Duty of care

Introduction

Welcome to Section 4 of the Introducing practical healthcare course where you will be introduced to the duty of care you are responsible for as a healthcare assistant. When completed you will have the opportunity to obtain a ‘Duty of care’ SPN badge. This section will take approximately 2.5 hours to complete.

In this section, you will consider your duty of care and legislation, including situations at work that should be reported. You will look into how, as a healthcare assistant, you always need to be accountable for your actions. This section will also consider the concept of whistleblowing, or knowing what action to take if you become aware of poor practice in your workplace.

Another aspect of your role as a healthcare assistant might be to deal with comments and complaints from patients. You will find out how to handle incidents, errors and near misses, and how you would normally go about reporting these within your role. It is important to maintain equality and diversity, and to understand inclusion and stereotypes. You will learn about the differences between these terms within this section.