What part does record-keeping play in making care safer?
From the moment that an individual person is created in the womb they have records kept on them. From eye colour to leg measurements it is recorded and filed. This record continues throughout a lifetime and registers medical care, social care and vital statistics. This essay will be looking at record keeping, what it is, who makes records and will argue whether it is making care safe for service users. It will look at both the positive effects and negative, using case studies and theorists. Quite a good Introduction Dona.
Record keeping is defined as the maintenance of records from an organisation, it is from the time that they are created up until their eventual disposal. This includes classifying, storing, securing and eventual destruction of the records (wikitionary 10). Many professions use record keeping, in fact when evaluating, it may be the case that even the service user is record keeping using their diary as an example to record everyday events. Quite a good paragraph to move this essay forward.
In health and social care there are many positive reasons for keeping records. They help to keep a service users history safe and can be used to inform care when that becomes apparent. If records were not kept of a person’s history dangerous care may take place, a person’s medical history can be very relevant in providing present day care, and if not used the service user’s life may be put at risk. A person may not be able to remember vital details that would need to be passed on to relevant agencies, this is where having up to date records is important. An example of this would be Angus, as a sufferer of Alzheimer’s he may not be able to remember the names of the medications that he is taking, or the treatment that he may have received (Block one unit One). Furthermore the records help to make sure that care continues and is not repeated, it leaves a trail of the way care has been provided....