Health Care Assistant (Health Care Assistant)

Name: jenny967

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Product:	Health Care Assistant
Date:	06/01/08 (444 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A really rewarding job

Disadvantages: Getting to close to the residents, heartbreaking when they die

At around the age of sixteen I left school, due to the fact that they were only offering an NVQ in Leisure and Tourism, this was`nt for me so I left in November 1996.

My mum was`nt an easy person, she did`nt allow me to join the YTP as it was known then, by joining this I would be payed £32 a week for working in a work placement job and she was`nt having this.

Before leaving school, I had already decided that I wanted to look after the elderly, so I searched the local papers and aranged several interviews, shortly after Christmas I went for an interview and a few days later, the Nursing Home informed me that I got the job.

First few weeks

Well I was basically thrown in at the deep end, I had no training, only other members of staff teaching me the basics, like how to lift properly etc, we done 12 hour shifts back then and got £2.80 per hour, however although the shifts were long and the money low, I knew this was the job for me, eventually I did do inhouse training and my job became a bit easier.

Duties

We had to get the residents dressed or bathed in the morning, serve breakfast, feeding some residents if neccassary, By this stage the staff could enjoy activities with the residents like games, music, talking, listening to the wonderful stories they had to tell and sometimes taking them for walks.

We were also responsible for laundry, making of beds and the cleaning of commodes in some the residents bedrooms. Another duty was to aid the residents to the bathroom at certain intervals of the day or when required.

In the afternoon lunch was served, again some residents required assistance, same with dinner time, then we could enjoy the rest of our shifts by doing activities with the residents, then at nights the night staff would serve tea/coffee and biscuits, and put the residents to bed.


Staff on duty

There was always a staff nurse on duty during the day, to make sure everything would run smoothly and to administer medications needed, most of the Nurses also done there fair share of work during the day. So with a staff nurse and three care assistants on, looking after 18 residents was`nt to hard.

A rewarding job

This is a really rewarding and worth while job, I really did enjoy working in the nursing home, The reason I left was because I had my kids and the shifts were very long then, but I do plan to go back to this sort of work when my kids are older (hopefully)

The down side

Well the only down side for me was that I got to close to the residents and it broke my heart when they died.


If anyone out there is considering this sort of work I would highly recommend it,

Thanks for reading
I have done this review on Ciao

Summary: The satisfaction you get from this job makes it really worth while