Health Care Assistant

Job overview

The Adult Bladder and Bowel health care assistant (HCA) will work as a member of the Adult Bladder and Bowel Specialist Service to provide a high quality and effective service to patients referred into the service for the management of bladder and bowel issues.

The post holder will be proficient, knowledgeable and competent. They will continue to develop in their role through the acquisition of further skills, knowledge and competencies, to be determined by the needs of the patients, the service and the team.

Main duties of the job

• Re-assess patients in receipt of products from the Trust as delegated by nurses. Provide support for patients and carers. Be competent in undertaking urinalysis, and obtaining urine specimens. Assist/advise in the completion of bladder charts (frequency and volume diaries) Record personally generated patient interactions and interventions and update them as agreed and instructed. Recommend products as agreed To deal as appropriate with unpleasant conditions such as exposure to body fluids.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To undertake through each patient’s individual care plan, those duties delegated by the Team Leader and Case Manager, which the Health Care Assistant has been trained and is competent and confident to perform. These tasks include: -

• Ø    Re-assess patients in receipt of products from the Trust as delegated by    Continence Nurses. Ø    Provide support for patients and carers. Ø    Be competent in undertaking urinalysis, and obtaining urine specimens. Ø    Assist/advise in the completion of bladder charts (frequency and volume diaries) Ø    Communicates very sensitive condition related information to patients and relatives with empathy and reassurance. Ø    Record personally generated patient interactions and interventions and update them as agreed and instructed. Ø    Recommend products as agreed, Ø    To deal as appropriate with unpleasant conditions such as exposure to body fluids. Ø    Undertake drainage of residual urine (female patients), ( once competency is achieved) Ø    Provide emotional care for patients within your specialist sphere of work. Ø    In the course of your clinical work provide appropriate help to patients who require physical assistance. Ø    Organises own workload in conjunction with team and Trust requirements. Ø    Use a computer tablet remotely for all patient records. Ø    Record data and evidence of activity as requested via Systm One Ø    Provide teaching informally on a one to one basis ie to patients/carers Ø    Interpret the combined results from urinalysis, portable bladder ultrasound and bladder charts (frequency and volume diaries), seeking advice from colleagues as appropriate.

Full training and competencies will be provided to ensure that the post holder has the appropriate skills to undertake these duties.

To ensure that staff contribute to the information required to support the Care Quality Commission inspection visits, and that staff are aware of the standards and are able to provide accurate information to inspectors.

Develop and maintain good working relationships with patients, carers, social care and other health care professionals to support multidisciplinary working.

Maintain effective communication with the multidisciplinary team.

Empower/enable patients and carers to maximise potential for self-care.