Healthcare Assistant

Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast-paced work environment? Do you want to escape your current job role and work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? Now is the time to break into offender healthcare and develop your career.

As part of the South West Prison Healthcare contract awarded to Oxleas NHS trust in 2022, we are able to expand recruitment and are looking for several compassionate, knowledgeable and motivated HCA's to join our friendly team at HMP Bristol.

Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients' future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.

As part of our primary care team, you will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (including pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward-thinking service, who encourage career and personal development to all staff to increase their clinical and interpersonal skills.

Important Sponsorship Information for this post: Due to service budget restrictions we are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.

Main duties of the job

As a Healthcare Assistant you will assist in the delivery of high-quality nursing care to patients in HMP Bristol with the support of a registered nurse.

You will be providing physical care to patients according to a written care plan. This will include actively engaging with patients in the provision of holistic, needs-led care which will take into account physical, psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of the individual. You will be promoting health and well-being through the delivery of health promotion activities and programmes, responding to patients' needs and assisting patients to attain optimal physical health.

Job responsibilities

• Responding to the needs of patients in an honest, non-judgmental and open manner, which respects the rights of individuals and groups.
• Actively engaging with patients in the provision of holistic, needs-led care which takes into account the physical, psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of individuals and groups.
• Demonstrates a commitment to equal opportunities for all people.
• Demonstrates a knowledge of the term professional boundaries and how to apply this to working with patients, offenders, and others.
• Responding to the needs of people sensitively with regard for age, culture, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and disability, especially regarding patient privacy and dignity.
• Understanding the need for promoting health & well-being and the delivery of health promotion activities and programmes (including patient self-help programmes) in support of a registered nurse.
• Understanding the need for and assisting patients to attain optimal physical health and assisting with physical procedures in support of a registered nurse.
• Demonstrating good verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
• Contributing appropriately to risk assessment and individualised care planning.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:

All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.

Person Specification

Education/Qualifications

• NVQ level 3 or equivalent experience

Experience

• Experience within a hospital setting
• Experience of taking blood pressures, ECGs, and other observations
• Knowledge of wound care

Skills /Abilities /Knowledge

• Ability to assess risk and care plan effectively, whilst understanding the needs and rights of people.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.