Work Experience Insights: Self-Assessment for Personal Development

Importance of Self-Assessment in Work Experience

Self-assessments are very useful and allows you to realize how much you have achieved and improved on especially when you do work experience. It allows you to see and to evaluate yourself and give you a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses and any areas that you need to improve on. You take into account how good you are at communicating, how responsible you are, honest and committed to your work. Asking co-workers or friends for feedback is also helpful as they might point out something that you were not aware of doing or not doing. This is a good because it shows how willing you are to listen and take on board comments or suggestions to improve your work ethics. If you do make a mistake learn from it and do not repeat it. You need to use your common sense. Always ensure that you keep all information confidential. I had done a skills audit on what skills I had before I started work experience and what I felt needed to be improved which were as follows::

Skills before work experience:

1. Punctual – I like to be on time and am not impressed with myself if I am late
2. Patience – this I have learnt from both caring of my family and caring for my mother.
3. Flexible and Adaptable – the experience of raising a family and also having to care for my mother meant that things had to be changed on a frequent basis and you just had to move with whatever was happening in any day.
4. Trustworthy – I have always prided myself on being trustworthy and could be relied on no matter what needed to be done
5. Determined – even though I do find things daunting at times I still keep going and always put my best effort in to achieve my goal
6. Communication skills. Life experiences have given me good communication skills. I listen carefully and watch both verbal and non-verbal communication. I take note of a person’s facial expression, tone of voice and their body language. This allows me to understand if I am communicating effectively with them. My skills developed over the years with both caring for my family and mostly with caring for my grandmother in the last years of her life. I had to liaise with home helps and other health care professionals in her daily care.
7. Understanding stress – stress is something that everyone goes through both in their personal lives and in their work. It is important that you deal with your stress and not allow it to take over your life
8. Respect – I treat others the way that I would like to be treated. I value people’s opinions and I would not talk about them behind their backs. I show interest and appreciate them.
9. Listening – is a major part of communication. How well I listen has a major impact on my work effectiveness. It helps me to evaluate changes in people e.g. sign of depression or anxiety
10. Sharing credit for what is accomplished – I am a strong believer in acknowledging help and advice given. I know that the peace that my grandmother had while she was at home was accomplished from the wonderful help she received by all people who cared for her and not just from me and I always made sure that they knew that I appreciated all their wonderful work.

Learning goals I achieved from work experience:

• Confidence – I became more confident in the work place with older people and to be more confident with myself.
• Organized –I had to be more organized in the work place; I was used to working one to one. Work in a nursing home meant I had a number of patients to get up, washed and fed.
• Patience – Patience became a key factor when I was at work as I had to deal with many different people. It was very challenging working with lots of different people and staff members. There was a lot to learn so I had to be very patient.
• Lifting – Even though I had done the manual handling course for patients it felt totally different when doing it in an actual care home. There are different types of hoists (standing and slings) and it was important to make sure that someone helped me initially until I was confident at doing it myself. There are always two people present when using hoists.
• Using equipment – even though I would have been shown different types of equipment during the course it was different actually using them with patients. I learnt that it was important by other team members to say “no” to doing something if you did not understand fully how to use it and not attempt something that I had no experience with. They preferred to explain and show me how to use something rather than me compromising the health & safety of patients and myself.
• Speaking – Good communications skills are very important and I had to speak to a lot of older people and many different family members and other professionals.
• Teamwork – It was an important skill I gained doing my work experience in the care home as I was working with nurses, older people, and other healthcare professionals. Teamwork is essential for the smooth operation of the service.
• Empathy – I had to try to understand each patient and try to put myself in their shoes to try and understand their pain to be able to work with them in an effective way. This was one of the most important skills I improved and put time into as working in healthcare you need to try to understand how the patient is feeling to be able to help them feel better, and especially when providing care and assistance for patients experiencing complex health issues.

My Concerns Regarding Work Experience

When I initially started my work experience, I felt uncertain and nervous about my abilities on many levels. It was beneficial to me in getting direction and guidance during my work experience. Even though we had done the skills module it is one thing discussing a topic but quite another when you are actually doing the task in a care home setting. This was the first time that I worked in a care home as part of a team.

One of my main concerns was the ability to complete assignments and work experience and deal with other family issues simultaneously. I was pleasantly surprised at my progress even though at times I found myself struggling with the workload.

I have now encountered teamwork and communications in my work experience. I have learnt the importance of being a part of a team and showing respect and acceptance to each member of the team as well as the older person. I have improved on a lot of skills and I was very lucky to be working with a team that wanted each member to be as efficient as possible and took the time to ensure that I understood health and safety matters within the home. Having feedback from the other workers in the care home helped me to become more efficient at my work. Getting constructive criticism makes you want to improve and you don’t feel you have let anyone down and that you are learning. I learnt in class the importance of showing respect to an older person and co-workers/students, good listening and communication skills. The most important thing and motto I learned was: Treat others as you yourself would like to be treated.

I believe that when I will have all modules completed in the health course that my life will become substantially easier as I will no longer have to attend classes by night or write up assignments. My learning will then be confined to my work place or refresher courses that will need to be done. My goal at this point is to complete all eight modules and get my certificate.