GEN13 Synthesise new knowledge into the development of your own practice

Overview

This standard covers your role in incorporating and embedding new knowledge into practice. The new knowledge may come from reflecting on and evaluating your own practice or from finding out about and utilising the developments made by others. This standard is intended to support good practice in action research and the development of evidence-based practice. The standard applies to all workers in the health sector who are accountable for their own actions and responsible for their own development. This includes registered and unregistered staff. Users of this standard will need to ensure that practice reflects up to date information and policies. Version No 1

Knowledge and Understanding

You will need to know and understand:

1. The importance of understanding your own personal beliefs and preferences, values, interests and priorities when working with others in relation to their health and social wellbeing
2. Recent developments in technology, approaches to working, concepts, models and theories, strategies and policies, and legislation which are likely to have an impact on the area of work
3. The purpose of keeping abreast of developments for yourself and others
4. The purpose of monitoring changes in practice based on others’ work
5. The purposes of linking into others’ research and the benefits which might accrue
6. The networks and support systems which may be available and the nature of the support they may give
7. The advantages of different networks and support systems for different people and situations and why they may be of particular importance in crisis situations
8. The range of sources available in your own area of practice and how this compares with other practitioner groups
9. The factors which affect health and social wellbeing and the ones of particular importance in your own situation
10. The role of development programmes in learning more about yourself and the use which can be made of these
11. The meaning of the term ‘learning styles’ and your own learning style
12. Opportunities there may be for evaluating and challenging others’ work and developments
13. The purpose of structuring your own action research and developing and implementing these in structured ways
14. Effective ways of challenging and developing yourself in relation to values and attitudes
15. The meaning of the term ‘reflective practitioner’ and how you can become more reflective in your work
16. The different ways in which your own development can be planned and structured
17. How to access and use networks and support systems
18. How to keep abreast of developments in an efficient and effective way given other pressures
19. How it is possible to balance the need to keep up-to-date with advances whilst meeting current deadlines and personal responsibilities
20. How to provide constructive challenges which focus on the work and not on the person who did it
21. Strategies and methods for evaluating others’ work and its relevance to your own area of practice
22. How you can evaluate realistically the outcomes of your own action research
23. How to structure and use evidence from others’ research and integrate this into own practice

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do the following:

1. monitor advances in knowledge and practice relevant to your own area of work to a sufficient level to keep abreast of developments
2. identify and take appropriate opportunities to examine and challenge the advances in knowledge and practice made by others
3. evaluate others’ work for its relevance and applicability to your own area of practice
4. use evidence from your own and others’ work to inform the development of your own practice
5. implement ideas for improving your own practice in structured ways which allow them to be tested and generalised
6. monitor the changes which you make to your own practice and reflect on these to determine the effectiveness of the outcomes
7. apply new knowledge synthesised into own practice to all areas of work in which it is relevant and likely to be effective

Additional Information

This National Occupational Standard was developed by Skills for Health. This standard links with the following dimension within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (October 2004): Dimension: Core 2 Personal and People Development This standard has replaced HI25 and HCS J7.