Module Name: Introduction to Effective Caring.

Module Code: SHNXGB3023

Student ID: insert student ID

Final Word count: 2500 words

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 Table of Contents

1.0 Abstract.................................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
3.0 Analysis of QoL......................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Key Factors of High Quality of Life.........................................................................................................4
3.2 Caring Techniques.................................................................................................................................5
3.3 Barriers to Positive/Effective Caring......................................................................................................6
3.4 Role of QoL, Caring Techniques & Positive Caring in High Quality Care.................................................7
4.0 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
5.0 Reference/Bibliography.........................................................................................................................8

1.0 Abstract
The primary focus of the report is to elaborate the concept of quality of life, caring techniques; positive
caring as well as it throws light on how these concepts are interrelated with each other to attain high

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quality care. In real practice it’s difficult to measure quality of life as every QoL factor has different
meaning like a standard of living may satisfy one individual could not be satisfactory for other. Its
interpretation varies from person to person. Key caring techniques are also part of the report that would
be helpful to maintain good quality patient care. I also explore different barriers to positive care and
their impact like time and money constraints, professional attitude and population etc.

Keywords: Quality of Life, caring techniques, Effective Caring, Person centered caring, barriers

2.0 Introduction
1. The term quality of life is defined as the overall level of satisfaction that an individual own or
possess in its personal life (HRQOL Concepts). Quality of Life interpretation varies from person
to person. It’s a person own understanding of life in relation to their ambitions and wishes while
living in a particular society and culture (Institute for Work and Health, 2012).
2. Key caring techniques are defined as the approach or methods that are used by health and
social care institutes to deliver high quality patient care. These caring techniques play a critical
role to cure feeling of isolation, distress, maintain dignity and respect of the users of the service
(Kim, 2002).
3. Positive Caring is defined as an organized structure or plan for health activities based on user
needs and expectations for every individual. It’s about offering customize services for every
individual as per their requirements. It changes as per requirement of the user (Sarah, 2019).

3.0 Analysis of QoL

It’s difficult to measure or evaluate quality of life as the phrase quality of life has different interpretation
for every individual. So to evaluate quality of life need to consider multiple factors to verify quality of life
concept. Let’s examine these factors in detail (Pukeliene & Starkauskiene, 2011).

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3.1 Key Factors of High Quality of Life
Education is the most important factor to evaluate quality of life as in recent knowledge based era
education defines the growth potential for an individual. Having good options and access to better
education facilities will raise satisfaction level. Good and reasonable education level is also important to
secure a good job or capture an employment opportunity. An individual with a limited education level
face hurdles to opt reasonable profession and limited opportunities to grow financially. For example if
an individual only equipped with a high school diploma he or she could not work as civil engineer who
required a specific qualification or degree to choose the profession of civil engineer. In year 2014, 41%
of the European citizens were jobless as almost 4.6 million individual of agar 18 to 24 leave education at
early stage (European Commission, 2014).

Economic and physical securities are the critical factor that dominates people lives. Economic stability
and a safe physical environment is a must requirement for an individual as if these conditions are not
good they would impact quality of life. Economic stability provides equal opportunity for everyone to
grow and earn profits. For example if a particular area is known for killings and ransom activity it would
not be a better option for individual to live and start a business or job at that particular place. Germany
ranked as number 22 in terms of ease of doing business in 2020 which shows favorable economic
environment, growth and good security conditions (Glunz & Von, 2020).

Health factor is important enough as it considered as human capital that are beneficial in long run and
development. Physical or mental health issues can pose real threats to quality of life. The health factor
consider mortality rate, exercise habits, access to healthcare, number of specialized health care units,
chronic diseases etc. More a person is healthy in his or her life the more he is happy and satisfied and
has high quality of life. For example high mortality rate in a particular area would show that health care
facilities are less. Similarly high suicide rate may show that individual satisfaction level and stress is high
which affect their mental health. It revealed that almost 60% of Americans live with at least one chronic
disease and more than 25% of adults diagnosed with two or more chronic conditions, like cancer,
diabetes, heart disease etc. (Hadaya, 2022).

