3.2 Reflect on own personal and professional behaviour in relation to: • ability to manage self • acting with integrity

This guide will help you answer 3.2 Reflect on own personal and professional behaviour in relation to: • ability to manage self • acting with integrity.

When working in health and social care, it’s important to regularly think about how your behaviour impacts your work. This reflection process helps you identify areas where you might need to improve, and it also highlights what you are doing well. Unit 3.2 asks you to focus on two key themes: managing yourself and acting with integrity. Both are essential for delivering high-quality care and building trust with service users, colleagues, and other professionals.

In this guide, we will look at what these mean and how they relate to your personal and professional behaviour.

Ability to Manage Self

Managing yourself means taking responsibility for how you behave and how you organise your own work. It’s about focusing on self-awareness, effective organisation, time management, and maintaining a professional attitude even in challenging situations.

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is understanding how your emotions, attitudes, and actions affect others. In health and social care, your behaviour can greatly influence service users and colleagues. For instance, if you’re feeling stressed or impatient, it may show in how you speak or act, even if you don’t realise it. This can make those around you feel uncomfortable or undervalued.

To improve self-awareness:

• Reflect daily on how you interacted with others.
• Ask for feedback from colleagues or mentors.
• Keep a journal to track situations where you handled things well or could have done better.
• Take note of triggers that make you feel stressed so you can prepare for them.

Being aware of how you come across can help you adjust your approach. For example, if you notice you tend to interrupt others in conversations, you can work on being a better listener by consciously pausing before responding.

Time Management

Time management is about organising your tasks so that you meet deadlines and provide care without feeling rushed. Good time management ensures that service users receive the attention they deserve. Poor time management, on the other hand, may lead to mistakes or neglecting important responsibilities.

To manage your time effectively:

• Start each day by prioritising your tasks. What absolutely needs to be done today?
• Use tools like to-do lists, shared calendars, or scheduling apps if allowed.
• Break big tasks into smaller chunks to make them more manageable.
• Avoid procrastinating. If a task feels overwhelming, remind yourself of why it matters and focus on tackling one step at a time.

Imagine you’re providing care for several service users during your shift. Plan your time so that each person gets sufficient attention, and ensure you also leave time for documentation and breaks. Rushing through tasks or cutting corners could potentially compromise care quality.

Leadership in Managing Yourself

In your role, you’re often expected to lead yourself, even if you’re not supervising others. This means identifying your own weaknesses and strengths, learning from mistakes, and taking the initiative to improve.

For example, if you notice you struggle with setting boundaries, you might attend training on assertiveness. This can help you professionally manage situations where service users, colleagues, or even loved ones might be demanding.

Coping with Stress

Care work can be emotionally demanding. Learning how to manage stress effectively is crucial for maintaining good self-management. High stress levels can affect how you communicate and make decisions.

Practical ways to address stress:

• Use techniques like deep breathing or mindfulness to stay calm in tense situations.
• Take regular breaks to recharge during your shift.
• Offload your feelings by debriefing with a colleague or supervisor if work becomes overwhelming.
• Celebrate small achievements, such as successfully de-escalating a difficult situation.

By proactively managing stress, you can ensure better outcomes for yourself and the people you support.

Acting with Integrity

Integrity means doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. It’s about being honest, reliable, and fair in all your actions. In health and social care, acting with integrity is central to building trust and maintaining high ethical standards.

Honesty in Daily Actions

Always tell the truth, even when admitting to a mistake. Transparency builds trust not just with service users but also with colleagues. For example, if you made an error while administering medication, immediately report it following organisational procedures. Trying to hide the mistake could lead to serious harm.

Honesty isn’t only about reporting errors. It also includes being truthful when explaining care plans to service users. Never raise false hopes by promising an outcome you can’t guarantee. If you’re unsure of an answer, it’s better to admit it and seek advice than to provide inaccurate information.

Upholding Professional Boundaries

Acting with integrity requires keeping professional boundaries, even in emotional situations. Creating blurred lines between personal and professional roles could put both you and the service user at risk of exploitation or harm. For instance, accepting gifts of high monetary value or becoming personally involved in a service user’s private matters can undermine trust.

Stay professional by:

• Knowing your organisation’s policies on gifts or personal relationships with service users.
• Responding with kindness but maintaining a clear, professional stance when service users share personal details with you.

Having clear boundaries doesn’t mean being cold. It means considering the long-term well-being of the service user and acting in their best interest.

Respecting Confidentiality

Part of acting with integrity involves showing respect for the service users’ privacy. Confidentiality is a legal and ethical obligation under the Data Protection Act 2018. Sensitive information should only be shared if there’s a clear need, such as safeguarding.

Examples of maintaining confidentiality include:

• Discussing service user details only in appropriate spaces, not in public areas where others could overhear.
• Ensuring documentation, such as care records or support plans, is stored securely.
• Avoiding casual conversations about service users with people who aren’t directly involved in their care.

Being Accountable

Integrity means taking responsibility for your actions, even if they lead to negative outcomes. Avoid blaming others when something goes wrong. Reflect instead on what you could have done differently to improve the situation.

For example, if you forget to record an incident in the required timescale, acknowledge your mistake. Ensure you complete the documentation as soon as possible and learn from the situation by setting reminders in the future.

Accountability also applies to speaking up if you notice someone else acting unethically. This could be a colleague breaching confidentiality or not providing appropriate care to a service user. Acting with integrity means addressing the issue—whether through direct communication or escalating it through your organisation’s whistleblowing policy.

Acting Fairly

Fairness is treating everyone equally and without discrimination. The Equality Act 2010 helps protect individuals from unfair treatment based on characteristics like age, gender, or disability. Acting fairly ensures that every service user gets the same high standard of care.

Examples of fairness in practice:

• Listening to all service users carefully, regardless of how they communicate.
• Providing extra time or assistance to someone with learning disabilities if they need it.
• Avoiding bias or stereotypes, such as assuming older people don’t have independent decision-making abilities.

Balancing Personal Values with Integrity

At times, your personal values or beliefs may differ from those of the people you support. Acting with integrity means respecting their choices while staying true to professional standards. For example, if a service user makes a lifestyle choice you disagree with (e.g., smoking or refusing support), it’s important to maintain an impartial attitude. Your role is to empower and support rather than to judge.

Benefits of Self-Reflection

Reflecting on your ability to manage yourself and act with integrity helps you grow personally and professionally. It allows you to:

• Recognise your strengths, such as handling difficult conversations with calmness or being reliable under pressure.
• Identify areas where improvement is needed, like time management or handling criticism.
• Build stronger, more trusting relationships with service users and colleagues.
• Improve your overall care practice, leading to better outcomes for those you support.

Reflection can be done through personal journaling, talking with a mentor or supervisor, or using reflective models such as Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. This model guides you to think about what happened, what went well, what didn’t, and how you can improve next time.

Final Thoughts

Your behaviour shapes the care experience for service users. Managing yourself and acting with integrity aren’t just professional skills. They reflect the core values of what it means to work in health and social care. Building your ability in these areas makes you a stronger, more reliable care worker—someone who can truly make a difference.