Standard 2: Your personal development

Amara I will be honest, Nadia. Personal development sounds like the soft module. The one you click through.

Nadia I know. And it is the one that turns up in the background of serious incidents more often than almost anything else. It is also a legal duty, not a perk.

Amara Whose duty?

Nadia Your employer's. Regulation 18 requires them to give you support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal. If you are not getting it, you are entitled to ask for it, and I would ask in writing.

Amara And my side of it?

Nadia Honesty about what you cannot yet do. Which sounds easy and is not, because admitting a gap feels like admitting you should not have the job. But care work is unforgiving here. A worker who quietly says nothing about never having used a stand aid is not being modest. They are creating a risk that will land on somebody's shoulder.

Amara Let us talk about development plans, because mine has said improve communication on it for about two years.

Nadia That is the commonest failure and it has one cause. Aspirations instead of actions. Improve communication. Be more confident. Nobody can do those, nobody can check them, and they will still be sitting there next year.

Amara So what does a real one look like?

Nadia Three parts. The behaviour, the evidence, and a date. Listen to the difference. Improve my communication. Now properly. By the thirtieth of September I will have completed the dementia communication module, used Talking Mats with two residents, and had one observation from my senior confirming that I gave one instruction at a time and waited.

Amara The second one is longer, but I can see how you would know if you had done it.

Nadia That is the test. Could somebody other than you tell whether it happened. The first one is a wish. The second one is a plan.

Amara Supervision next. What is it actually for? Because mine sometimes feels like either a telling off or a cup of tea.

Nadia It should be neither. It is a scheduled, recorded, protected conversation about your practice, your workload, your wellbeing and your development. Usually every six to eight weeks.

Amara How do I stop it drifting?

Nadia Walk in with three things already written down. Something that went well and why. Something that unsettled you. And one thing you need. Three lines in your phone. That turns an hour that drifts into an hour that produces a decision.

Amara Feedback is the bit I find hardest. Giving it to a colleague who has been there fifteen years, particularly.

Nadia Then make it about behaviour, never character. You are impatient is an insult with a job title attached. When you asked Mrs Ali three questions in a row without pausing, she stopped answering. That is information. She can use it tomorrow.

Amara And receiving it?

Nadia Harder. The instinct is to explain yourself immediately. Try three moves instead. Ask one clarifying question. Say thank you. Decide later. You are completely allowed to disagree with feedback after thinking about it. You are not allowed to be unreachable by it.

Amara Last one. Reflection. I have never known what I am supposed to write.

Nadia Four questions, five minutes, and you can use it for the rest of your career. What happened, in facts rather than feelings. What was I thinking and feeling at the time. What do I now think was going on. And what will I do differently, specifically, next time.

Amara And that counts as evidence?

Nadia For supervision, for your development plan, and if you go on to register as a nurse or a nursing associate, for revalidation. One rule though, and it matters. Reflect on your practice, not on the person. No names, no initials, no room numbers. That is data protection, not just good manners.