Good housing conditions are another important factor to assess quality of life. Good housing need to
fulfill basic requirements of security, protection, privacy and personal freedom of an individual. Good
housing conditions covers the issues like peaceful surrounding, overcrowding, avoid traffic noise and
sufficient space for living. For example living in an overcrowded or noisy area may negatively impact a
person health. In 2020, one out of five EU residents report noise, pollution and privacy issues with
neighbors in their local area (Eurostat, 2022).

3.2 Caring Techniques

Let’s discuss key caring techniques that are important to maintain high quality of life (Tes, 2020).

1. Create trust approach based on the idea of developing relationships with support of
confidentiality and consistency offered by care giver. The service user trust caregiver as he or
she is trustworthy and respect promises. It’s important to build a partnership between carer and
individual during caring process. As service user may need to share personal issues with care
giver although he have no concern with that discussion but still individual want to share their
feelings with someone who is trustworthy. Consider an example of create trust technique as a

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 patient sharing his reason of being sad is her daughter died last year in a road accident and she
missed her a lot. The care giver share information with a colleague and he later express her
condolences to patient for her daughter death and patient immediately knows that her
confidentiality has been breached as a result he never trust her care giver again. Patient will not
share personal information with care giver again which could negatively impact patient
treatment.
2. Gaining compliance technique related to convince someone to take a particular line of action or
follow recommended plan as care giver need to convince patient to do what is compulsory to do
to make treatment work. The gaining compliance approach avoids dictation or threat tactic to
follow instructions. The main focus of the approach is to build trust and convince patients in
humble and kind way that it’s in their own interest to follow prescribed instructions. The carer
should opt the strategy by explaining pros and cons of not following instructions and
alternatives to empower individual. To convince patient carer need to make logical arguments
or alternative options so patient would will to follow request or instruction. For example it may
be difficult to simply instruct a patient to quit smoking but if carer provides logical reasoning and
comprehensive information about the health risks and hazards patient could face due to
smoking will better help to convince. Another way is offering alternatives like reduce amount of
cigarettes to quit it completely over time.
3. Another key caring technique is disengagement that used to counter a hostile interaction
between caregiver and patient. The method is used to dilute a hostile situation or break down a
heated debate. The approach use the Strategy to call someone else or leaving the room quietly
to diffuse situation. I such a hostile situation care giver need to leave or withdraw the scenario.
The care giver should express sense of responsibility while leaving room as he or she needs to
avoid shouting or any negative comments while leaving. These withdrawal techniques give the
patient chance to keep calm and relax.
4. Distraction is another caring technique that is mainly used to manage short term pain and
depression faced by the patient. In a case when patient focus on their state of pain or
discomfort then it will raise level of pain or discomfort further. To distract patient from this state
of pain or discomfort carer use distraction technique. The carer try to distract attention of
patient to something else to reduce pain and stress due to specific treatment for example try to
divert attention of a child with a toy while having an injection. Similarly engaging a child to a
cartoon show while passing cannula to inject drip.

3.3 Barriers to Positive/Effective Caring

Positive Caring is the basic need for every individual but number of constraints exist that affect medical
practitioners and patient as well in health detail (Moore, L. et al. 2016). Let’s examine few constraints in
detail:

1. Time constraints are a significant barrier in person centered caring as its affect and can slow
down level of service provided. Due to shortage of appropriate time health professionals lack as
they have to deal multiple task like training, education, patient relationships, interaction with
colleagues etc. Similarly communication is a real issue while interaction with a patient that
require appropriate time to understand patient issue or required a translator but due to short of
available time its quiet difficult for carer to serve properly. The pace of health and social

