Health Care Assistant - Healthy Weight Programme

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

About

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is a community focused provider of local and acute care, providing high quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley. With a turnover of around £700 million, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham and a range of community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

The Trust has 7,500 staff and we have recently invested in our workforce to grow our establishment across a number of key services. In 2020 we won a London NHS Parliamentary Award in recognition of a wide range of initiatives to make the organisation a great place to work. We are accredited as a flexible working employer offering a number of flexible working options for staff. We are also accredited as a London Living Wage employer for our substantive, bank and contractors.

Our hospitals provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. Over the last year, our emergency performance has been among the strongest in London, despite our emergency departments being among the busiest in the capital.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich regularly achieves the fastest ambulance turnaround times in London. The critical care unit at the hospital is one of the few in the country to meet the gold standard for consultant and junior doctor staffing.

University Hospital Lewisham has the largest stroke rehabilitation centre in the country, and the third largest specialist centre in the UK for treating blood conditions such as sickle cell. The hospital is one of the few in the country to offer opt-out HIV testing in the emergency department, ensuring that any patient who has a blood test is routinely screened for HIV.

The Trust’s community services for children and adults in Lewisham are rated “Outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission.

The Trust is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Key details

Location

Site: Waldron Health Centre

Address: Amersham Vale

Town: London

Postcode: SE14 6LD

Major / Minor Region: London

Contract type & working pattern

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (Term time ONLY)

• Full time
• Term time hours

Salary

Salary: £24,071 - £25,674 per annum pro rata plus HCAS (Term Time Only)

Salary period: Yearly

Grade: (Band 3)

Specialty

Main area: School Nursing

Job overview

The Senior HCA /Senior Healthcare Support Worker (HCSW) is part of the multidisciplinary team delivering care to patients. Support and supervision is provided by a Registered Professional.

The Senior HCA / Senior Healthcare Support Worker carries out a range of patient care tasks and duties to enable the team to provide an effective and efficient service within Acute hospital settings.

To achieve this, the Senior HCA/ Senior Healthcare Support Worker will:

1. Competently perform the necessary aspects of care for patients.
2. Ensure effective delivery of clinical care is provided to patients and that an acceptable standard is maintained.
3. Follow Trust policies and provide a safe and person-centred environment for the treatment of patients.
4. Participate in personal and practice development activities to maintain standards of care.

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• Demonstrates care and compassion to patients, carers and relatives to help ensure high-quality person-centred patient care is delivered at all times.
• To carry out a range of assigned patient care tasks as directed by a Registered Professional to ensure delivery of a high quality of patient care.
• To report observed changes in the patients’ physical/psychological needs to the Registered Professional.
• Performs a range of tests and report results to Registered Professional, e.g. urinalysis, blood pressure, pregnancy testing, patient observations and similar activities.
• Performs a range of patient care tasks e.g. wound observation and dressings, removal of peripheral cannula, stoma bag changing and reports any issues to the Registered Professional.
• To deal with questions and enquiries from patients, carers and relatives e.g. on the clients’ condition or for any suggestions or complaints that they wish to raise. Where appropriate, refer these to a Registered Professional.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development.
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability.
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability.
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development.
5. Making equalities mainstream.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To view full details of job description and main responsibilities, please click on the link – here

Key Result Areas & Performance:

• Assists with the safe transfer of all patients.
• Communicates/liaises with members of the multi-disciplinary team to ensure high standards of patient care.
• Demonstrates care and compassion to patients, carers and relatives to help ensure high quality person centred patient care is delivered at all times.
• Assist patients with activities of daily living. This will typically include all basic care including the feeding, bathing and repositioning of the patient under the supervision of a trained Professional.
• Provide support to the registered professional and, where appropriate, other members of the Clinical Team as required.
• To co-operate with and maintain good relationships with team colleagues and staff in other disciplines that are attending and treating clients to maximise patient care.
• Maintain good relationships and an empathic approach to the patient’s family, relatives and carers and refer them to a trained professional for any questions they may have on the client’s condition or for any suggestions or complaints that they wish to raise.
• Report observed changes in the patient’s physical and psychological needs.

