Virtual Ward Healthcare Assistant Norwich, England
Job description
Exciting opportunity - Come join us.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to join the expanding Homeward Virtual Ward team. We are looking for Healthcare Assistants who enjoy the diversity and variety of caring for patients in crises within their own home, as well as supporting people to have the best possible quality end of life care over a 24 hour period.
This role involves providing elements of personal care, meal preparation and medication administration and support, wound care, catheter care, prompting prescribed exercises, providing prescribed equipment and completing night-sits. Good communication and collaboration as part of the Homeward nursing and therapy team is essential. You will have regular supervision and professional development opportunities.
Homeward is a short term service, we make people safe and refer them on to other appropriate services as needed. Our focus is primarily admission avoidance to secondary care, keeping people safe in their own homes, including people at the end of their life, and also supporting discharges from secondary care or in-patient units.
Norwich Place, are recruiting Band 3 Healthcare Assistants to the Homeward. Working alongside our existing HCAs, our nurses and therapists, you will assist in ensuring the continued successful delivery of this service.
Apply now to join an organisation that has been awarded an ‘Outstanding’ rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the highest possible rating and the first stand-alone NHS community trust in the country to be awarded the title.
Main Duties & Responsibilities
Clinical
The post holder will need:
1. To work generically in provision of care, to patients under the supervision of a qualified practitioner, following a prescribed treatment/care plan in order to prevent admission to hospital.
2. Plan and prioritise own visits to delegated patients, and ensure these are documented in personal work diary
3. Ensure patient held records are completed for each visit, and that SystmOne inputting is completed on a daily basis.
4. Make basic judgements on patients’ response to prescribed treatment/care plans, and report findings to a qualified practitioner.
5. Liaise with other health care professionals as required.
6. Communicate with patients/carers by exchanging factual information, reassurance, tact and empathy.
7. Establish and maintain appropriate working relationships with colleagues, patients, carers and other health care professionals.
8. Demonstrate dexterity and coordination when undertaking treatment of patients where accuracy is important, e.g. taking blood sugars, venepuncture, supervising transfers, and passive exercises.
9. Be responsible for ensuring equipment is used safely, following relevant training, and that it is maintained appropriately.
10. Demonstrate an awareness and understanding of consent, and gain consent as appropriate following organisational policies.
11. Share responsibility of indirect patient contact tasks, such as, answering telephones, arranging appointments, processing referrals and inputting activity data.
12. Undertake health promotion / education as required, e.g. smoking cessation, falls etc.
13. Will be exposed to bodily fluids, infected material, blood products on a daily basis, therefore must utilise universal precautions and adhere to infection control policies.
Professional
The post holder will:
1. Attend and contribute to multi-disciplinary team meetings and other meetings where appropriate.
2. Attend in-house and competency training as required in development of current job role.
3. Work predominately independently on specified tasks, with regular clinical support and supervision by a qualified practitioner.
4. Be aware of limitations of own scope of practice and competency, and when to involve a more senior practitioner, both in daily practice and in emergency situations.
5. Acknowledge and recognise peoples’ expressed beliefs, preferences and choices.
6. Demonstrate an awareness of clinical governance and risk management, and apply to work situation.
7. To provide peer support to other assistants.
8. Actively contribute to team working and express ideas on improving services for users and the team.
9. Share responsibility for maintaining store cupboards, cleaning specialist equipment and general housekeeping tasks.
Organisational
The post holder will:
1. Undertake mandatory training as required.
2. Partake in the Personal Development Review process.
3. Follow Trust policies, and local procedures.
4. Be aware of Trust’s Behaviour Framework and ensure behaviours are embedded in role.
5. Ensure absence reporting is undertaken as determined by Team Leader and Trust policy.
6. Contribute to clinical audit as required.
7. Complete the staff survey as required.
8. Complete risk assessments and incident forms as required.
9. Take part in clinical supervision as per Trust policy.
