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AC3 Contribute to the development of the knowledge and practice of others
Overview
This standard is about contributing to the development of the knowledge and practice of colleagues, either in your agency or other agencies, enabling them to solve problems and tackle issues. Here you use your knowledge and experience to guide others towards solutions. The problems and issues may be interpersonal, organisational or practice based. It also covers enabling colleagues to learn and benefit from your own experience.
A key focus of this standard is continual professional development which provides teams and individuals with added interest, information and motivation to undertake their work. It also captures those situations where you may be asked to provide colleagues with a different perspective on a particular problem, drawing on your different experience or background.
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:
- the levels of detail which are necessary to solve different problems
- the factors which would suggest that the problem is more worthy of attention than the demands of ongoing work and how to reschedule to allow for the problem to be resolved
- the broader contexts in which everyone works and the particular situations of colleagues which might affect how they work and tackle problems at particular points in time
- the different opportunities which individuals and groups may have to learn different approaches to learning
- the range of different learning styles which people have and how this should affect learning design
- how to monitor unobtrusively the support which colleagues and others may need
- how to make appropriate interventions to individuals when considering their role, their relative status in the organisation, and other constraints on the situation
- how to evaluate the resources which need to be spent on problem solving in comparison with other work demands
- how to set out problems and issues in different ways to encourage people to recognise what they have in common
- how to use a range of reasoning strategies for solving problems
- how to achieve the best balance between the interests of different parties which people are likely to support in the longer term
- strategies and methods for evaluating others' work and its relevance to your own area of practice
- how to evaluate whether the learning opportunities are adequate and appropriate for the individuals and groups concerned
- how to structure information for use in learning materials
- qualitative and quantitative research methods relevant to your own area of practice and the advantages and disadvantages of each
- how to support people to self assess and identify their key learning needs and targets
- how to summarise information for a variety of different audiences and in a form which others can best use
- how to summarise advances for others in ways which will best inform their work
- how to evaluate realistically the outcomes of your own action research
- how support can be offered to colleagues undertaking their own research and the forms which this support may take
- recent developments in technology, approaches to working, concepts, models and theories, strategies and policies, and legislation which are likely to impact on your area of work
- the purpose of exploring problems and issues with other parties who may be able to help in their resolution
- the purpose of gaining different perspectives on problems and how to best analyse and represent these to move to a resolution
- the purpose of developing an action plan which clearly details who is to do what and by when
- the purpose of encouraging recipients to feedback on your own research (i.e. both for your own development and for their understanding)
- the purpose of monitoring changes in practice based on others' research and in disseminating the results
- the information sources which might throw light on the problem and how to access these
- who you might be able to approach for support and assistance when problems are beyond your competence
- the different sources of evidence available from others' practices
- the range of sources available in your own area of practice and how this compares with the other practitioner groups
Performance Criteria
You must be able to do the following:
- carefully monitor the extent to which people may be in need of support to solve problems and tackle issues
- ensure your interventions are appropriate to the people concerned, your role, the needs of the activity, the location and the time
- explore the nature and extent of the problems and issues in an appropriate manner with the people concerned
- ensure that resources you allocate to enable people to solve problems and tackle issues are justifiable given their nature and other work demands
- analyse and set out differing perceptions of the problem and issues
- offer constructive suggestions to those involved as to how the problems and issues might be looked at in new ways
- use reasoning strategies appropriate to the problem to propose solutions
- approach others for their support about problems and issues beyond your competence
- ensure your decision making strategies consider the full range of potential solutions and outcomes and are appropriate to the issues and problems concerned
- offer solutions that balance the competing interests of those involved and have the potential to succeed in the longer term
- encourage those involved in solving problems and tackling issues to detail who will do what and by when
- identify and agree adequate and appropriate opportunities for others to learn
- identify, select and summarise in a format suitable for dissemination relevant and current information about knowledge and practice
- appropriately disseminate developments in knowledge and practice as a result of your own research to those who are likely to have an interest in them
- provide information to individuals and groups in relevant contexts and present this information at a pace, and in a style and form which is appropriate to their needs
- give recipients opportunities to ask questions, seek clarification and give feedback
- offer appropriate support to colleagues who are undertaking their own research to enable them to do so effectively, given ongoing work constraints
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