Healthcare Support Workers
Our Healthcare Support Workers (HCSW) play a vital role within our hospitals delivering excellent care to our patients.
As a Healthcare Support Worker you will be an essential part of the nursing team providing care and support to our patients and their families.
You will need to be the kind of person who puts their patients first, providing the best care for every patient, every day.
You will provide hands on personal care for your patients whilst encouraging them to be as independent as possible.
Daily duties may include:
- Assisting with patient hygiene, including bathing, elimination needs and dressing
- Assisting with feeding, including food choices and assisting those who require support with eating
- Making patients feel comfortable, including physically and providing emotion support
- Measuring temperature, pulse rate, height, weight, etc. and recording as necessary
- Supporting relatives and visitors
- Providing end of life care
- Maintaining tidiness and cleanliness of the ward area
Whilst you are not required to have any experience in the role of a Healthcare Support Worker, we do ask that you have a genuine interest in working in a healthcare setting and that you have a good understanding of what the role involves.
Please visit the health careers website for information about the role.
Shift patterns and hours
Please note that the shift patterns for our medical and surgical HCSWs are as follows (Outpatients and Clinic based roles will differ):
Positions cover a 24-hour, 7 day a week shift pattern (rotational shifts, with enhanced pay for weekends and nights).
Posts involve working 3 long days/nights per week with 1 week in 4 working a 4-day week.
Shifts are 12.5 hours long (this includes an hour allocated for breaks). Shifts start at 7:15am - 7:45pm or 7:15pm - 7:45am. Shifts will cover 7 days per week, days, nights, and Bank
Holidays and are allocated on a rota basis.
We offer ongoing learning and development opportunities to our HCSWs to develop long term careers with the NHS. Our Nurse Education Team will help to support our HCSWs within their roles and map career pathways to support the transition into nursing associate, registered nurse and midwifery roles.
Care Certificate
The nationally identified set of 15 standards gives everyone the confidence that staff have the same introductory skills, knowledge and behaviours to provide compassionate, safe and high-quality care and support to patients. The care certificate can be seen as the first step in a career pathway in healthcare. All health care support workers must complete this certificate.
The care certificate programme is incorporated into corporate induction and local department orientation to help healthcare workers integrate into the trust and complete the care certificate standards. The programme also includes topics which are not included in the care certificate but aim to help develop the skills and knowledge of our staff.
Upon completing the care certificate, there will be an opportunity to embark on apprenticeship pathways, such as the nursing associates and registered nursing degree apprenticeship. These apprenticeships are undertaken in collaboration with education partners. The concept is geared towards work-based learning with nursing placement embedded within the curriculum.