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 activities are so quick that carers face challenges to meet time requirements. The time
constraints could be counter successfully if patient are responsible enough to take responsibility
of their personal care and health while being behave as responsible. For example a chronic
patient of heart disease can behave self responsibly by take his or her medication on time and
do regular exercise to cooperate with carer and save his time that is real issue while serving
various patients and performing multiple tasks (Kim, 1994).
2. Professional attitude is another constraint that can impact person centered care or positive
caring. The reasons for this constraints or hurdle could be lack of level of commitment required
by carer, lack of interest or it could be lack of knowledge of a particular treatment or use of an
equipment etc. There are number of cases reported for example due to unprofessional behavior
of health professional he or she indulge into heated arguments with a psychotic patient rather
being calm which damage the cooperation between carer and patient that is important during
treatment. Above mentioned stereotyped attitudes and lack of practice hinders positive caring
in healthcare system that need to be avoided and discouraged (Suh, 1998).
3. Population issues and documentation are real challenge to deliver positive care to individuals as
per their needs. It’s a real a challenge to serve a wide population with various health issues and
requirements. A huge population with varying demographics and language to break
communication barriers and build trust. Another big hurdle is recording and maintenance of
documents related to positive caring. Its quiet important to organize and record whole process
for future reference and knowledge. This documentation is critical to analyze the data of the
patient who receive person centered caring but it lack completeness, care and not as per
required format. For example while analysis of outdoor patient records explore that patient
personal information is missing like age, name or gender that would make difficult to record
data of patients of particular age group (Nkrumah & Abekah-Nkrumah, 2019).
4. Financial constraints limit health care professionals to provide appropriate services like
equipment, technology, working environment, logistics and transportation etc. Both patient and
health carer blame financial constraints for unavailability of equipment and technology,
unnecessary delays, failure to perform positive caring etc. For example as a single dialysis
machine available is out of order but due to lack of funds its maintenance is pending which force
kidney patients to search alternative healthcare facility for treatment (Nam, 1993).

3.4 Role of QoL, Caring Techniques & Positive Caring in High Quality Care
Dignity, respect and compassion are most important outcomes for Health and patient wellbeing in social
care. Person centered care require to create an integration between QoL and key caring techniques to
achieve high quality patient care. Person centered approach value patient outputs to continuously
improve health services as per patient needs and demands. These coordinated efforts would helpful to
provide a person centered care that fulfil patient emotional and social needs to maintain high quality of
life and it will also boost patient trust and confidence. This increased level of trust would be helpful in
patient treatment. Let’s discuss few examples in this regard as (Taylor, 2022):

• Change patient sleeping and wake up time as per considering patient productive hours or high
energy that suit him or her well and more comfortable.

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 • Try to provide treatment at home as per patient preferences or where patient feel more
comfortable and satisfied. Try to make arrangements if possible that will also helpful in patient
recovery.
• Make the patient feel independent and responsible to provide tools and devices so they can
perform task easily on their own glucometer to check sugar level or an extending device that
aids in putting shoes on.

Positive or effective caring is a basic model that is used to understand key caring techniques and provide
appropriate environment require improving QoL that will lead to good quality patient care. Data reveal
that positive caring method enhances QoL while removing barriers (Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention, 2018). Positive caring phenomena elaborate reasons of individual challenging behavior as
per following:

• Particular patients need specific requirements that are not being addressed due to uncommon
need, personal preferences, physical or mental health conditions etc.
• They may face unusual challenging circumstances in which a harsh reaction occur or emerge. For
example survive in environment where they face demotivation, demanding, stressful, limited or
no access to desired things, lack of social bonding’s or stressed relationships (Hoffman, n.d).
• People who are facing low quality of life tend to show challenging behaviors.

