Healthcare Assistant Job Description – Helping the Needy
If you enjoy helping people, perhaps a career opportunity as a healthcare assistant in Ireland will pique your interest? Also known as an HCA, a person in this position plays a crucial role in caring for patients. They make a significant difference in an individual’s quality of life. Check out the Healthcare Assistant Job Description
Never miss another Healthcare Assistant Job opportunity. Click the button to get Healthcare Assistant Jobs delivered directly to your inbox.
Setup a Healthcare Assistant Job alert
There is no shortage of healthcare assistant jobs in Ireland. As our population ages, there are more care assistant jobs to help seniors than ever before.
Let’s dive in:
What is a Healthcare Assistant
What Are the Duties and Responsibilities of a Healthcare Assistant?
Role of the Healthcare Assistant in Providing Care for Older People
Role of Healthcare Assistant in Nursing Home
Senior Healthcare Assistant Job Description
What Skills Are Needed to be a Healthcare Assistant?
Healthcare Assistant Career Path
Healthcare Assistant Salary
What is a Healthcare Assistant?
The role of a healthcare assistant in Ireland is varied depending on their place of work. They form a critical part of a nursing team in a hospital, residential care home, or doctor’s surgery. In these settings, they tend to look after the elderly, although a healthcare assistant can do that in the patient’s home.
HCAs can also work with young people, children, infants, and disabled or terminally ill patients. In this job, you are expected to complete various tasks, including feeding and washing patients, and assisting with blood or urine tests.
View and apply to more Healthcare Assistant Jobs
What Are the Duties and Responsibilities of a Healthcare Assistant?
One of the great things about a job as a healthcare assistant is that you can come from almost any background. It doesn’t matter if you are a recent banking or psychology graduate. Once you display practical skills in healthcare, you can perform the required training and become an HCA.
Your duties and responsibilities vary depending on where you work. For example, in a hospital, daily tasks include:
- Making beds.
- Helping patients go to the bathroom.
- Monitoring their condition by taking pulse and temperature.
- Serving meals and helping to feed patients.
- Assisting patients when they want to move around.
If you work in a doctor’s surgery, the role involves:
- Performing health checks.
- Processing lab samples.
- Sterilising equipment.
- Restocking consulting rooms.
- Taking a patient’s blood samples.
If you have experience doing any of the above, include it in your healthcare assistant CV.
Role of the Healthcare Assistant in Providing Care for Older People
In this position, you could work in a nursing home or act as a residential care assistant. The type of care provided depends on the age, health, and level of self-sufficiency of the people you work with. The goal should be to give patients independence. As much as it is possible, try to let them perform as many personal and social tasks as they can.
Role of Healthcare Assistant in Nursing Home
In nursing homes, the patients might be ill, frail, or confused. As a result, tasks may include helping them eat, bathe, and dress. It is a critical role because you improve the quality of life of the patient, while still trying to give them independence. It is essential to develop a friendly, caring relationship.
Senior Healthcare Assistant Job Description
This is a position of responsibility and authority. A senior healthcare assistant supervises and manages a team of healthcare assistants. You will need a higher level of qualification, along with the requisite experience. The job also involves
- Conducting spot checks on home carers.
- Completing reviews and assessments on service users.
- Reporting issues to the management team.
- Filling in and maintaining records of daily activities, hours of service, and observations.
- Ensuring service is delivered under the sector’s policies, procedures, and practices.
What Skills Are Needed to be a Healthcare Assistant?
For the most part, employers expect applicants to have a reasonable degree of healthcare or care work under their belts. Make sure you outline your experience in your healthcare assistant cover letter. Essential skills and traits required for this role include:
- A friendly and cheerful position.
- A kind and caring manner.
- A willingness to perform personal care tasks.
- Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills.
- The capacity to act with sympathy and compassion.
- Patience and trustworthiness.
Practical Skills in Healthcare
Most of what we outlined above relate to ‘soft’ skills. However, a healthcare assistant requires an array of ‘hard’ practical skills too. These include:
- Attention to detail.
- Critical thinking skills.
- Physical strength and stamina.
- The ability to delegate.
- Knowing which tasks to prioritise.
- Basic nursing skills, such as taking a temperature or helping with blood or urine tests.
Upsides & Downsides of Being a Healthcare Assistant
Pros
For many healthcare assistants, getting to know patients is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. It is humbling when you see the difference you can make by helping people with things, we take for granted. Seemingly routine days out, such as going to a theme park, become extra special once you see how much the patient is enjoying it.
Once you have the skills and experience, you will not find it hard to get employment. There are also plenty of options to move into other clinical or medical roles.
Cons
It is a physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging role. It is difficult to see a patient with dementia struggle so much daily. When working with the elderly or terminally ill patients, you must remain strong when the inevitable happens. The job of healthcare assistant places enormous demands on your patience, compassion, and dedication to the role.
Healthcare Assistant Salary
The average salary for a healthcare assistant in Ireland is just below €25,000 per annum. Interestingly, HSAs in Kerry seem to make more than their counterparts in Dublin with an average salary of €33,400 a year. Unfortunately, the average wage appears to have fallen by almost 4% in the last year.
Healthcare Assistant Career Path
Unlike many other medical professions, you don’t need a specific undergraduate or postgraduate degree to become an HCA. However, employers expect candidates to either be working towards a nursing degree or possess a QQI or FETAC Level 5 qualification. Businesses also have a preference for individuals with experience in the industry. You can build up your CV by taking on an apprenticeship or voluntary work.
As well as transitioning to a different part of healthcare, an HSA can also take on extra training and become a senior healthcare assistant. If you believe you have what it takes, check out these healthcare assistant interview questions.
What should I do next?
- View and apply for Healthcare Assistant Jobs
- Set up a Healthcare assistant Job Alert
IrishJobs.ie has been helping people find the job they want for over 20 years. Our team is delighted to share our job hunting tips and advice with you.