Working as a healthcare assistant
Working as a healthcare assistant while at
medical school could make you a better doctor, as well as helping
to pay off your student debt. Robert Annan explains
why
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Hey, lad, didn’t I just see you with a
stethoscope and white coat the other day?
Have
you ever thought about working as a healthcare assistant or an
auxiliary nurse? The titles really mean the same thing. Five years
ago I decided to work as a healthcare assistant and have spent the
greater part of my holidays in several hospitals and homes in and
out of London over the summer, Christmas, and Easter months. Not
only did I find it financially rewarding, but I also learnt a lot
from the many patients I looked after, which I believe has
considerably developed my interpersonal skills and my understanding
of disease from the patients’ perspective.
Learning the ropes
So what does the job involve? Your boss is the
senior staff nurse or the sister on duty, who will tell you what
they want you to do.
You are on hand to help the staff nurses in
whatever they do on the wards. You might assist in the bathing and
washing of patients and making beds in the mornings. Patients who
need to be fed are helped, and those who have been lying in bed for
a while need to be sat up, so manual handling techniques come into
play. The job also generally involves keeping patients happy, for
instance, making cups of tea and biscuits. Other technical things
you might have to do on the wards involve putting the skills you
have learnt in medical school or at the agency to the test, such as
taking blood pressure measurements, checking blood glucose,
emptying catheter bags, and recording measurements of temperature
and pulse accurately. At the weekends you may need to give the
commodes (mobile toilets) and hoists a good clean. The frequency at
which you perform these different activities really depends on the
type of ward. On an orthopaedic ward, for example, you are more
likely to check patients’ circulation, take temperatures and
blood pressure measurements—for instance, after an
operation—more regularly than when you work on a medical
ward. On a geriatric ward, you may find that manual handling
techniques come in quite handy as many patients here need help with
mobility. You may also need to give bedpans or commodes to patients
who are immobile. Indeed, these activities are particularly
satisfying and very varied as they help to make you feel that you
are contributing to the real care of patients in a team. Sometimes
you may also need to “special” a patient. This is
usually done with patients who are confused as a result of a
urinary tract infection, for example, and who need special one to
one care.
Disadvantages
The advantages certainly outweigh the
disadvantages. You will have to wake up early to travel to work for
the early shift, however, so it is ideal if there is good transport
from your home to the hospital, particularly at weekends. If you
are not used to being on the wards, there is an initial shock, but
this is easily overcome if you really want to help patients. You
may have to get used to the hospital smells and bathing patients,
especially when they are incontinent. Advantages of working in the
hospital include wiping off or reducing your bank overdraft and
being able to buy a few luxuries to enjoy life at medical school.
What qualifications do I need?
Unpaid work experience, which was how I
started working in hospitals, enables you to see at first sight
what the nurses do on the wards, and you can apply to hospitals to
do this. Being a medical student certainly helps, but going for a
two to three week course with a nursing agency at the beginning of
the summer period will equip you with the necessary skills you need
on the wards to perform your duties confidently. The agency will
eventually place you in a hospital that they have contracts with.
The benefits of working with an agency will eventually pay off
because not only will your curriculum vitae grow longer, but you
will also be in a suitable position to apply to the hospital to get
onto their temporary nursing staff lists, typically known as the
staff bank. These jobs usually pay better than the agency rates, as
there are no intermediaries. As you work and impress your staff
nurses you may be fast tracked onto joining the temporary nursing
staff on the staff bank. The advantage of these jobs is that you
can choose when you want to work, which is a huge bonus compared to
a nine to five job, where you are obliged to work from Monday to
Friday during the summer.
What are the hours?
It varies slightly depending on the hospital.
You could work early, late, or night shifts. Typically, an early
shift starts at about 7 30 am and ends at about 3 30 pm, giving you
the rest of the day off to make up for the early start. Late shifts
start at 1 30 pm and finish at 9 30 pm, and night shifts tend to
start at 9 00 pm and finish at 8 am. The overlap in shift rotas
ensures that there are nurses on the wards at all times and means
that nurses on one shift can hand over to the new batch of staff at
the end of a shift.
When should I apply?
The best time to apply is not when the third
term or second semester is over, but about two months before your
intended time of work, usually about April or May. This gives you
time to prepare your curriculum vitae, send out letters, and wait
for interviews. Excellent planning is essential, especially if you
want to work and then go on holiday. It is best to beat the usual
rush for jobs during the summer, so planning ahead is beneficial.
Once you have built up a contact you might find yourself working on
the same ward as the one you worked on during the previous summer
and Christmas, and might even see the same patients you saw before.
What is the pay like?
A burning question that all medical students
would like to know. Basically, pay rates vary, depending on the
hospital you work in, with additional increases in pay if you are
working weekend or night shifts, and London weighting if you are
working in London. On average, you could earn about £6 ($11; $9) to £7 an hour
on weekdays, rising to more than £12.50 an hour at weekends
and on nights and bank holidays, where hourly pay may be doubled.
When should I work?
You could decide to work during the summer
months or during the Easter and Christmas periods or even through
term time, depending on the flexibility of the hospital and your
timetable. It may also depend on your flexibility, particularly if
you want to go on holiday after working for two months during the
summer.
What do you learn?
You not only learn how to be part of a team,
working alongside nursing students, staff nurses, physiotherapists,
cleaners, and ward clerks, but you also get to speak and talk to
patients and see their health problems from their own point of
view. Nurses particularly appreciate it when they find out that a
medical student is working as a healthcare assistant. The job
enables you to appreciate everybody’s role in the hospital
and lets you see how the hospital is run from a ward’s
perspective. I personally found that working as a healthcare
assistant not only made me more empathic in my approach towards
patients but also improved my communication skills and helped me
better understand other professions within the health service.
Robert Annan, fourth
year medical student, Edinburgh
University
Email: R.N.T.Annan@sms.ed.ac.uk
studentBMJ 2006;14:1-44 January ISSN 0966-6494