These above mentioned challenges are the prime focus of the positive caring. An organized and
systematic mechanism to implement positive caring is essential for good quality patient care (Korian,
n.d). Person centered care and QoL could be improved using positive caring methods that are
elaborated below:

• Use of person center care methods will ensure that people can enjoy their lives just like normal
one. This approach assist patients in a respectable and compassionate manner that will enhance
patient dignity and confidence (Policy Partners Project, 2014).
• Need to conduct comprehensive evaluation to explore the reasons why an individual show
challenging behavior. Need to focus the factors that raise such behavior specifically there need
to analyze behavioral data to thoroughly analyze unmet needs of the individual (The Health
Foundation, 2014).
• Need to develop behavioral care plans with clear explanation that earlier identified factors seem
stressful for the individual are resolved and QoL is improved. Individuals need to facilitate by
using preventive approaches to create tailored techniques to meet their needs where possible
(The Health Foundation, 2014).
• These plans must include a clear feedback like diffusion approaches like distraction or
disengagement when a heated argument starts. These approaches used to settle down the
heated environment. They are used to relax the patient.
• By utilization of these positive caring methods carer can improve patient’s quality of life and
achieve high quality patient care (The Health Foundation, 2014).

4.0 Conclusion
Quality of life is the level of satisfaction that an individual wishes to achieve in it’s life. Various factors
play a vital role in an individual quality of life like education, health, working conditions, employment,

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economic activity etc. (Peate, 2017). Key caring techniques are approaches used by healthcare sector to
address issues like patient isolation, care, respect and make them feel that they matter. These
techniques include create trust; obtain compliance, disengagement, distraction etc. (Corrigan, 2015).
Positive caring is an individual health plan offered as per their needs while caring about self respect and
value of a patient. Positive Caring is hindered by number of constraints like population, lack of proper
documentation, lack of money, knowledge, time and training. Quality of life, key caring techniques, and
positive caring are all correlated to achieve good quality patient care (Glasby & Dickinson, 2014).

5.0 Reference/Bibliography

1. Quality of life: HRQOL Concepts | CDC | World Health Organisation | Nursing and Midwifery
Council.
2. Institute for Work and Health. (2012). Quality of Life.
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SpringerLink.
4. Sarah (2019). Positive and Person-Centred Care. Nourish Care. https://nourishcare.co.uk/care-
news/positive-person-centred-care/
5. Pukeliene, V. & Starkauskiene, V. (2011). Quality of Life: Factors Determining its Measurement
Complexity.
6. European Commission. (2014). Education and training — Monitor report, p. 30.
7. Glunz, A., & Von, P. J. (2020). Economic Key Facts Germany. KPMG.
8. Hadaya, M. (2022). How Healthy Is America Compared To Other Countries? OptiMed
Hospitalists Medical Group.
9. Eurostat. (2022). Statistics Explained.
10. Tes. (2020). Principles of Care – Caring Skills and Techniques.
11. Moore, L. et al. (2016). Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of person centred care in
different healthcare contexts. Scandinavian Journey of Caring Sciences.
12. Kim, B. (1994). Community mental health: How can we do it. Seminar Proceedings on Policy and
Trend of Community Mental Health, Seoul Central Hospital
13. Suh, D. (1998). Understanding of community mental health in Korean society. In: Textbook for
Mental Health Practitioners. Korean National Institute of Health
14. Nkrumah, J., & Abekah-Nkrumah, G. (2019). Facilitators and barriers of patient centered care at
the organizational-level: a study of three district hospitals in the central region of Ghana. BMC.
15. Nam, J. (1993). A study of community-based mental health practice, Korea Institute of Health
and Social Affairs.
16. Taylor, J. (2022). What is Person Centred Care? Principles, Definitions & Examples | AJ Case
Management.
17. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL).
CDC.
18. Hoffman, K. (N.D.). Process of care measures and infection control.
19. Korian. (N.D). A Comprehensive and Empathic Approach to Caring for Patients and Residents.
20. Policy Partners Project – National Guidance and Inquiries. (2014).

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 21. The Health Foundation. (2014). Person-centred care made simple: What everyone should know
about person-centred care.

22. Peate, I. (2017). Fundamentals of care: a textbook for health and social care. Chichester:
Wiley Blackwell.

23. Corrigan, P.W. (2015). Person-centered care for mental illness: the evolution of adherence
and self-determination. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
24. Glasby, J. & Dickinson, H. (2014). Partnership working in health and social care. Bristol:
Policy Press.