Health Care Assistant

Eput; Southend-on-Sea; Remote; GBP 21,000 - 25,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days holiday + bank holidays

NHS Pension

Staff discounts

£8K relocation package

Season ticket loans

Job summary

EPUT is seeking a Part-Time Health Care Assistant to join the Adult Bladder and Bowel Specialist Service. You will support patients with bladder and bowel management, perform urinalysis, maintain bladder charts, and work under nursing delegation to ensure high-quality care.

Join an NHS Trust that values training, development and patient-centred care. The role includes a relocation package option and staff benefits, with a focus on compassionate, professional support for patients and families.

Qualifications

• Experience working in a community bladder and bowel service.
• Experience working with patients experiencing incontinence.
• Knowledge of continence products/treatments available.

Responsibilities

• Re-assess patients and delegate tasks with nurses.
• Provide support for patients and carers.
• Be competent in undertaking urinalysis and collecting urine specimens.
• Assist/advise in completing bladder charts (frequency and volume diaries).
• Record patient interactions and update records.

Skills

Continence assessments

Empathy & patient support

Record in patient records

Systm One

Tools

Systm One

Job description

We can provide emotional and wellbeing support for anyone affected by the Lampard Inquiry. Find support

Please be aware that, due to current allocation constraints, Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) are being prioritised for registered roles at this time.

Our Trust cares for more than 100,000 patients at any one time across our community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex and parts of Bedfordshire and Suffolk.

We want you to be part of our journey of transformation, where our patients and their families are at the heart of everything we do and to achieve our vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care.

You’ll be part of a Trust where you will be supported to be your authentic self and be the best you can be, where we will help you to grow, develop and thrive.

The Trust is recognised by the University of Essex and is a top provider of apprenticeships for people looking to be an assistant practitioner, senior health care support worker (CAP). Our trailblazing CAP apprenticeship won a national HSJ Award.

We are also recognised as a Veteran Aware Trust and holder of gold accreditation from the Ministry of Defence Employment Recognition Scheme. Our services are highlighted as an exemplar of good practice, producing the best care for more than 3.500 armed forces veterans in the past seven years.

We have been shortlisted and won national awards. We are an inclusive organisation and Level 3 Disability Confident Leader Trust.

We are constantly innovating and looking for new ways to deliver care, such as using technology to enhance patient care and working with partners to launch new services such as the Basildon Mental Health Urgent Care Department, virtual hospitals and falls response cars.

Join us and you’ll do the best work of your life – and make a difference to other people’s lives. What we do together, matters.

Job overview

The Community Bladder and Bowel Specialist Service have an exciting opportunity for a Part Time HCA to join their team of professionals.

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.

We are keen to hear from experienced Healthcare Assistants who are willing to train in the Bladder and Bowel Specialism

Please note we are unable to offer Sponsorship for this role

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.

Working for our organisation

Valuing you. Recognising your dedication. At EPUT, we look after you.

• Receive supervision and support to help you fulfil your potential.
• Join an inclusive EPUT community and connect with others through engagement events and equality or champion networks.
• If you need help, we provide mental health and wellbeing services, occupational health advice and counselling.
• 27 days holiday, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days after 10 years’ service.
• Excellent pension of up to 14.5% of your pensionable pay.
• Staff discounts include Blue Light Card, NHS discount offers, and staff benefits.
• £8K relocation package if you move to Essex to join us
• Season ticket loans are interest‑free to cover the cost of travelling to and from work via tram, rail, or bus.

Work that wraps around your needs

• Job share: Applications for job shares are welcomed.

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: -

• Re-assess patients in receipt of products from the Trust as delegated by Continence 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)
• Communicates very sensitive condition related information to patients and relatives with empathy and reassurance.
• 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.
• Undertake drainage of residual urine (female patients), ( once competency is achieved)
• Provide emotional care for patients within your specialist sphere of work.
• In the course of your clinical work provide appropriate help to patients who require physical assistance.
• Organises own workload in conjunction with team and Trust requirements.
• Use a computer tablet remotely for all patient records.
• Record data and evidence of activity as requested via Systm One
• Provide teaching informally on a one to one basis ie to patients/carers
• 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.

Person specification

Experience

• The candidate has experience working in a community bladder and bowel service
• The candidate has experience working with patients experiencing incontinence

Skills

• The candidate has knowledge and skills in undertaking continence assessments
• The candidate has knowledge regarding continence products/treatments available

Please be aware that, due to current allocation constraints, Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) are being prioritised for registered roles at this time.
Important note: please ensure that as part of your application, you include professional references with business contact information covering your last three years of employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee, you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post; the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email [e-mail] and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Important Notice: Recently the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) which amended on 22 July 2021 and come into force on 11 November 2021 that anyone directly employed to work in a Care Home or who are required as part of their role to be deployed to a CQC registered care home are required to have had both their COVID vaccinations, unless they are exempt. This is therefore a requirement of this role and will form part of our pre‑employment checks.

Please note -staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered ‘suitable alternative employment’ to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.