Enhancing Your Awareness in the Aged Care Workplace
VIDEO LECTURE
Takeaway
Awareness is critical for new aged care workers to provide quality care and ensure the safety of residents. It helps you stay focused and attentive, reducing the risk of mistakes and improving overall effectiveness.
Overview
In your new role, maintaining a high level of awareness will help you excel. Being mindful of your surroundings, focusing on tasks, and noticing details that others might miss will enhance your ability to care for residents. Engaging actively in team meetings and listening attentively during interactions with residents and colleagues will foster genuine communication and collaboration. For example, during a shift handover, contributing meaningfully and recalling what others say will improve the quality of care and teamwork.
Struggling to maintain awareness can lead to missed details, forgotten information, and a higher risk of causing injury. You may appear disinterested during handovers and struggle to recall important care instructions, leading to mistakes and errors in resident care. Working on ‘autopilot’ can place both yourself and residents at risk.
Transfer Task
Reflect on a time when you struggled to stay focused at work.
- What caused the distraction?
- How did it impact your work and the care you provided?
- What steps can you take to improve your awareness in similar situations in the future?
How This Helps You
By enhancing your awareness, you’ll be able to provide better care, improve safety, and engage more effectively with residents and colleagues, leading to a more fulfilling and successful career in aged care.