Open Learn Works The heathcare assistant roe Copyright 2016 The Open University
Contents Introduction 3 Learning Outcomes 4 1 Heathcare assistant skis and tasks 5 2 Job description 6 2.1 Physica examinations 9 3 Your persona deveopment 10 4 Looking after yoursef 11 What you have earned in this section 13 Further information (optiona) 13 Section 1 quiz 14 References 15 Acknowedgements 15 2 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
Introduction Introduction Wecome to Introducing practica heathcare, where you start exporing the roe of a heathcare assistant. Once competed, you wi have the opportunity to obtain the ʿheathcare assistant roeʾ badge. This section wi take approximatey 2 hours to compete. In this section you wi be focusing on the principes of care practice, and what might be invoved in the roe of a heathcare assistant, by considering your job responsibiities and why caring is so important. This section wi aso consider the importance of ooking after yoursef within the roe. More importanty, you wi think about your persona earning within the heathcare domain, and how recording your training and deveopment can hep you become more refective in your work. Learning from your own experiences wi hep you to do things better every time. There are a number of activities to hep you aong the way, where you refect on what you have been earning within this section and how you can appy these new skis and knowedge in practice. You wi aso consider a coupe of rea-ife case studies of heathcare assistants who demonstrate their common daiy activities. 3 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
Learning Outcomes By competing this section and the associated quiz, you wi be abe to: describe the tasks and responsibiities of the heathcare assistant roe expain the importance of keeping yoursef heathy and avoiding stress understand the need for training and persona deveopment.
1 Heathcare assistant skis and tasks 1 Heathcare assistant skis and tasks Figure 1 The intimacy of care work whether responding to difficut emotions or washing demands staff who can maintain trust, dignity and privacy. Heathcare assistants pay a vita roe in the heathcare team, whether working in a hospita or a cinic, a nursing home, the community or in someone s own home. It is highy ikey that you are (or woud ike to become) a heathcare assistant because you enjoy working with peope and have the warmth and compassion to care for and support those who are needy, vunerabe or i. Getting care right is so important because a care reationship is a specia kind of reationship that needs to be set up and maintained with compassion and ski. Respect, equa treatment and support to patients in making their own decisions are fundamenta to good care work, as is the need to understand the care roe and how a skied heathcare assistant performs it. You wi often dea with peope in ways that cross the norma boundaries of privacy and intimacy, and which wi make them fee vunerabe, so you need to support them by buiding trusting and respectfu reationships (The Open University, 2015, p. 118). Your roe as a heathcare assistant wi invove assisting in patient care and working as a member of a team under the supervision of a registered nurse or midwife who is responsibe for deegating appropriate tasks to you. Your roe gives enormous support to 5 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
2 Job description nurses who are then reeased to do other tasks that require more detaied knowedge, quaifications and skis. 2 Job description Figure 2 Heathcare assistant If you are currenty empoyed as a heathcare assistant you wi have a job description that tes you what your main roes and responsibiities are and who you report to. You wi work under the supervision of nursing staff, and your duties coud incude: heping patients to wash, shower or dress serving food or heping peope eat making and changing beds turning patients who are bed-bound to avoid pressure sores taking to patients to hep them fee ess anxious heping patients to move around if they find it difficut giving out and coecting bedpans, and heping patients to the toiet making sure the ward or patients home is tidy keeping suppies and equipment in order taking and recording patient observations such as temperature, puse and breathing. 6 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
2 Job description Your day-to-day work may incude using mobiity aids and equipment to hep ift and move patients. In hospitas you may aso hep move patients between departments. With experience, you may be invoved in the induction training of new heathcare assistants. (Nationa Careers Service, 2015) Activity 1 Aow about 15 minutes Part A If you currenty work in heathcare, find your job description and think about how reevant it is to the job you are actuay carrying out day-to-day. Does it contain any tasks or actions that you have not yet carried out within your roe? Can you think of any actions that you have been asked to do that are not in your job description? You might find it hepfu to discuss your thoughts with your manager. If you are not currenty working within heathcare, consider the duties that have aready been