Healthcare Assistant

Job summary

Are you looking for an exciting and interesting role, working with a multi-disciplinary team who are committed to delivering high quality and safe patient care? If you are motivated, dedicated, passionate and looking for a new challenge to enhance your personal and professional development, then we would love to hear from you!

We are a 19 bedded, Respiratory ward, Specialising in Bipap, CPAP, Chest Drains and all other respiratory related illnesses. Our patients, are often medically very sick and require the care of professionals who are dedicated and understanding of their complex needs. This is an ideal opportunity for someone who has a passion for providing high quality patient care.

Working alongside a unique multi disciplinary team. We also provide support to enable the patients to leave the hospital environment.

We have a strong team, with great opportunities to develop and gain excellent experience in delivering compassionate and safe care to this complex and vulnerable group of patients.

Main duties of the job

• Work under the supervision of a registered nurse in implementing plans of care to ensure that patient's physical, social and psychological needs are met
• Ensure privacy and dignity of patients is maintained at all times
• Contribute to We Care initiative
• Minimise risk of harm to patients, staff and visitors by working according to risk management policies
• Participate in the orientation of new staff to their duties and the ward routine
• Assist in measurement of care by contributing to data collection for quality metrics
• Work to eliminate avoidable infection by working according to infection control policies
• Demonstrate consistent high standard of hand hygiene practice and promote standards to staff, visitors and patients
• Promote patent independence and recovery to enable reduction in unnecessary length of hospital stay
• To undertake clinical skills, ensuring procedures are explained to patients in order to gain informed consent and involvement in care decisions, including:
• Assist with admission and discharge procedures including the correct handling of patient's property
• Undertake and accurately record vital signs eg. Temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure
• Assist with collection, labelling and dispatching of specimens
• Accurately test urine and record results
• Accurately weigh, measure height and record body mass index of patients
• Assist with meals and beverages and help patients in eating and drinking

About us

We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 695,000 people.

Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference'.

We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.

NHSEI have always been clear that staff have a professional duty to get vaccinated and it remains our best line of defence against COVID-19. As such NHS organisation including Primary Care, are encouraged to continue engaging with and supporting their staff to inform their decisions in order to drive vaccine confidence, protect themselves, patients, and everyone else. NHSEI has producedCOVID-19 vaccine communication materials.

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.