Healthcare Support Workers

• Proactively engages with patients and others in order to build and maintain positive relationships. Ensures all women and babies requirements are met with respect, privacy, dignity, sensitivity, empathy and recognising diversity at all times
• Provide good quality personalised care in accordance with agreed local and national standards
• Understands and gains valid consent prior to action or providing care. Has the knowledge to document this promptly and clearly
• Recognises changes in either mother or baby’s condition and understands to report any concerns including those expressed by the women (or their families) to the midwife
• Ensures own clinical practice is safe and appropriate at all times.
• Assists in the implementation of direct clinical care performing a range of relevant clinical skills
• Act within the limits of your competence and authority and adhere to local protocols and procedures
• Make use of supervision. Participate in regular supervision in line with local guidelines in order to continually improve your performance and gain support
• Demonstrates an understanding of and uses care plans during shift identifying and reporting women’s needs not included in the individualised care plan to the midwife in charge
• Communicate and work as an effective team member of the clinical team in order to achieve desired outcomes that promote the well-being of mothers and babies
• Have awareness of safeguarding issues and report any concerns to the midwife in charge immediately
• Demonstrates compassion by recognising the responding to individual needs in a warm, thoughtful, sensitive and helpful way.
• Is able to maintain professionalism when dealing with aggressive, abusive or distressed patients or relatives
• Understands the importance of providing smoking cessation intervention training and sign-posting patients appropriately.
• Understands the importance of both the physical and mental well-being of the woman and her family. Knows how to refer woman to appropriate interventions
• Competent in advising women and their families about Safe Sleeping.
• Ensure personal fitness for work presenting a positive image of self and the organisation, Maintain professional conduct including appearance at all times
• Competent in the collection of red blood spot sample for new-born screening
• Competent to support women in their chosen method of feeding giving clear and consistent information on infant feeding and following and revising feeding plans as appropriate
• Is able to recognise when to escalate feeding difficulties to midwifery staff
• Take responsibility for the self-development of skills and competencies through participation in training and development activities maintaining up-to-date technical and professional knowledge relevant to the post
• Is able to manage and prioritise own workload as appropriate.
• Is competent to perform maternal and neonatal observations and other aspects of clinical care following appropriate training and / or until relevant competencies are achieved
• Recognise and respond appropriately to urgent and emergency situations ensuring the patient receives appropriate care and notifying the midwife in charge as soon as possible
• Maintain confidentiality with regard to the Data Protection Act for all information received
• Comply with legal requirements for maintaining confidentiality by maintaining strict confidentiality of all issues concerned with the service. Adhere to requirements of the Data Protection Act 1984, information governance and Caldicott Principles
• Recognises the importance of documenting all care appropriately and contemporaneously
• Is able to communicate effectively with staff, colleagues, patients and their families with sympathy and sensitivity where appropriate
• Actively participates in the appraisal process undertaking identified learning and development opportunities as agreed with the manager.
• Takes personal responsibility to ensure own mandatory training is fully compliant
• Undertakes training and practice of agreed clinical competencies for designated area keeping up-to-date with changes in clinical practice and the effect of these changes on your role
• Act as an effective role model for new members of staff
• Provide support to the training of new members of staff
• Undertake coaching or mentoring with new staff to support them
• Support Trust values by ensuring that effective channels are used to canvas the views and concerns of all patients and their families
• Understand the importance of following all local and Trust policies and guidelines to ensure patient safety and well-being is not compromised
• Ensures awareness of when and how to report untoward incident and how to respond appropriately to patients or their families
• Understands to report accidents, incidents or losses as they occur to the midwife in charge
• Understands the importance of maintaining infection control standards and hygiene
• Make sure your actions reduce risks to health and safety by maintaining a tidy environment at all times, cleaning equipment before use and supporting the maintenance of equipment by reporting any faults as per local procedures. Adhere to health and safety policies and report incidents and risks identified through incident reporting or via line manager
• Ability to contribute to service development, participating in audit to measure that standards are achieved
• Recognises the importance of addressing and reporting behaviour that undermines equality and diversity
• Foster people’s equality, diversity and rights by being proactive against discrimination
• To have an understanding of different cultures, religions, etc and recognising any barriers to communication taking action appropriately to respect individual rights

To become a Healthcare Support Worker, you need to have demonstrable numeracy and literacy skills in line with Level 1/Grade D/Grade 3 or above (to be assessed post interview on appointment). This is because there is a need for you to insert information in patient notes and perform numerical calculations in the role, so we want to ensure you are able to undertake those tasks.

You will also need effective communication skills, the ability to work as part of a team and a willingness to learn and develop yourself further.

You don’t need to have a clinical background or clinical skills – all training is provided on the job as we prefer to teach you all about the way we do things around here.

Healthcare Support Workers join us as a Band 2 member of staff – the salary for which is £22,383 per annum, pro rata.

You will undertake our three-week Care Certificate Induction training when you start which is a practical classroom-based course which gives you all the basic knowledge and skills you will need to be able to perform well in the role and thrive.

We are a teaching hospital so want to encourage everyone to keep learning. We are dedicated to supporting the continuous development and career progression of all our staff. After completing the induction and care certificate, you will receive further training relevant to your role. You will also have access to supervision and support from your line manager and will be able to address your personal development goals through an annual appraisal.

If you need to complete Maths and English to GSCE level, you can be supported to access a Level 2 Maths and English Functional skills qualification by our Apprenticeship Team.

Opportunities to complete the Level 3 Healthcare Apprenticeship qualification are available to you once in a permanent post, and this can lead to other apprenticeships - also funded by the Trust. With experience and further training, you could become a Senior Healthcare Assistant.

Nursing Associate, Level 4 mentorship are just some of the apprentice opportunities we offer which all lead to our degree-level apprenticeships.

If you are interested in pursuing an Apprenticeship at the trust, or would like more information, contact the team by email on: apprenticeshipinfo@lthtr.nhs.uk.

The image below shows the pathway we have should you wish

The Career Pathways for Healthcare Assistants are as follows:

Band 2 HCA -> Band 3 Senior HCA -> Band 4 Nursing Associate -> Band 5 Nurse