Who cares ? I do (Care Assistant)

Member Name: January

Product:	Care Assistant
Date:	14/01/08 (314 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: rewarding and happy environment to work in

Disadvantages: challenging at times

I am employed as a care assistant, in a residential rest home. This entails, working on a rota system with other team members. The hours and shifts vary on a pattern of :-
7am - 12
7.30 am - 2pm
7.30am - 3pm
3pm -9pm
On each shift there is a shift leader, who supervises the staff and informs us of any changes and events from the previous working shift. The shift leader is there for any questions or problems that may arise in the working hours.
On entering the building, we have to gather together for a hand over meeting, this is when we are informed by the shift leader, of any events, i.e if a resident is ill, has fallen, needs a change of diet, is having visitors, or if the doctor or nurse is coming and anything else which is important for us to know, before we start work.

We are responsible for the care of the residents, by way of personal hygiene, feeding the residents who are unable to feed themselves, assisting them to get up and dress themselves and assisting to put them to bed. Assist them to go to the bathroom and change them when necessary. Assist with baths and washing hair.
We also have to assist in leisure activities, doing intervention where we can play board games, go for walks, read, play cards, paint and clean their nails and socialise with the residents.
We also have to assist to transfer some of the residents from chairs to wheel chairs and vice versa with the aid of the hoists.
As well, as doing their laundry, ironing, preparing meals at tea time - 5pm -6pm and taking the drinks trolley round with hot drinks at regular times during the day and before the residents bedtime.
We also have to write input and output charts to monitor certain individual residents.
We let visitors in and out, ask them to sign the visitors book, make them tea and take them to see their relatives.
We are also responsible for the health and safety of residents, staff and visitors.
This includes the wearing of gloves and aprons whilst assisting in getting the residents up washed and dressed, or put to bed. And regularly washing our hands.
Checking that equipment is clean and safe to use, that the battery for the hoist is charged and that there are no spillages on the floor. That the air beds are in working order and that the rooms are stocked with toiletries, and clean clothing for the residents.
We are regularly given a fire drill to time response of staff and meet in the hallway at the front door as required.

We keep time sheets for our hours worked and are responsible for getting these signed at the end of a working week. We have to read the message book to see if there is anything written by the managers or shift leaders which is important for us to known and we have to write incident reports in the case of certain events.
All files are kept in the cupboard where we have our hand over meetings, these include care plans, policy and procedures and message books, visitors books, time sheets and other files to refer to if needed.
We are paid monthly at £6 an hour which is a low wage but the work is rewarding in other ways.
I like my job and am at the moment training for an NVQ level 2 and will go on to do level 3 and other qualifications after. If your thinking about going into care work, then i'd recommend it as a steady job, good fun and rewarding, even though it is hard work and can at times be challenging.

Summary: The right job for me