Structure of the course
This course has five sections, with each section focusing on a particular aspect of caring for adults:
Good communication [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] looks at ways of communicating, improving your listening and interpersonal skills, and recording and reporting.
Mental health awareness considers types of mental health problems and how they affect the cared-for person and the role of the carer.
Palliative and end-of-life care examines how care is provided for people who receive palliative and end-of-life care, and what is meant by a good death.
Positive risk-taking explains why it is important to balance safe care with positive risk-taking to promote a more fulfilling life for the cared-for person.
Looking after yourself looks at the importance of carers looking after their own physical and emotional well-being and ways to manage stress.
Together they amount to approximately 15 hours of study time. Each section has a mixture of reading, video clips, activities and quizzes that will help you to engage with the course content.
A further section, Taking my learning further, will enable you to reflect upon what you have learned within this course. It also directs you to relevant websites and resources, which further relate to the development of your learning and career prospects.
Once you have studied a section, you will be asked to complete a short online quiz of no more than five questions per section. This helps to test and embed your learning. If you pass the quiz (and you do get more than one attempt!), you will be awarded with a downloadable badge for that section.
Caring for adults is designed to allow you to dip in and out of the resources and collect badges as you wish, so that you can study in small chunks to fit around your work and life commitments. If you choose to complete all sections of Caring for adults and collect the full set of badges, you can download a statement of participation that recognises your achievement. You may find this useful to show your employer as evidence of your learning. For more information on how to obtain your badges, read What is a badge?
Navigating the website
To find your way around this course, you simply click on the links. The home page has links to all the sections, quizzes and relevant resources. When you are in a section, the left-hand menu has links to that section’s topics and its associated quiz. The menu also has links to the other sections of Caring for adults and to the resources section.
If you feel unsure, practise hovering your mouse over a link in the menu and clicking on it. This is the easiest way to move from page to page You can also click on the ‘Next: … ’ link at the end of each page of text. Don’t worry about breaking a link or damaging the web page – you won’t. Have a go as soon as you can before you begin your study.
Guidance for accessing alternative formats