LO1- P1 + M1 explain the concepts of equality, diversity and rights in relation to health and social care.
EQUALITY.
The key ideas of equality is to ‘create a fairer society’, where everyone can participate and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential’. By getting rid of prejudice and discrimination, the NHS can deliver services that are personal, fair and diverse and a society that is healthier and happier. For the NHS, this means making it more reliable to the patients it serves and tackling discrimination in the work place. For example, gender discrimination. The NHS is 75% made up of women and only 25% male. However, females tend to be concentrated in the low-paid occupational areas such as nursing, while males tend to be concentrated in the higher-paid occupational areas such as surgeons and doctors. The NHS has to work to prevent the discrimination of any of their workers based on things such as age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and social class.
An example in the health care context is that in a walk-in clinic a nurse lets people with a heterosexual orientation get seen before people of a homosexual orientation, instead of making everyone equally wait their turn. This would be a sign of the nurse not giving the people of homosexual orientation have an equal chance at being seen by the doctor. This is lack of equality and also discrimination of sexual orientation. In order to correct this, the nurse needs to set out the order of who gets to see the doctor first either by time they have been waiting or the direness of their injuries, this way she is not discriminating or taking away the equality of people within the clinic as she is not basing the waiting list on factors such as gender, race, sexual orientation, e.c.t.
An example in a social care context is that a care assistant at a nursery for children with special needs accepts applications of British people over Asian people. This is a sign of the assistant being