NHS Constitutional Values | Med School Interviews

hi there everyone ollie here welcome back to the channel this is another one in the medical school interviews series although this one will actually be useful if you're thinking of applying for any sort of healthcare either role in the uk or a course such as medicine nursing paramedic sciences and so on because this time we are talking about the nhs constitutional values and i think it's really important to frame things this way because the first question i think we have to ask ourselves is why would an organization have constitutional values at all why have an overriding set of principles that apply to anyone because when we actually drill into things remember that within the nhs you do have certain principles that only apply to particular members of staff so for example doctors are governed by the professional principles that are covered within good medical practice whereas nurses for example operate to a slightly different set of core principles but the nhs constitutional values apply to every single member of staff that works within the nhs so that's not just clinical members of staff like doctors nurses hcas paramedics physician associates and so on but everyone from administration staff to cleaners to caterers porters lab scientists absolutely everyone under the huge umbrella of the nhs so as i say although this is a medical school interview prep series thing uh this video i hope will actually be useful to anyone who is thinking about either applying for a degree that will take them into the nhs or facing a workforce interview for the nhs the principles should still apply so the first of the six constitutional values of the nhs is working together for everyone so the first of the six nhs constitutional values is working together for patients this one as with all of these core principles is pretty self-explanatory all members of staff within the nhs have a duty to work together on behalf of the patients that we're all treating and the well-being of those patients must always come first above anything else this means that any staff disputes personal feelings about a situation all of these things go out the window because working together with the team to provide the highest standard of care possible for the patient is that one goal that has to take priority above all other things equally i probably shouldn't brush over personal feelings too quickly because if you have a gut instinct that something isn't quite right about a patient's care or you think something could be done in a better way not only do you have a duty to bring that up with your team but actually your other team members have a duty to listen to you as well it may not be the course of action that gets chosen but if someone's got an idea or something doesn't feel quite right again that all forms are part of working together to benefit the patient the second constitutional value is respect and dignity now this second principle gels actually very well with one of the four pillars of medical ethics autonomy this idea that patients should be able to maximize their control of any decisions that they make and have the right to be treated as an individual with all the individual liberties that come with that in practicality this also means that there is no one-size-fits-all policy to patient care and again when we're thinking about providing patients with optimum care this means that either alleviating symptoms or giving them the surgery or the drugs they need is only one part of the story that's almost the medical management but actually we need to work to find out what their ideas and their ideal outcomes are and then working to try and facilitate those for example if someone really needs a surgical operation say but actually their main priority is to be able to attend their son's wedding or their daughter's graduation or something then steps can actually be taken where possible to help them try and meet those goals because this is going to be one of the central components of finding out what is the best course of action for them rather than trying to identify some blanket policy to treat everyone principle number three is commitment to quality of care and this is actually slightly different from trying to achieve the best standard of care possible essentially i think it's really easy and tempting to get caught up into this whirlwind of doing the absolute most that we can for every single patient who comes through the door which obviously the nhs does in many many cases but it's no good providing exceptional quality care to a few patients if we're not getting the basics right for 90 of people who come through the door or to reiterate it's no good giving some people 110 if we're only getting 50 60 of the care that large numbers of other people uh are supposed to receive because then our outcomes are still going to be bad either way everyone deserves the same standard of essential care and in my humble opinion it's actually a deviation and in my humble opinion it's actually a significant deviation from the basic level of care that should be most concerning to us because that means that most people are not having their basic needs met and that's a problem we're halfway through the video now guys it's come to my attention that only 10 of the people who watch the videos on my channel are subscribed i would really appreciate it if you could help me out and help me keep this channel free by hitting the like button leaving me a comment if you're finding it useful and subscribing to the channel to make sure you don't miss any future videos in this series thank you so much value number four is compassion and we can actually think about the literal definition of the word compassion here because what it actually means is to suffer together that's the