Reading, Reporting and Recording

The Reading, Reporting and Recording resource has been developed for aged and disability care workers who work in a client’s home providing home, personal or respite care, or in a community setting.

The term used to describe these workers can vary. They might be known as direct care workers, attendant care workers, community care workers, personal care workers or home care workers. In this resource we will simply refer to the target audience as ‘the worker’.

 

Workers in all industries use a range of communication skills to locate, explain, clarify, organise and use information.

Workplace literacy is particularly important for workers in the Community Services and Health industry where the health and well-being of the client group may well depend on the workers ability to read, record and report accurately. Errors can have a serious impact on these vulnerable client groups.

Workers in the Community Services and Health industry are required to:

  • read and use different types of written information eg. care plans, communication books, workplace guidelines, incident report forms, occupational health and safety information, rosters or timesheets, injury reports.
  • write and record information eg. completing checklists, writing notes about what has happened, reporting changes to a client’s condition
  • perform a range of numeracy tasks eg. buying items on behalf of a client and handling money, calculating hours of work, measuring cleaning solutions
  • give different types of verbal information eg. report changes in the client’s behaviour to the supervisor, and/or discuss problems
  • listen to and understand different types of information eg. work instructions from supervisors, information in training sessions, requests from clients.
The resource relates to competencies from the following qualifications in the CHC02 Community Services Training Package:
  • CHC30102 Certificate III in Aged Care Work
  • CHC30202 Certificate III in Home and Community Care
  • CHC30302 Certificate III and CHC40302 Certificate IV in Disability Work.
The competencies with strong reporting and recording requirements are:
  • CHCHC301B – Work effectively in a home and community care environment (Elements 1, 3)
  • CHCHC302B – Provide personal care in a home and community care environment (Elements 2 & 3)
  • CHCOHS302A – Participate in safety procedures for direct care work (Elements 2, 4, 5, 6)
  • CHCCOM1B – Communicate with people accessing the services of the organization (Elements 1, 2)
  • CHCCOM2B – Communicate appropriately with clients and colleagues. (Elements 1, 2, 3)
  • CHCINF8B – Comply with information requirements of the aged care and community care sectors (Elements 1, 2, 3)
  • CHCORG3B – Participate in the work environment (Elements 2, 3, 4).

The following training focuses on developing the skills workers require to accurately read, record and report as part of their job.