Health and Social Care
Case Study 1
A group of students were given an assignment to visit a local voluntary organisation to find out what services they offered and the qualities and experience of the people who delivered them. Two students decided to work together and agreed to focus on meals-on-wheels and voluntary hospital transport. Using contact names given by the teacher they set up meeting appointments and devised a questionnaire to collect information from the meetings. The questions covered what the organisations did and the qualities, training and experience of people doing the work. Back in school they prepared a presentation on the visits that included photographs. They double-checked their information with the two organisations before making the presentation. As well as covering some of the course content, the students used and developed their enterprise and key skills, including decision making and team working. They had total responsibility for organising and completing the project.
Case Study 2
A year 11 student went on a work placement for two weeks at a local dental practice. While he was there he could observe most areas of the practice at work: dentist, hygienist, receptionist, dental nurse and practice manager. He also did tasks in several of them. Towards the end of the placement he interviewed the practice manager about the business side of running the practice. The manager had taken a management course before taking up the position and was now responsible for the day-to day running of the practice including accounts and wages. Other areas of her work involved meeting business representatives and sales people, keeping the practice up to date with current legislation, health and safety, staff appraisal and dealing with patients’ complaints. The practice was owned by one of the student wrote up his notes and reflected on what he had learned from the placement about running a business. This helped to develop understanding of economic and business enterprise and how risks are taken and managed.
Case Study 3
As part of a survey on health and exercise in a large northern city, students in a local school were asked to undertake surveys of their friends and neighbours to gather various types of information including levels of physical activity, adult smoking and eating daily five portions of fruit and vegetables. The data showed that levels of fitness and health were below the national average and as result the school joined the Healthy Schools initiative. Students from a number of subject departments, for example PE, food technology and science, joined together to promote healthy eating and active exercise. Health and social care students were responsible for displaying posters around the school promoting the initiative and giving advice to students on what to do. They also organised a number of lunchtime sessions where visitors were invited from local hotels, supermarkets and the health promotion team to talk to the students about healthy living and to run activities with them. The students organised the events in their own time, showed commitment to the project and learned persuasive techniques for involving others.
Case Study 4
Key stage 4 students worked together to plan, design and run a ‘health and social care’ open evening which was attended by parents, governors, staff and special guests from the local community. The students agreed to form teams of three or four and to take responsibility for presenting an interactive aspect of their course. Each team decided how to present their aspect, for example by producing leaflets, posters, photographs, audio-visual aids and so on. Some teams were more hands-on, for example one team decided to demonstrate different ways of measuring levels of health by taking visitors’ blood pressure readings and heart rate levels and displaying the results. Another team role-played how a hospital receptionist dealt with difficult patients. The whole group produced a publicity brochure for the event with each team providing a promotional summary about their work. Each team was responsible for their own exhibition stand, and for meeting the visitors and answering questions. Students demonstrated creativity, initiative and decision-making skills, and developed their self-confidence and their ability to promote ideas to others.
Case Study 5
A group of GCSE health and social care students were working on a research project to find out about the knowledge, skills and characteristics required to do five or more different jobs at the local hospital. They contacted the personnel department for job specifications and used job adverts in the local paper and specialist journals to find out more. From the information they gathered they were asked to produce a questionnaire to use with peer group students to find out which types of jobs they might be suitable for. When the task was completed they reported back on their findings and what they had learned from the experience. The group enjoyed working as a team and were very creative in their use of ICT to report back their findings. Also, to improve the quality of their feedback they persuaded a hospital employee from the personnel department to help them with their class feedback. This project enabled the students to develop personal effectiveness, communication skills and a ‘can do’ attitude.
Case Study 6
A school’s link with a large health centre, organised by the education business partnership, led to the health and social care teacher spending a day with the centre to develop curriculum activities for use with key stage 4 students. One of the assignments developed involved the re-design of the patients’ waiting room. The students were asked to bear in mind the different client groups who used the centre (babies and young children, adolescents, older people, people with special needs) and to develop ideas that would benefit the centre and its users. The students undertook a survey of users’ needs (including staff), researched ideas in the library and on the internet, contacted specialists such as equipment providers, painters and decorators, builders and so on. They came up with a costed plan of what changes could take place to improve the centre and its amenities. One suggestion was a ramp for wheel chairs; another was a toys and book section for young people. The group presented their plan to the practice manager. This kind of project supports creativity, managing change and personal effectiveness as well as financial capability.
Case Study 7
A group of year 11 students were given an assignment developed with the help of a personnel officer and a catering manager from a local hospital. The students were asked to find out what patients thought about the food and catering arrangements and to feed back their findings to the catering manager. The group worked together to devise a questionnaire asking the patients for their views on the catering. The questionnaires were given to ward team leaders who agreed to distribute and collect them. The results were collated and a report prepared for the manager. A follow-up assignment required the students to design an A4 leaflet about catering arrangements to be given to patients when they first arrive on the ward. The best leaflets had a welcome page/message, information on how to choose meals, a specially designed page for including a daily menu and an evaluation insert for when the patient left the wards. The students used colourful designs to present the information. As well as increasing their knowledge about the work of hospitals and services to clients, the students demonstrated the enterprise skills of design and make, team working and personal effectiveness.
Case Study 8
As part of their work on promoting health and well-being, a group of year 10 students had the task of researching the market for a new health food bar. They designed a survey to gather people’s views on the type of food bar they wanted, the size, how much they would be willing to pay and a possible name for it. With this information the students had to develop ideas for the health food bar and design a marketing campaign to launch it. This included a ‘snappy’ name and packaging. The group costed the product and calculated the price. The teacher took the opportunity to compare the new product with old brands currently selling well. Why would customers change brands? The group finished the project with a launch to announce its arrival and to persuade people to buy it. The activity promoted economic and business understanding and financial skills as well as enabling students to practise key enterprise skills such as effective communication and the attributes of ambition and a ‘can do’ approach.
