Your role as a HCA (Health Care Assistant)
HCA roles can be an extremely rewarding job. Every day you will be helping to improve lives, working on the front line of Health and Social Care with a wide variety of clientele. HCA's provide support to the disabled, elderly, dementia patients, long-term ill and individuals with learning difficulties, so your role can be very varied and no days will ever be the same! You can work as a HCA in a residential or nursing home or in a respite care setting. We also offer some 1:1 positions in supported living accommodation.
Main duties of a HCA
The job is centred around helping clients with immediate needs, as a HCA you will always aim to provide individual care to your clients, working to provide a care plan that suits their individual need. Your role will include:
- washing
- dressing
- maintaining their hygiene
- ensuring they receive healthy meals and fluids
- helping them with basic day-to-day or administrative tasks like paying bills.
The HCA role also includes getting to know clients personally and providing them with emotional support and company, being a good listener and encouraging them to take part in activities and socialising with other residents, all of which contributes positively to their wellbeing.
Required skills and experience of a HCA
At Swanstaff we ask for all of our HCA's to have a minimum of 6 months recent experience in a paid care role, this is so that you can enter our clients with a good understanding of the role and help support them during staff shortages when shadowing may not be an option. We look for passionate Care Assistants who are able to relate to people from a variety of backgrounds. You should be patient and have a sense of humour with the ability to show compassion for those in your care.
Being a HCA can be a challenging role but it is also one of the most rewarding and fulfilling.
Medway is made up of the towns of Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Rochester and Strood. Chatham is the commercial centre of Medway and Rochester is home to many tourist attractions including a Castle and Cathedral. The area is also famous for its links to the author Charles Dickens, who is celebrated annually at the Dickens Festival.
In terms of employment opportunities, there are over 8000 businesses in Medway, with 13% of these hiring more than 50 employees - this is much higher than the national average of 2%. The unemployment rate is 3.9% which is lower than the national average. Construction and Scientific & Technical are the biggest industries in Medway.