discussed. Write down any tasks that you think woud pose a chaenge to you, and why. Whichever ist of duties you refer to, use the space beow to write down your thoughts. Provide your answer... You wi probaby have noticed that, whie your job description considers some genera tasks that you are expected to compete within your roe, you aso have specific tasks reated to the setting in which you work. For exampe, there woud be differences between working in a hospita, a community heath centre or a doctor s surgery. If you work in a hospita, you are most ikey to have been: washing and dressing patients serving meas and heping to feed patients heping peope move around toieting making beds taking to patients and making them comfortabe monitoring patients' conditions by taking temperatures, puse, respirations and weight. But, if you are working in a community heath centre or GP surgery, you may have been: steriising equipment checking a patient s feet restocking consuting rooms processing ab sampes taking bood sampes (if you have been specificay trained within a phebotomy course) carrying out heath promotion or heath education work. 7 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
2 Job description Part B Some heathcare assistants choose to take on additiona training within their roe. Now isten to Gai, an advanced heathcare assistant, describing some of the additiona tasks she carries out as part of her roe. These are over and above the genera tasks isted in Part A, having taken on further training. Audio content is not avaiabe in this format. Extended heathcare assistant responsibiities Activity 2 Aow about 20 minutes In the foowing case studies, heathcare assistants tak about their experiences of practica care at work, incuding particuar aspects of the heathcare assistant roe undertaken in hospitas or community cinics. Here you wi refect upon the differences between these three heathcare assistant roes as you carry out the next activity. Firsty you wi encounter Ann, a heathcare assistant who wi tak about a typica day on her busy hospita ward. Listen to the variety of duties that Ann describes. This audio is provided for use within the course ony. Audio content is not avaiabe in this format. A day in the ife of a hospita ward: care assistant Ann s roe is very different to that of Kerri, who works in the diabetes team within a community cinic and describes her work in this cip. Video content is not avaiabe in this format. Meeting the diabetes care team Gai s roe is again different from Ann s and Kerri s. In the next cip you can isten to Gai taking about the huge variety of tasks she carries out throughout her day, so that she finds it impossibe to describe a typica day. Audio content is not avaiabe in this format. Typica day on day surgery ward You have just heard three heathcare assistants (Ann, Kerri and Gai) speaking about their very different roes. Write down your thoughts and observations on the differences between the three different heathcare assistant roes in the box beow. Provide your answer... 8 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
2 Job description Discussion The main differences you wi have noticed are around Ann s patients having greater care needs, in that they need hep to get up and get washed, whereas Kerri s patients wak into the community cinic for a specific heath check. Likewise, Gai s patients wak in for day surgery but are staying for post-operative care, requiring nursing skis more simiar to Ann s roe. Look back at the Activity 1 Part A discussion above for key differences in their roes. 2.1 Physica examinations As a heathcare assistant, you may be required to carry out physica checks to monitor the heath of your patients. This may require a detaied examination of particuar areas of their body which are known to dispay some of the symptoms of their condition. For exampe, the side effects of their medication may resut in getting a rash. It is important for heathcare assistants to understand the types of symptoms that they shoud be ooking out for in regards to their patients heath needs. As you carry out the examination, it benefits the patient to keep taking with them and expain what you are checking and whether it wi hurt or fee strange. You may aso be required to give some feedback during the consutation on what you have seen and whether you need to take any additiona action. Any changes in patient heath shoud be appropriatey documented and reported to the Registered Nurse or Senior Nurse on duty. A typica physica examination is the one for patients with diabetes. Diabetes can reduce the bood suppy to feet and cause patients to ose feeing in them. As a resut, feet injuries may not hea sufficienty, or they may not immediatey notice them. Diabetic patients tend to have their feet examined once a year at an annua review with their doctor, but they occur more frequenty if there are any signs of oss of feeing in the feet, reduced bood fow or foot ucers where the skin surface is broken. The visua tests carried out by heathcare assistants on the feet incude ooking for rough or hardened skin (causes), ingrowing toenais and unusua coour changes to the skin. Activity 3 Aow about 10 minutes You wi now watch Kerri conduct a physica examination on a diabetic patient s feet. As you watch the video, pay particuar attention to: precautions taken to prevent cross-infection checks made on the feet information requested from the patient advice given during the foot examination. This video is provided for use within the course ony. Video content is not avaiabe in this format. Foot examination 9 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
