Judith:
We take clients out bush. They like getting out on country looking for bush tucker or just sitting down under a tree yarning. It’s all good stuff. We get to enjoy being out there as well learning from them oldies and listening to the stories. But we never forget that we’re here to help them. We’ve got to keep them safe. We’ve got a duty of care to them. Duty of care? Yeah. Enid told me about that. She said it means looking around and seeing if there’s anything that could hurt someone and then make sure we fix it if we can, keeping everyone safe. It also means doing our job properly so no one gets hurt. I’ll show you what I mean.
Tamika:
Yay. We get to go out on a bush trip today. Hurry up Judith. I want to get some bean seeds for some necklaces I’m making to sell at the art shed.
Enid:
Well someone is excited. But don’t forget Tamika this trip is for the clients not for you. Oh don’t worry. I’m sure that you’ll have a chance to collect some seeds. But you need to remember that the old people come first. Now here is the vehicle checklist. You need to make sure that you have checked over everything and that you have all the equipment and materials you need before you go pick anyone up.
Tamika:
Wow. This is a lot of stuff. Do we need all this?
Judith:
Yes. Yes we do. It helps keep us all safe and makes the bush trip better for everyone. We have a duty of care for the people we work for Tamika. That means when we are with them we have a duty, a responsibility to care for them, to keep them safe. You go through that checklist and have a think what might happen if we drove off and then found out we didn’t have any of them.
Tamika:
Spare tyre. Make sure that is pumped up. Oh no. The spare tyre’s flat. Jack and wheel brace. What? No jack? How are we going to get home? Fuel? What do you mean we’ve run out of fuel? Phone? Well I have my own and Judith will have one too. So that’s okay. Water? No water? So making sure we have everything. That’s duty of care.
Judith:
Yes. That’s part of our duty of care. Now you make sure that vehicle checklist is completed. I need to finish off the activity risk assessment with Enid.
Tamika:
What’s that?
Judith:
When we do a special activity like this bush trip we have to do an activity risk assessment. We need to think about any risks that may happen to make the bush trip unsafe and plan to stop these from happening.
Tamika:
Wow. That’s a lot of planning.
Judith:
Yes. But it’s all about keeping everyone safe Tamika, having duty of care to the clients.
Enid:
So if you go out to the waterhole you’ll still be within mobile phone range and you and Tamika both have mobile phones. There’s a lot of shade trees there too.
Judith:
Yeah. The old ladies will like that shade. Lots of bush tucker around there too.
Enid:
Good. So who is going?
Judith:
Alice, Mia, Carol, Nala, Betty and her daughter Sarah. Oh and also Barbara. Delia said might come too but she usually likes to go to the art centre today.
Enid:
Okay. That sounds fine. Not too many for you and Tamika to look out for. But you need to make sure that someone keeps an eye out for Alice. She might forget to drink enough water and it’s going to be warm out there by lunch time.
Judith:
That’s okay. I’ll make sure that Tamika keeps an eye out for Alice. Sarah, Betty’s daughter always helps us as well.
Enid:
Well that looks good then. What time will you be back?
Judith:
We’ll have lunch out there and then we’ll come back by 2:00pm. It will be too hot to stay out any longer than that.
Enid:
Okay. Send me a text message when you arrive out there and when you leave to come back here.
Judith:
Yes. Okay.
§(Music Playing)§
Tamika:
Here you go aunty. Eat this and then you can go walking round looking for those seeds.
Here nanna. You’ve got to keep drinking water.
Judith:
Hey where’s Betty?
Tamika:
She was there a little time ago.
Judith:
You stay here Tamika with everyone else. I’m going over to see where Betty’s gone.
Tamika:
Yeah. Okay. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on this mob.
Judith:
Hey where’s Betty?
Female 2:
She went looking for bush tucker. She gone that way.
Judith:
I’ll go make sure she’s okay. You mob stay near the others. Maybe you want to go have lunch. Tamika’s got them sandwiches ready.
Female 2:
Yeah. We go eat. Betty, she be right.
Judith:
She might be but I’ll go make sure. I’m responsible here for you mob.
Female 2:
Okay. You go then.
Judith:
You right there Betty?
Betty:
Yeah. Just sore foot from these shoes. They’re new and they’re rubbing.
Judith:
Okay. You want me to bring the bus over here or can you walk back?
Betty:
No. I’ll be right.
Judith:
Where’s that Tamika?
Delia:
She wanted to find seeds for necklace. She gone off that way.
Judith:
Oh here she is. Okay.
We’ll talk about this later. Let’s eat lunch and then we go back.
Tamika:
What’s this?
Judith:
We’ve got to fill this here form out after every bush trip. We write down what worked well and what didn’t work and any problems we had. We also got to write up what we would do different next time to make sure any problems don’t happen again.
Tamika:
I think it went well. No problems this time.
Judith:
What about when you left the mob by themselves and went off to look for seeds?
Tamika:
They’re looking out for each other and nothing bad happened.
Judith:
No. But it might. When you’ve got a mob of old people you can’t just walk off and leave them by themselves. What if someone got burnt by fire or wandered off? We have a duty of care to look after them.
Tamika:
But you always say we’ve got to help them be independent.
Judith:
Yes that’s right. We do. But that doesn’t stop your duty of care to look after them. Like when they’re out on a bush trip you can’t just go off and do your own thing. When you’re not there anything can happen to them. We’ve got to help them, keep them safe. Like you make sure your nanna’s safe, that’s the right way.
Tamika:
Okay. I guess I would be upset if my nanna was taken out on a trip and no one looked out for her and she wandered off. Hmm, this duty of care is really important.
Judith:
Yes. Well let’s finish this report off so we can go home. It’s been a long day.
Tamika:
This report then, what is the first part?
Judith:
First question. What do you think worked well?
Tamika:
I learnt about duty of care today. How about you? What does duty of care look like in your job?
Duty of care in an aged care setting means ensuring your actions or inactions do not result in harm or injury to the person receiving care. It means taking reasonable measures to protect, or at least not cause foreseeable harm, to another person or their property.
Use this facilitator guide to support discussion about duty of care practice in aged care.
Stories, people and places are based on individuals from different communities in East Arnhem Land. For cultural appropriateness, names have been changed.