Strapped for cash
Four students describe how they put their skills to use to earn
money
Making patients feel at ease: the healthcare assistant
Greg Barnes finds that communication is a crucial part of
the job
I worked as a healthcare assistant on the surgical wards at the
Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and Colchester General Hospital during
three summer breaks before I started my clinical course. The common
perception of a healthcare assistant as 'bed maker' and 'bottom
wiper' is false. Such activities form only part of your work. After
a training period of about three days you are equipped to work in
most areas of the hospital. There are a number of job skills you
may be familiar with, depending on your stage of training. These
include basic clinical skills such as taking pulses, temperatures
and blood pressures.
(PRIVATE
COLLECTION)
Typically, morning shifts start at 7 am. On arrival at the ward
you receive "handover" from the night staff. During handover each
healthcare assistant on the ward is allocated a group of patients
to care for during the shift ahead and briefed about their individual
medical problems and special requirements with regard to diet, toileting,
and general nursing care.
The first task of the day is to push around the breakfast trolley.
This gives you a good opportunity to meet the patients, while ensuring
that they receive breakfast if they are able to, and wish to, eat.
After breakfast it is your responsibility to help any patients who
have difficulty washing to have a shower or give them a bed bath.
Their beds must then be changed.
When settled, specific "observations" are taken from each patient.
These include blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and catheter volume
readings. The healthcare assistant must read and record these accurately,
know the safe limits, and inform the nurses when these are exceeded.
Fluid, food, and stool charts should be updated when necessary.
The healthcare assistant is on hand to help patients walk around
safely - around the ward or to different hospital departments -
and to help at meal times.
In addition to these standard tasks, and with a little more ward
experience, the healthcare assistant fulfils many other functions
on the ward. On all wards there is a continuous flux of patients,
each with different care requirements. Patients arrive and others
leave on a daily basis.
The healthcare assistant is, in part, responsible for both admitting
patients and dealing with their departures. On surgical wards there
are always patients to be prepared for theatre and received after
their operation. These patients require close attention, and observations
of such patients should be done more often. All these factors make
for extremely varied working days.
Healthcare assistants used to be termed "auxiliary nurses" - in
other words, nurses who were on hand to fulfil the many roles for
which trained staff increasingly had insufficient time. A large
part of the job is simply chatting to patients while you are caring
for them and thus eliciting their fears and concerns. This is a
crucial part of every shift because it helps patients feel more
at ease in hospital and less intimidated by their unfamiliar surroundings.
Gregory Barnes, third year medical student Guy's,, King's, and St Thomas's Medical School, London
studentBMJ 2000;08:131-174 May ISSN 0966-6494
