Politics of Professional Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Politics of Professional Practice - Essay Example Moreover, the consequences of their usage in the provision of healthcare to various stakeholders involved in the provision of healthcare have not been adequately explained. This paper will attempt to come up with clear explanations of the usage of support workers in order to foster the understanding of the impacts of their usage in the provision of healthcare to the patients. The paper will explicitly explain the roles of the support workers, as well as the risks posed by the use of the support workers mainly due to their lack of training. In addition, the paper will explain the regulation that has been put in place to regulate the activities of the healthcare support workers (HSW) and any regulation that should be put in place to regulate their future activities to ensure that their usage does not compromise the quality of healthcare provided by the NHS. The impact on the other stakeholders involved in the healthcare provision will also be explained. By so doing, we hope to have a c lear understanding of the different dimensions of usage of the healthcare support workers. The paper will mainly use the articles by the NHS, RCN and other relevant bodies, as well as the recent research findings to have a more recent perspective on the development of the issue of healthcare support workers. ... 4). The support workers in nursing healthcare are of significant important especially during periods where there is a shortage of the nursing students who have graduated from the nursing schools (Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee - 2007 p. 76). Generally, the shortage of nurses is the main reason that led to the integration of the support workers in the provision of healthcare services by the NHS. The support workers help in easing the workload on the nurses and other healthcare providers by providing the healthcare services that can easily be provided by other parties. The shortage of the nurses was mainly due to the low pay nurses receive compared to other professions (Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee, 2007, p. 76). The support workers perform several roles in the NHS; there are support workers who are involved in the performance of non-clinical activities, whose roles include catering, maintenance, and hotel services. In addition, other support workers are involved in clinical activities; they may be involved in the provision of primary care to the patients i.e. GP surgeries, provision of care in nursing homes, patients homes and walk-in hospitals. The support workers may also be involved in the provision of secondary healthcare to the patients, mainly involving the provision of healthcare services to the patients in the hospitals (NLIAH, 2009, p. 2). However, there has been a general evolvement in the work performed by the support workers perform, which was mainly done by either the doctors or the nurses before. The work performed by the support workers can also be categorized as primary care or secondary care. Primary care involves the