Senior Health Care Support Worker

Job Title: Senior Health Care Support Worker

Job Summary:

We are seeking a highly skilled and compassionate Senior Health Care Support Worker to join our team at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. As a Senior Health Care Support Worker, you will play a vital role in providing high-quality care to our patients, working closely with our multidisciplinary team to deliver safe, effective, and compassionate care.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide personal care and clinical duties to patients under the guidance of a registered healthcare professional.
• Work independently to perform a range of clinical tasks, following training and meeting competency within the role.
• Assist patients with personal hygiene, toileting, and use of continence aids.
• Support moving and handling, use of mobility aids, correct patient positioning, assess pressure areas, and skin integrity.
• Develop positive relationships with patients, families, and carers.
• Be aware of patients' needs - emotional, social, physical, and cultural - and respect their privacy, dignity, and beliefs.
• Work as part of the team in a co-operative, professional, and constructive manner.
• Participate in health promotion activities, such as reducing obesity and smoking cessation.
• Maintain confidentiality at all times and report any information regarding patients' well-being to the registered healthcare professional in a timely manner.
• Support individuals who are distressed and manage and organize time and activities to support and meet the needs of individuals.
• Empower patients and their families to make their own decisions about health and choices.
• Assist with dietary needs of patients as required.
• Undertake safe venepuncture and cannulation as requested by the registered healthcare professional and have competencies checked annually by a registered healthcare professional.
• Perform and record physiological measurements within the remit of the SHCA role and report accurately to the registered healthcare professional, the assessment undertaken, on patients.
• Obtain samples at the request of a registered healthcare professional, including wound swabs, eye swabs, urine specimens, MRSA swabs, stool samples, and sputum specimens.
• Assist in blood collection.
• Assist the registered healthcare professional in maintaining a clean environment.
• Undertake clinical activities such as ECG recording, urinalysis, changing of simple wound dressings, and capillary blood glucose monitoring, following the completion of appropriate training and assessment and under the direction of a registered healthcare professional.
• Female insertion of catheters, catheter care, removal of catheters, stoma care, measuring and monitoring patient outputs.
• Provide and receive sensitive information concerning a patient's medical condition.
• Work with the registered healthcare professional and engage with other agencies and community teams to ensure a safe, individualized approach to the admission and discharge of patients.
• Act in accordance with all organizational policies and procedures and within expected values and behaviors.
• Actively participate in and attend ward/unit meetings.
• Demonstrate good understanding of principles of consent and ensure valid consent is obtained prior to undertaking nursing and care procedures.
• Demonstrate good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act/Deprivation of Liberties and apply principles to everyday practice, seeking advice/guidance from the registered healthcare professional as required.
• Promote health and safety, maintaining best practice in health, safety, and security.
• Share ideas with colleagues to improve care and suggest areas for innovation.
• Participate in audit activities being undertaken in the area of practice.
• Contribute to the improvement of service by reflecting on own practice and supporting that of others.
• Adhere to legislation, policies, procedures, and guidelines, both local and national.
• Regularly attend workplace and staff engagement meetings and contribute positively to discussions about the improvement of care.

Training and Development:

The role of the Senior Health Care Support Worker can play a significant part in the life-course approaches towards health and well-being and the ways in which they actively contribute to the delivery of holistic care. Holistic care, across the life-course, is a whole-person approach that considers and equally values physical, psychological, and public health needs, learning disabilities, social, economic, spiritual, and other factors in the delivery of care.

• Undertake procedures as directed by a registered healthcare professional after successfully completing an Accredited NVQ 3 (or equivalent) programme or Senior Health Care Support Worker Apprenticeship.
• Undertake mandatory training updates.
• Maintain own level of competence and ongoing CPD.
• Undertake role-specific training for onward development of the role.

Communications and Key Working Relationships:

• Maintain accurate and timely records.
• Ensure smooth running of the team through facilitation of administrative support, including stock levels.
• Effective verbal communication with all members of the multidisciplinary team.
• Provide general non-clinical advice, information, and guidance to patients, relatives, and visitors.
• Communicate effectively with dignity and respect to all patients, relatives, and others, giving consideration to potential barriers to understanding.
• Communicate effectively with colleagues, providing clear verbal, digital, or written information and instructions when sharing information, delegating, or handing over responsibility for care.
• Recognize and report any situations, behaviors, or errors that could result in poor care outcomes.
• Report accidents, incidents, near misses, or complaints following Trust policies/procedures.
• Contribute to a culture where all staff feel safe to raise their concerns and that speaking up about what these are is a normal part of their routine.
• Assist in information collection from patients/relatives as requested by trained staff.
• Use communication tools (verbal and non-verbal) to gain informed consent with patients where there will often be barriers to effective communication, e.g., loss of hearing, altered perception, expressive and receptive dysphasia, pain, fear, etc.
• Assess capacity, gain valid consent, and have the ability to work within a legal framework with patients who lack consent to treatment.
• Prioritize tasks allocated and adjust as necessary.
• Ensure that documentation is completed in accordance with Trust and departmental requirements.
• Be responsible for some degree of housekeeping and stock control on the Unit.

Responsibility for Finance:

• Participate in ensuring effective use of all financial resources in providing and delivering an effective service.
• Exercise personal duty of care in the safe use and storage of equipment.
• Be environmentally aware and prudent in use of resources and energy.

Responsibility for Human Resources:

• Adhere to Trust policies/procedures and guidelines.
• Ensure a neat and professional appearance at all times, adhering to Trust Uniform Policy.
• Demonstrate own duties to new or less experienced staff.
• Support development of less experienced staff and students.

Responsibility for Health & Safety:

• Work according to the WWL NHS Trust Lone Worker Policy.
• Report faulty equipment to the Team leader/Ward manager/Registered Health Care Professional.
• Report to the Team Leader/Ward manager, Registered Health Care Professional any health and safety concerns.
• Report to the Team Leader/Ward manager, Registered Health Care Professional any complaints or untoward events as soon as possible.
• Compliance with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 - the post holder is required to fulfill a proactive role towards the management of risk in all of their actions. This entails the risk assessment of all situations, the taking of appropriate actions, and reporting of all incidents, near misses, and hazards, and a statutory duty of care for their own personal safety and that of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions.
• All staff have a duty of care to safeguard and protect vulnerable adults, babies, children, and young people.
• Awareness of the Trust Vulnerable Adults and Child Protection Policy/Guideline.

Physical Skills Requirement:

• Use frequent moderate effort when undertaking carrying out the manual handling of individuals and equipment in line with organizational guidelines.
• Use skills of manual dexterity and manipulation of clinical instruments and equipment.
• Use a combination of standing, walking, bending, and stretching throughout the shift.

Person Specification:

Qualifications:

Essential Criteria:

• Effective level of numeracy and literacy skills.
• NVQ Level 2 in Health and Social Care.

Experience:

Essential Criteria:

• Proven ability to demonstrate compassion/empathy/help others.
• Demonstrable ability to follow instructions.
• Proven ability to be flexible in your approach.

Knowledge:

Essential Criteria:

• Effective understanding of confidentiality.

Skills:

Essential Criteria:

• Effective communication skills - written and verbal.
• Proven ability to remain calm under pressure.
• Effective team player.
• Effective customer service skills.
• Ability to deal with people from all backgrounds.

Additional:

Essential Criteria:

• Speak English to an appropriate standard relevant to their role, i.e., with confidence and accuracy, using correct sentence structures and vocabulary, and without hesitation.

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