Using Curious about Care scenarios in training
The scenarios used in the Curious about Care quiz are designed to test values, rather than knowledge about policies and procedures about what a care worker ‘should’ do. They were designed by a panel of people with lived experience and sense-checked with care workers to make sure they are realistic.
There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to use the scenarios in training sessions with care workers but we hope that the animations will be a useful addition to your toolbox. As they are focused on values, the scenario animations can be an accessible way for both experienced care workers and people who are new to care to connect, discuss ideas and share perspectives.
Below are examples of how two homecare providers have used the scenario animations with their staff.
“Continuing professional development is a core value for Affinity Homecare Shrewsbury. A reflection of this is the ways in which we have approached using Curious about Care. We have used the animated scenarios in group settings of 4-5 people. Experience has taught us to keep the groups small as we have found that larger groups tend to be dominated by more confident members and that people begin to edit or suggest their own situations. These small groups are able to have meaningful and engaging conversations during which we can assess skill levels. They also offer an opportunity for shared learning between new and existing employees who can really benefit from each other’s approaches.
I have also started using the situations in supervision meetings with our staff. These meetings offer an opportunity to follow up and revisit a scenario after a group discussion or to introduce new scenarios. I’ve found the situations particularly helpful when they closely align with a situation for which a staff member may have faced in their day to day work. It provides an opportunity to reflect and consider ways in which the situation could have been approached differently.
Finally, we have just decided to ask new staff to undertake the quiz 2-4 weeks after they have started doing home visits. This means we can assess values on the job and offer support to the staff member.”
Melissa Morgan, Registered Manager, Affinity Homecare Shrewsbury Ltd
“When I first received the scenarios I thought it would be a good idea for the management team to try the quiz so that we could look at the best way to utilise them in our recruitment process. All agreed they were a good way of looking at value-based practice and felt that using them at interview/induction would work best for us.
Recently I have sent the scenarios to a successful candidate to complete before their start date, and we then discussed her answers and the recommendations during her probationary week. This particular method seemed to work well, so I will take this forward with newer candidates. The animations I find particularly useful as a training tool, and used these in a recent team meeting with our established carers, to ascertain their values, and we had some very good discussions around how we would handle the different situations – opening up into discussions about real life scenarios that were similar.”
Jane Abbey, Acting Care Manager, Training Manager, Wright Care at Home
