As an HCSW, you will be a valued member of your team. Your focus will be on keeping patients at the centre of all we do, providing high quality care and living our Trust values: Together - Safe Kind Excellent. Our HCSWs fall into three groups: Healthcare assistants (HCA) - this is the largest group of clinical support workers. HCAs provide assistance to nurses and doctors in wards and clinics across the Trust. Theatre support workers (TSW) - TSWs work alongside theatre staff before during and after operations. Maternity care assistants (MCA) - MCAs work in the Rosie Maternity Hospital. The main focus of their role is around helping women before and after giving birth. Whichever group you work in, you will live up to and promote our culture of compassionate care, built on care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment. Page 1
Healthcare assistants Like all healthcare support workers, the main focus of your role will always be our patients. You will not perform complicated procedures, or administer medications. But you will have plenty of contact with patients, their families and visitors. It will be your job, for instance to: Make sure that patients are clean and comfortable Listen to and talk with patients, and let the nursing staff know about any concerns Serve food and help people who need assistance to eat Help people who have difficulty moving to change position in bed and move around the ward or clinic eg to the toilet Record observations, like temperature, pulse rate and blood pressure Document how much patients eat and drink Weighing people and calculating and recording BMI Uphold our Trust values kind, safe and excellent in everything you do We will also train you to deal with emergencies, like heart attacks. You will be taught how to look after someone in the last days or hours of their life. You'll find more about what the role is like under Is it for me? Although it is hard work, you will be part of a supportive team. Our hospital could not run without healthcare assistants and we work hard to ensure that your role is rewarding and valued. Page 2
Maternity care assistants Maternity care assistants (MCA) work in the Rosie Maternity Hospital. You will help the midwives and other members of the team responsible for looking after women who are pregnant, as well as during and after the birth of their babies. This includes: Monitoring the condition of women in labour and reporting changes and concerns Accompanying women to other clinical departments under the direction of a midwife / nurse Helping midwives care for women in labour In addition, your job will be to make sure that people are kept as comfortable as possible and helping out wherever needed. This includes preventing the spread of infection by: washing your own hands effectively, according to the agreed hospital technique washing your hands after every patient contact and any process that needs you to do so promoting effective handwashing among patients, visitors and other staff ensuring that patient and staff areas are kept clean as required Page 3
Theatre support workers As a TSW you will support other members of the theatre team, such as scrub practitioners, operating department practitioners (ODP), surgeons, anaesthetists and administrative staff. Many of the patients you meet will be anxious and / or very ill and you will play an important part in reassuring them and keeping them as safe and comfortable as possible. Your tasks could include: collecting patients from the wards and taking them to the operating theatres talking with and reassuring patients during this transfer making sure that the ODP / surgeon / anaesthetist is aware of problems and concerns that you cannot answer yourself sitting and talking with patients who are undergoing procedures under local anaesthetic as a way of supporting and reassuring them taking part in all the required checks in theatre, eg counting, checking and documenting instruments used during an operation understanding the equipment used and being able to place it in the correct position helping with the collection of specimens cleaning the operating theatre before, between and after operations helping ensure that patient safety is at the heart of all we do in theatres Page 4
Typical tasks Tasks for all healthcare support workers Listening to patients and speaking with them: helping people when they ask for help asking for assistance if you cannot help yourself telling others if you have concerns about something a patient has told you Preventing the spread of infection: washing your own hands effectively, according to the agreed hospital technique washing your hands after every patient contact and any process that needs you to do so promoting effective handwashing among patients, visitors and other staff Keeping your area of work safe by: keeping the area tidy and free of trip hazards cleaning up spillages appropriately - there are agreed ways of dealing with different kinds of spill reporting any potential hazards/risks that you cannot deal with yourself eg trailing wires, faulty equipment Keeping up-to-date with your mandatory training Tasks for healthcare and maternity care assistants Keeping patients clean and comfortable by: Page 5
Helping them to wash or shower, shave, clean their teeth or dentures, wash and or brush their hair Helping them clean intimate, personal areas, after first getting consent to do so Making beds including changing soiled sheets, cloths and bedding Helping patients get to and use the toilet: Helping with urinals, commodes and bedpans: Giving them out and collecting them after use Measuring the contents and accurately recording the results Emptying them Helping people with wiping and otherwise cleaning themselves afterwards Caring for people with catheters to collect their urine or stoma bags to collect urine or faeces: emptying catheter and stoma bags regularly accurately recording the output reporting any abnormal or worrying readings to the registered nursing staff Helping patients eat: serving food helping people eat and drink Preventing pressure ulcers (bed sores): turning patients regularly who need to spend a lot of time in bed accurately documenting whenever you do this Improving patients mobility by: helping them move eg from their bed to a chair or to the bathroom, taking them for regular walks using aids like hoists, sliding sheets or turning boards to help patients who have difficulty in moving themselves Page 6
Monitoring patients: taking the temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate and blood pressure measuring oxygen saturation levels accurately recording the results reporting any abnormal or worrying readings to the registered nurses Weighing and measuring patients: measuring weight and height calculating body mass index (BMI) based on the results documenting the results accurately Preparing patients for clinical procedures Tasks for HCAs only Caring for patients who are critically ill or dying Helping wash and prepare bodies of those who have died, before visits by relatives and transportation to the morgue Page 7