Preparing students for sensitive content in health and social care qualifications

Sarah Ash, Subject Advisor for Health and Social Care and Child Development

Many students who study Health and Social Care will go on to study nursing, allied health professions, social work and health and social care support roles. These roles are demanding because human relationships and emotions are not only an integral part of the day-to-day routine of providing nursing care, but also contribute to care quality. 

In this blog I’ll discuss why emotional intelligence is an important quality for health and social care students to develop. I’ll also look at ways of preparing students for sensitive content in health and social care qualifications and in their future study and employment.

Can students request concessions or special consideration?

In situations where students feel unable to cope with studying sensitive or triggering content there are very few options available. We are not able to offer a concession in all situations when we receive requests from centres, such as allowing a student not to complete all grading criteria. 

Occasionally we will be asked if a student can have an exemption on the grounds that the unit content includes learning about illness, disease, death and dying which the student feels unable to complete as they have a lived experience, such as bereavement. However, an exemption is normally only permitted in general qualifications, not in vocational qualifications where students need to display all competences being assessed. 

This is where the difficulty lies in allowing students an option not to complete part of their work. All competencies must be shown in written evidence or demonstrated, and these are generated through the grading criteria which rarely repeat across units, so each unit grading criteria must be assessed. 

Sometimes centres will ask for special consideration where students have said that they would find it difficult or challenging to complete part of an assessment. Special consideration is a post-assessment adjustment that can be put in place because of a temporary disadvantage affecting a candidate at the time of assessment. Applying special consideration for vocational qualifications is limited as we can’t apply a tariff of marks to an NEA unit as we can to an examined unit. 

If you believe that challenging or difficult content could affect a student’s completion of the assessment, you should contact your subject advisor and explain the circumstances. They can find out whether the student is eligible for special consideration or other concession. However, there is no guarantee that a concession will be made. It will be useful to familiarise yourself with the JCQ Guide to the special consideration process.

About sensitive content

Understandably, when our students are distressed we want to protect them from any further upset. Although a natural instinct, we must consider if this is the right course of action when preparing students for working in health and social care industries. Instead of avoidance, an approach could be to prepare them for what is to come – especially where the specification includes sensitive content, as this can help to build some resilience. 

Sensitive content could relate to sexual health, abuse, illness, death and dying, but there can be other topics that are triggering too. You cannot know what content your students might struggle with, but you can help to prepare students by telling them the units that will be covered over the course, and exploring and discussing the content. This will prepare students for what is to come and begin building their resilience. 

For each unit we suggest that you: 

• allow time for reading the content 
• identify and highlight sensitive subject areas in the teaching content 
• look at the grading criteria and how that content is assessed 
• allow time for conversations.

Building resilience

To build resilience we need to know what it means. A good definition from the Cambridge Dictionary is “the ability to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened.” 

It’s often the case that we do not check in on our mental health until something bad or difficult happens. Guidance from the NHS’s Every Mind Matters explains that it is just as important to stay on top of our wellbeing even when things are OK, as this can give you the skills you need to cope with life’s challenges when times are tougher. They suggest six strategies to building resilience: 

Start with what you are good at 

• Think about difficulties you have overcome
• See how you can apply this elsewhere 
• Find an image or metaphor to help you in tough times
• Take some time to plan ahead 
• Reflect, recognise and reward 

Giving students time get to know themselves before they begin studying Health and Social Care may benefit them when the specification and assessment includes challenging content. You can read more about these strategies on the Every Mind Matters website, and Mind has more tips on managing stress and building resilience. 

Foster and McLoughlen studied the emotional intelligence strategies that Australian pre-registration nursing and pharmacy students used to manage challenging interactions. They found that “emotional labour requires emotional intelligence skills.” They found that in relational situations that were experienced as challenging – where the patient or their family were showing signs of distress, aggression, etc – students responded by using a range of cognitive, emotional, relational, and behavioural (CERB) emotionally intelligent strategies. These strategies helped them to manage their own and others’ emotions and behaviours in challenging situations. 

Our colleagues at CEM (Cambridge Centre for Evaluation & Monitoring) have written the Cambridge Personal Styles Questionnaire (CPSQ) that can help you and your students to understand how they can cope in challenging situations. Taking this questionnaire can give your students greater self-awareness and has direct links to studying Health and Social Care. This offers you a direct way to support your students. There is a nominal cost per student and you can find details of this and supporting information on the CEM student wellbeing website.

Taking time at the beginning of the academic year for your students to explore what they will study and introducing strategies to build resilience is a great way to support your students. By building resilience, students can become emotionally intelligent and ready for the programme of study and their future working in health and social care industries.

Stay connected

Please let us know if you have any questions or if you would like a chat to us about this blog or delivering Health and Social Care or Child Development. We also welcome ongoing feedback from centres. 

Share your thoughts in the comments below. You can also call us on 01223 553998 or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @OCR_Health or @OCR_Vocational. Also, you can book a Teams meeting with us directly. 

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About the author

Before joining OCR in 2018, Sarah was a teacher and Subject Lead of Health and Social Care and worked in secondary schools and sixth forms in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. She was a sixth form tutor and moderated on a previous Level 3 HSC qualification. She has also worked as a teacher in a social care setting for young people aged 16-18 transitioning from living in care to becoming independent. At OCR Sarah has been involved in the redevelopment of Cambridge Nationals in Health and Social Care and Child Development, and the redevelopment of the Cambridge Advanced National (AAQ) in Health and Social Care.