Healthcare assistants are an essential part of the patient care process. Being a healthcare assistant allows you to really be there for those in need, and you can make a noticeable difference in people’s lives if you’re passionate about healthcare.
A healthcare assistant is among the healthcare professionals who will get to spend the most amount of time with the patients. This is why healthcare assistants are an essential part of the patient’s experience. This article is focused on the question of how to become a healthcare assistant. So, let’s get started with the basic responsibilities of a healthcare assistant.
What Does A Healthcare Assistant Do?
As we discussed earlier, a healthcare assistant is the one who will get to spend the most amount of time with the patients. This means they’re going to be the ones taking care of them in their moment of need, and ultimately, they’ll be responsible for how the patient’s experience went. So, the duties of a healthcare assistant are focused on providing basic care and aiding other healthcare professionals to provide the patients with a good experience.
The NHS themselves have listed the various duties and responsibilities of a healthcare assistant in the UK. Take a look:
- Washing & dressing the patients.
- Taking care of the patient’s meals and helping to feed them.
- Assisting in helping the patients move.
- Making the patient’s beds.
- Ensure that the patients are comfortable.
- Monitoring the patients by conducting temperature readings, pulse, weight, and respirations.
The NHS has differentiated the responsibilities of a healthcare assistant in terms of working at a hospital and working in general practitioners’ surgery. Working as a healthcare assistant in GP surgery, you will be expected to:
- Sterilise the surgical equipment.
- Perform various health checks on the patients.
- Ensure that all the consulting rooms are stocked with the necessary equipment.
- Processing any lab samples that are required.
- Drawing blood samples if required.
- Promoting healthcare education.
So, this is what a healthcare assistant contributes to the healthcare industry. As you can determine from these healthcare assistant responsibilities, an HCA’s job description is based purely on patient care and ensuring that they feel comfortable.
Now that you know what’s going to be expected of you, you are ready to move on to the next section, which lists the basic healthcare assistant skills that are essential for the HCA job description!
Skills Required To Become A Healthcare Assistant
In order to become a healthcare assistant, there are a few essential skills you need to possess. If you’re passionate about patient care, you might already have these skills. Here’s a list of skills for a healthcare assistant:
- Your communication skills should be excellent so you can appropriately convey information to the patients as well as the other healthcare professionals.
- You should have a caring and nurturing attitude.
- Healthcare assistants should display flexibility and should always be approachable.
- You should always be respectful, especially to the other healthcare professionals working with you.
- You should be sensitive and considerate of others.
- Healthcare assistants are required to take an open-minded approach to their job!
If you possess these skills, you can be great at healthcare assistance! But what about the qualifications? Let’s take a look.
Qualifications Needed To Become A Healthcare Assistant
To become a healthcare assistant, you don’t need special certifications or anything like that. The NHS has mentioned that all you need in order to apply is good literacy, numeracy and GSCEs. They’ve also mentioned that some employers might ask for a BTEC or NVQ healthcare certifications.
Some healthcare employers might also ask for healthcare experience. In case you don’t have any experience as a healthcare assistant, you can work as an apprentice to gain the necessary experience.
Now that you know nearly everything there is to know on how to become a healthcare assistant, you might be wondering about the kind of benefits you can expect from this job.
Healthcare Assistant Benefits
The NHS has regulated the working hours to 37.5 a week. Of course, these are divided into alternating shifts. A healthcare assistant usually starts at band 2 of the NHS pay system. Apart from that, you will get 27 annual leaves and bank holidays.
Hopefully, we have done everything we can to help you understand the skills and qualifications you need to become a healthcare assistant. Primus Recruitment is the best healthcare recruitment company in the UK; we can help you get the job you’ve always wanted! Get in touch with us to hire experienced healthcare recruitment specialists.
