Working as a healthcare assistant

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 …