3 Your persona deveopment Discussion You probaby noticed the foowing points: Kerri wore singe-use goves to prevent cross infection. Kerri reassured the patient by expaining what she was examining for and why. She demonstrated exacty what she was going to do in terms of pressure checking on the feet, so that the patient was aware of what was about to happen. She checked the feet, then tested for circuation (a puse check) and aso for sensation (by touching the foot with a pointed instrument). Kerri asked the patient whether he moisturised his feet and checked them daiy, both as part of ongoing monitoring of his heath. Kerri advised the patient to moisturise his feet, and mentioned areas to avoid (between the toes). She aso advised him how to check his feet reguary, incuding the use of a mirror if he coud not bend down to see his toes. She tod him that he shoud aso check his shoes for stones and sharp objects. The tasks invoved in the heathcare assistant roe wi vary according to the area in which you work. If you are on a hospita ward supporting patients who cannot get out of bed, or receiving end-of-ife care, you wi be supporting them in a areas of care: maintaining hygiene, heping them to brush their teeth or providing mouth care, and making sure they are not deveoping pressure sores. If, however, you are working on an admissions ward, your roe wi be very different: heping patients to sette and fee ess anxious and taking observations such as recording their breathing, puse, body temperature or bood pressure. 3 Your persona deveopment Your persona deveopment as a heathcare assistant is very important, and some essentia training wi have been provided by your empoyer as part of your induction: for exampe basic ife support, safeguarding, moving and handing, safe food handing, hand hygiene, fire safety, measuring and recording patient detais (for exampe puse, temperature, breathing and weight) and communication skis. During your subsequent career there wi be ongoing training and professiona deveopment to enhance your skis further, and you are ikey to have a Persona Deveopment Pan (PDP) which enabes you and your manager to think about strengths and deveopment needs, agree your aims and objectives, and demonstrate your increased competence and achievements. This is important, especiay as nationa bodies and professiona organisations reguate the heathcare workforce and protect the pubic from harm. Your PDP is an important document that is usuay written annuay with your manager at the time of your review or appraisa. It heps you organise your persona deveopment for the year by identifying your earning requirements within your job, and monitoring your progress against them (Skis for Care, 2015a). As a heathcare assistant, it is important that you have adequate functiona skis which incude iteracy, numeracy and communication skis. These shoud preferaby be to Key Skis Leve 2 or GCSE grades A C as you are ikey to be reading care pans, recording data and giving verba messages when you are with patients and coeagues. You might think about attending your oca coege or finding out if your union can offer support in this 10 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
4 Looking after yoursef area. If you are interested in earning more, you might ike to visit some of the suggested websites at the end of this section. Activity 4 Aow about 10 minutes Write down some exampes of the ways you use iteracy, numeracy, communication and digita skis in your roe. For exampe, think about when you need to read things at work, write things down, speak with patients or coeagues and use a computer. Provide your answer... Discussion You might have isted some of the foowing as exampes of the skis being used by heathcare assistants: iteracy: being abe to write on daiy record sheets and read patient notes and care pans numeracy: taking numeric readings from patients (for exampe bood pressure, sugar eves in bood/urine number of miiitres of urine) communication: taking with patients, famiy and coeagues; active istening; body anguage digita skis: researching conditions onine, updating onine records. It is hepfu to keep a continuing professiona deveopment (CPD) fie as a record of your earning, deveopment and achievement after your initia training. In this way you can provide evidence of the courses you have attended whist in the heathcare assistant roe, which wi hep you to refect on the progress you have made, and to demonstrate to prospective future empoyers your commitment to sef-improvement. The Introducing practica heathcare badges that you can coect throughout this course are another usefu way to demonstrate your earning. You may wish to downoad these badges to keep in your CPD