Humanist Approach To Health And Social Care

D2
In this essay I will evaluate the usefulness of psychological approaches to health and social care. For the Humanistic approach I will assess the usefulness of a care assistant in a care home treating the whole person and in a hospital a nurse’s ability to ensure a patient’s physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs have been met (P.I.E.S). For Social Learning theory I will evaluate a nursery assistant in a nursery capability of being a positive role model and in a hospital a nurse’s role of carrying out anti- discriminatory practice. For the Behaviourist approach I will judge the usefulness of a key worker challenging student’s behaviour in a school and a school nurse’s capability of shaping behaviour.
The positives of the Humanistic
The nurses see each patient typically hourly, to check the patients are eating, personal hygiene and skin integrity (B.Fitzsimons, 2011). Nurses also monitor vital signs for example blood pressure, to ensure the patient’s physical wellbeing is observed and action is taken if the patient deteriorates. Therefore the patient’s essential needs are met. The negatives to this approach is that the staff need to be educated in this approach, as it is not something they would necessarily do. In addition the nurse’s job is task orientated, moving away from treating patients as individuals. Even though that patients are seen frequently, the time spent with each individual patient is limited. Therefore emotional and social needs may not be met due to a time limit, reducing the opportunity for the nurse to sit down and help resolve a patient’s problem. Nurses often refer jobs to others as they are busy (Brown.L,
In both settings the effectiveness of the approach depends on the staffing levels as parts of the approach can be time consuming. For example whilst a care assistant sits down with a resident to talk about the residents’ concerns, there needs to be another member of staff looking after the other residents. I feel that the humanistic approach is easier to use in a care home due to less time constraints and the residents being in the care home for longer periods of time so the care worker can build a long trusting relationship with the individual. The Social Learning Theory is easy to follow once learnt what is the right behaviour. The staff are motivated to apply the right behaviour else it could result in disciplinary or being dismissed. This approach relies heavily on attention, remembering and applying. It can be difficult to follow for nurses with a strong belief about a certain group of people and changing their view point. It is also hard for nursery assistants to self-reflect on their own behaviour and change bad habits. For some care assistants it may be hard to remain a positive role model and not show what their really feeling inside. Lastly the Behaviourist approach has simple rules that are easy to adopt for a key worker and a school nurse. Reinforcement is key to this approach, this may be harder for a