., Walker, S., Grierson, J., Redsell, S. and Meads, C., 2019. A systematic review of UK educational and training materials aimed at health and social care staff about providing appropriate services for LGBT+ people. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), p.4976.
Nyashanu, M., Pfende, F. and Ekpenyong, M., 2020. Exploring the challenges faced by frontline workers in health and social care amid the COVID-19 pandemic: experiences of frontline workers in the English Midlands region, UK. Social care assignment Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(5), pp.655-661.
Rizan, C., Reed, M. and Bhutta, M.F., 2021. Environmental impact of personal protective equipment distributed for use by health and social care services in England in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 114(5), pp.250-263.
Topriceanu, C.C., Wong, A., Moon, J.C., Hughes, A.D., Bann, D., Chaturvedi, N., Patalay, P., Conti, G. and Captur, G., 2021. Evaluating access to health and care services during lockdown by the COVID-19 survey in five UK national longitudinal studies. BMJ open, 11(3), p.e045813.