fie. 4 Looking after yoursef An important aspect of your demanding roe in heathcare is to ook after yoursef, so that you keep physicay and mentay heathy. Work-reated stress is defined by the Heath and Safety Executive (HSE, 2015) as the adverse reaction peope have to excessive pressures or other types of demand paced upon them. Most peope woud agree that a certain amount of pressure is toerabe, even enjoyabe. Different peope, of course, react in different ways to pressure. Some peope toerate more than others do. But we are often at our best when the adrenain is fowing and when we are working under pressure to achieve good resuts within a imited time. Probems start when the pressure becomes too great or continues for ong periods. It then becomes stress. It ceases to be 11 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
4 Looking after yoursef enjoyabe. In the UK empoyees are absent for an average of eight days a year, and in 2013 stress, grouped with depression and anxiety, was the fourth major cause of absence in the UK (ONS 2014). The five main causes of work-reated stress that CIPD identified were: workoad management stye reationships at work organisationa change and restructuring ack of empoyee support from ine managers. (adapted from OpenLearn, 2016) Activity 5 Aow about 10 minutes You wi now read a case study provided within Unison s Duty of Care handbook (2011) about a heathcare assistant making mistakes due to staff shortages. Case study: Pam A ward has been understaffed by one nurse and one heathcare assistant for three weeks. The empoyer caims to have tried to get agency cover but staff beieve they have not tried very hard because they are trying to save money. For the ast three days there has been a further heathcare assistant missing due to sickness. The one remaining day-shift heathcare assistant, Pam, tried her best but, by the end of the first day, was aware that even with hep from the Registered Nurses, it was impossibe to carry out even the minimum of necessary duties to a reasonabe standard. She raised her concerns informay with the ward sister, who assured her they were trying to get cover, but said that with support from the registered nurses, it shoud be possibe to keep going for a few more days. On the third day Pam made a mistake. She gives a drink to a patient who was designated Ni by Mouth and due to be operated on ater that day. As one might imagine, Pam is very upset and worried that she wi be discipined, adding to her feeings of stress. She reaises that her mistake was most ikey caused by poor concentration due to her high stress eve, and wishes she had put her concerns in writing so there was no doubt how serious the situation was on the ward. (Extract taken from Unison s Duty of Care handbook, 2011) Pam was facing a ot of pressure at work, and may have benefited from finding a way to reduce her genera stress eves. Now, have a go at writing down how Pam s stress coud be reduced, before cicking to revea some exampes. Provide your answer... Discussion 12 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
What you have earned in this section You might find that stress management courses or workshops are avaiabe through your organisation. Skis for Care (2015a) aso suggest a number of hepfu strategies to dea with stress: taking more exercise or going for a wak taking time out for yoursef doing something that you enjoy taking a deep breath counting down sowy in your head removing yoursef from a situation and taking time out taking through how you fee with your ine manager attending any stress management courses or workshops avaiabe engaging in reaxing activities whist away from work ooking at your diet and substance intake, for exampe, caffeine, and managing a sensibe intake undertaking sef-awareness activities taking through your stresses with a counseor taking to a human resources advisor or occupationa heath advisor (if avaiabe in your organisation). Extract taken from Skis for Care (2015a): Workbook 13, Heath and Safety What you have earned in this section The roe of a heathcare assistant entais many and varied practica duties, which may differ between work settings. Heathcare assistants receive initia basic training, and a persona deveopment pan (PDP) wi hep you identify further earning and deveopment needs within your job. It wi aso contribute towards career progression. Further information (optiona) If you are ooking to deveop your iteracy, numeracy and communication skis, there are a number of resources you might be interested in reviewing after competing this section. You might find this ink to the BBC Skiswise website hepfu. This is a free website with courses and activities to improve your writing, maths and IT skis: www.bbc.co.uk/skiswise The foowing site provides a more in-depth skis assessment course: www.open.edu/openearn/science-maths-technoogy/computing-and-ict/information- 13 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