meaning of the word in more practical terms what it actually means is the emotion or the feeling that is invoked when you come across or are exposed to someone who is suffering actively and you feel a desire to help them and help alleviate that suffering that's what compassion is it's actually very similar to empathy that notion that we can place ourselves in someone else's shoes and feel what they are feeling and compassion actually goes one step beyond that where not only are we feeling what they are feeling but we're taking steps to actually do something about it and obviously in the nhs the goal has to be not simply to recognize that patients have a problem because obviously they do otherwise we wouldn't be looking after them but it's actually trying to fix the problem if they're in pain let's fix the pain if they're having problems with their diet we can offer them dietitian support if they need community support from nurses we need to put them in touch with those people it's about being proactive in solving problems where we can and helping those patients as much as we can both acutely sorting out their current medical presentation and keeping them supported in the long run principle number five is improving lives because the nhs doesn't obviously just try and treat people as quickly as possible and get them out the door but to improve their general well-being as much as we can and make sure that they have a positive experience while interacting with the nhs which might be visiting a clinic uh having a regular appointment with their gp or perhaps having surgery because the nhs we have to remember is quite remarkable in that it's a state-funded service which actually has some of the best health outcomes in the entire world and we actually have on our doorsteps many centers of not just national excellence but world excellence we are at the forefront of techniques in the world places like great ormond street hospital for children uh queen square neurosciences department we have some really really high-end medical care in the uk and this is just a general rule but wherever we can do anything to help make a patient stay in hospital or their interactions with the nhs that a little bit better we all have a duty to do so and then finally domain number six of the nhs constitutional values is everyone counts and of course everyone counts but what does this mean well again thinking about our broader ethical principles this is basically maximizing what we can do for each person and allocating our resources such that no patient is left behind to make sure that nobody to use the words of the nhs constitution is excluded discriminated against or indeed left behind and the constitution itself points out that we recognize that some people need more help than others some conditions need more resources than others this is just the nature of healthcare so we can bring in that medical pillar of beneficence doing what we can and doing the right thing for each person as well as being consequentialist in our thinking this isn't very utilitarian this is rather than doing the most good for the most people most of the time in the nhs we do what is necessary for the person in front of us no matter what their needs are someone needs a complex heart operation they can have it if someone needs some diabetes medications they can have it and this also means being mindful of waste as well if we waste slots in a surgical department that is a wasted slot that someone else could have used if people aren't turning up for their appointments that wastes an appointment that someone else could use so we need to try and minimize any waste and make the maximum use of resources to benefit our patients and lastly just to speak on the topic of discrimination and exclusion we know that there are systemic problems with how different groups in society receive healthcare something as simple as most conventional oxygen probes not correctly measuring people's oxygen saturation levels particularly in people with darker coloured skin that is just an ongoing problem for example that is convention but it's not helping everyone in the same way so it's trying to solve problems like this and make sure that everyone receives the proper high quality care that they need and crucially as we say isn't left behind so that's going to wrap this video on the nhs constitutional values guys thank you so much for watching as always please do be sure to hit that like button for me leave a comment subscribe to the channel and don't forget to go and check out ollieburton.com my personal website where you can access every single video in my medical interviews prep course 100 free 100 of the time thank you so much as always and i will see you next time if you want to support the channel guys there are three ways you can do it the first is by liking commenting and subscribing the second is you can buy me a coffee using my co-filing can help keep me awake during the editing process the third is you can use my referral link to subscribe to your first year of complete anatomy 2021 and i'll receive a small kickback when you do and you'll get 10 off thanks very much guys and i'll see you in the next video bye-bye

Channel: Dr Ollie Burton

Views: 36,057

Keywords: warwick medical school, postgradmedic, medicine, medical school, med school, graduate medicine, grad medicine, grad entry medicine, med school insiders, med school headquarters, med school personal statement, med school day in the life, med school aplication, med school lecture, med school interview, med school parody, med school motivation, medical school acceptance, medical school vlog, medicine at midnight, warwick medical school mmi, medical school day in the life

Id: 8rrWk1TJEeE

Length: 10min 41sec (641 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 09 2021