Policies, procedures and standards:

• To maintain patient confidentiality at all times and follow information governance policies and procedures.
• To participate in maintaining accurate and up-to-date records, e.g. fluid intake charts to ensure effective communication.
• To follow Trust policies and procedures to ensure maintenance of safe working practices for patients and colleagues.
• To follow ward and unit procedures for the use of supplies and equipment in order to promote the effective and efficient use of resources.

Equipment and resources:

• Adhere to department procedures for the use of supplies and equipment in order to promote the effective and efficient use of resources.
• Share responsibility for key aspects of housekeeping and stock control demonstrating a good awareness of cost efficiency and safety.
• Undertakes routine and regular checks on patient trolleys and bed spaces ensuring all relevant equipment is clean, in good working order and intact and reports faults to Registered Professional.

Personal development and learning:

• To participate in personal career development plan to maintain skills and develop personal growth through training and education.

Equipment, Systems and Machinery:

• The post holder is expected to demonstrate and act on the responsibilities placed upon them under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, to ensure that the agreed safety procedures are carried out to maintain a safe working environment for patients, visitors and employees.
• The healthcare support worker will use a range of equipment and resources in their role and some of these are listed below:
• Patient trolleys, beds, moving & handling equipment, patient positioning pressure relieving aids, glucometer, blood gas machine, blood bank fridge, drip stands, peak flow, PC/printer, phone.

The post holder is responsible for inputting information into patient written records where applicable, e.g., complying with the Data Protection Act, Caldicott Guidelines and local policies regarding confidentiality and access to medical records.

Under supervision by a Registered Professional, the post holder will assist with maintaining accurate patient care documentation. A number of systems are regularly used, including Icare, Rio, Safeguard, etc.

Decisions and Judgement

The post holder is responsible to the Registered Professional or deputy for clinical guidance and professional management, work review and formal appraisal of performance.

Workload will be determined by the Registered Professional /Deputy.

Exercise the ability to plan and deliver allocated workload.

Demonstrates the ability to acknowledge changes in the patient’s physical/psychological needs and report them to the Registered Professional in charge of the patient.

Decide when to refer enquiries from the patient, carers and relatives to the Registered Professional.

The Senior HCA / Senior Healthcare Support Worker is responsible for accepting delegated tasks from the Registered Professional and is accountable for undertaking them. The Senior HCA / Senior Healthcare Support Worker should highlight any concerns about undertaking the task.

Sometimes works without direct supervision using own initiative within the parameters set in policies and SOPs with guidance from the Registered Professional available at all times.

Communication and Relationships

The post holder communicates and liaises with the patient, their relatives/carers and the multidisciplinary team and maintains good relationships.

Communicates with other relevant professionals, for example Registered Professional / Registered Professional / members of the multi-disciplinary team– for information regarding patients’ clinical condition/clinical problems/workload issues.

Communicates with the Registered Professional for advice regarding educational and training issues relevant to patient management and personal development.

Communicates with other departments – for example, Estates, Supplies Department.

There is a requirement to take account of communication barriers, for example, when English is not the person’s first language, people with hearing difficulties, learning disabilities etc. and communicate effectively to deliver person centred care at all times.

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

Applicant requirements

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Vocational qualification at level III qualification or equivalent relevant experience (gained by on the job learning) and short courses.
• Care Certificate attainment.
• Effective written and verbal communication, literacy, numeracy, and IT skills to a minimum of Level 1 Maths and English.
• Basic IT Skills.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of dealing with the general public.
• Experience of working in a health or social care environment.

Documents

• JD (, 340.1)PDFKB
• Working at LGT (, 4.2)PDFMB

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: Wilma Munzara

Job title: Community Matron/Head of School Health Service

Email address: wilma.munzara@nhs.net

Telephone number: 07500882809

Additional information: School Health Team-manager for Universal Screening

Ja queline Nelson

Contact telephone: 07500882809

Email Address: jaqueline.nelson@nhs.net