Section 1 quiz and-communication-technoogies/key-ski-assessment-unit-information-iteracy/content-section-0. The Workers Educationa Association (WEA) run courses and programmes which hep aduts return to earning skis such as iteracy and numeracy: www.wea.org.uk/courses/aboutourcourses/about-wea-courses.aspx This website wi hep you to earn at your own eve: www.earnmyway.com Aso, especiay with increased use of eectronic records, you may wish to improve your digita skis. If so, try foowing this ink to the OU Library which has an Activities A Z section for deveoping IT iteracy skis (these are avaiabe in PDF form): www.open.ac.uk/ibraryservices/beingdigita/. For further information on using the internet for earning, try BBC First Cick: www.bbc.co.uk/webwise Section 1 quiz We done, you have now reached the end of Section 1 of Introducing practica heathcare, and it is time to attempt the assessment questions. This is designed to be a fun activity to hep consoidate your earning. There are ony five questions, and if you get at east four correct answers you wi be abe to downoad your badge for the The heathcare assistant roe section (pus you get more than one try!). I woud ike to try the Section 1 quiz to get my badge. If you are studying this course using one of the aternative formats, pease note that you wi need to go onine to take this quiz. I ve finished this section. What next? You can now choose to move on to Section 2, Working with patients and coeagues, or to one of the other sections so you can continue coecting your badges. If you fee that you ve now got what you need from the course and don t wish to attempt the quiz or continue coecting your badges, pease visit the Taking my earning further section, where you can refect on what you have earned and find suggestions of further earning opportunities. We woud ove to know what you thought of the course and how you pan to use what you have earned. Your feedback is anonymous and wi hep us to improve our offer. Take our Open University end-of-course survey. 14 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
References References Chartered Institute of Personne Deveopment (CIPD) (2008) Absence Management Annua Survey Report [Onine]. Avaiabe at www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/ hrpract/absence/absmagmt.htm (Accessed 25 November 2008). Heath and Safety Executive (HSE) (2015) What is Stress? [Onine]. Avaiabe at www.hse.gov.uk/stress/furtheradvice/whatisstress.htm (Accessed 4 December 2015). Nationa Careers Service (2015) Job Profies - Heathcare Assistant [Onine]. Avaiabe at https://nationacareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/panning/jobprofies/pages/heathcareassistant.aspx (Accessed 4 December 2015). Office for Nationa Statistics (ONS) (2014), Sickness absence in the abour market: February 2014 [Onine]. Avaiabe at www.ons.gov.uk/empoymentandabourmarket/peopeinwork/abourproductivity/artices/ sicknessabsenceintheabourmarket/2014-02-25 OpenLearn (2016) Section 8: Recognising pressure and avoiding stress, Managing and managing peope [Onine]. Avaiabe at http://www.open.edu/openearn/money-management/management/eadership-and-management/managing-and-managing-peope/content-section-8 (Accessed 25 January 2016) Skis for Care (2015a) The Care Certificate: Workbook 2 Your Persona Deveopment [Onine]. Avaiabe at www.skisforcare.org.uk/document-ibrary/standards/care-certificate/standard%2013% 20CC%20Workbook.pdf (Accessed 7 December 2015). Skis for Care (2015a) The Care Certificate: Workbook 13, Heath and Safety [Onine]. Avaiabe at http://www.skisforcare.org.uk/document-ibrary/standards/care-certificate/standard% 2013%20CC%20Workbook.pdf (Accessed 7 December 2015). The Open University (2015) K101 Learning Guide 4: Deveoping care reationships, Miton Keynes, The Open University. Unison (2011) UNISON Duty of Care Handbook, London, Unison. Acknowedgements This free course was written by Joanne Thomas (consutant for the Open University) and Emma Lipscombe (Learning and Workforce Deveopment Officer for UNISON), with contributions from Ruth Beretta (staff tutor for the Open University). Except for third party materias and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made avaiabe under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercia-ShareAike 4.0 Licence. The materia acknowedged beow is Proprietary and used under icence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Gratefu acknowedgement is made to the foowing sources for permission to reproduce materia in this free course: 15 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016
Acknowedgements Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertenty overooked, the pubishers wi be peased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. Figures Figure 1: from K101 Learning Guide 4, page 9 Figure 2: fatihhoca/istockphoto.com Audios Extended heathcare assistant responsibiities incuding transcript: courtesy Unison ( https://www.unison.org.uk/) A day in the ife of a hospita ward: care assistant incuding transcript: from K114 Introducing Professiona Practice, The Open University Typica day on day surgery ward incuding transcript: courtesy Unison ( https://www.unison.org.uk/) Videos Meeting the diabetes care team incuding transcript: from SK120 Diabetes Care, The Open University Foot examination incuding transcript: from SK120 Diabetes Care, The Open University 16 of 16 Friday 12 August 2016