Health Care Assistant - Band 3 (Hospice at Home)

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB DESCRIPTION

Happy to talk about Flexible Working

Job Title:

Health Care Assistant

Department:

Hospice at Home (as part of the integrated community team)

Hospice Band:

Clinical Band 3

Reports to:

Band 6 sister/ charge nurse

Responsible for:

DBS Required

Enhanced

Job Purpose

To carry out and ensure the delivery of a high standard of direct patient care alongside team colleagues and with support from qualified staff.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Key areas of work

Assist the Registered Nurse in the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of nursing care.

Carry out high standard of direct patient care alongside team colleagues

Report verbally (including hand-over) to appropriate team members

Document any care given in patient held notes and/or System One

Contribute to multidisciplinary discussions.

Be sensitive to the spiritual, psychological and social needs of the patients and their families.

To supervise and support all nursing assistants and to assist in the induction of all newly staff.

Contribute to the learning environment e.g. teaching on the in-house training days and training new members of staff

Undertaken training for clinical skills relevant to post and maintain up-to-date practice.

To take emergency action as necessary to safeguard the patients and carers and report any concerns to the nurse in charge as soon as possible.

To maintain accurate documentation of care given and to report any changes in condition or circumstances of the patient to the relevant key worker and the nurse in charge on duty in a timely manner.

To participate in audit activities.

Be aware of and undertake infection control measures to minimise the risks of infection.

To perform administrator duties is required.

Attend mandatory and in service training as identified and required.

At all times to represent Birmingham St Marys Hospice in a professional and caring manner maintaining professional boundaries in relationships with patients and their families or carers.

To be part of a rota to provide a 7 day service, 365 days per year including late shifts and weekend working.

To work flexibly across all hospice services. This may require working late shifts, weekends and night shifts.

Clinical

Accurately recording vital signs monitoring if appropriate for the patient

Accurately performing urinalysis and recording the results and reporting on them to the registered nurse

Taking and recording and reporting appropriately blood sugar levels using the relevant equipment

Simple wound dressings

Last offices

Catheter Care/stoma care

Reporting on patients condition

Setting up oxygen equipment and administration as prescribed

Use of nebulisers

Administration of eye drops/ear drops/nose drops

Oral Suction

Monitoring of Syringe driver site

Skin care/pressure area care assess pressure areas and skin integrity and report changes to nurse in charge

Promotion of continence/management of incontinence

Communication

To convey messages and information to all team members, patients and their families as appropriate.

Good communication skills, both oral and written.

Excellent interpersonal skills.

General Duties

Confidentiality

All employees are required to uphold the confidentiality of all information records in whatever format, encountered in the course of employment and after it.

• All employees are bound by the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations when, in the course of their employment, they deal with information records relating to individuals

Equality and Diversity

The Hospice is committed to promoting an environment that values diversity. All staff are responsible for ensuring that they treat individuals equally and fairly and do not discriminate on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. The Hospice expects all staff to behave in a way that recognises and respects diversity in line with the appropriate standards.

Health and Safety

• All employees have a responsibility under the terms of the Health and Safety at Work Act1974 to protect and promote their own health and that of others in the workplace
• All employees must comply with all Hospice Health and Safety Procedures

Infection Control

The prevention and control of infection is the responsibility of everyone who is employed by the Hospice. Employees must be aware of infection control policies, procedures and the importance of protecting themselves and their clients in maintaining a clean and healthy environment.

Information Governance

• All employees are responsible for ensuring they undertake any training relating to information governance, read the Hospices policies, procedures and guidance documents relating to information governance, and understanding how this affects them in their role.

Professional Development

• All employees must participate in an annual appraisal and develop a personal development plan with their Line Manager
• All employees are responsible for maintaining their statutory and mandatory training.

Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults

• The Hospice is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All employees and volunteers are expected to behave in such a way that supports this commitment

Pandemic or major incident

In the event of a pandemic or major incident, the post holder may be asked to undertake other duties not necessarily commensurate to the banding of this role. This could include duties in any part of the Hospice. Prior to undertaking any duties, the member of staff will have full training and induction. We will not ask any member of staff to undertake duties for which they are not competent or where they feel unsafe in their environment or could put patients or themselves at risk.

The job description is not exhaustive and may be amended following appropriate consultation in the light of business needs

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Recent experience in a health care sector in community, care home or acute setting.
• Demonstrable experience in palliative and end of life care or related speciality.

Qualifications

Essential

• Good standard of education
• NVQ level 3 in Health and Social care or equivalent experience or working towards.

Personal Skills and Attributes

Essential

• Good communication skills both verbal and written including the ability to maintain accurate and legible care records. Interpret and follow basic written instructions and communicate in a concise, accurate and legible way.
• Ability to recognise, report and communicate concerns and changes in a timely manner
• Ability to use ones own initiative and prioritise workload
• Willingness to learn new skills and undertake training
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of a team
• Car owner/driver with full current UK driving licence
• Basic IT skills.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Birmingham Hospice

Address

76 Grange Road

Erdington

Birmingham

B24 0DF

Employer's website

https://www.birminghamhospice.org.uk (Opens in a new tab)