Join us and be part of a committed and caring team as we deliver high quality patient care. You will work alongside our dynamic in-house team of therapists, health care assistants and co-ordinators plus our colleagues in Rapid Response, Reablement and Social Care to deliver Pathway 1 discharges in the home first/discharge to assess pathway. The Community Independence Service is located within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF) on King St, Hammersmith. Our service works closely with our acute partners, mainly Charing Cross but also other acute Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust sites and Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. You will be connected with peers across the tri-borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea to support you and to work on service improvement partnerships.
Your role as a Health Care Assistant (HCA) within the CIS Home First Team will involve providing a rapid response care / intervention service for people who need urgent help with primary acute physical health illness in their own homes, often immediately after a hospital admission. Please note that this role is not an inpatient ward based or mental health service, and the vast majority of our patients need support with functional activities.
As a HCA you will be expected to provide support to our patients in a wide range of community and patient home environments, working autonomously and collaboratively in supporting the integrated multidisciplinary team in the delivery of excellent patient care. You will be responsible for the holistic, comprehensive care of complex community patients, delivering clinical care delegated by a registered professional and contributing to the evaluation of person centred care plans.
You will have excellent communication skills, IT skills, and the ability to be adaptable, proactive, flexible and reliable as changes to your caseload and patient visits may happen on a daily basis. You will therefore require good organisation skills and the ability to prioritise your workload effectively. Experience of care in a community setting would be an advantage but is not essential.
The service is operational 7 days a week 8am to 8pm. Hours of work for HCA may vary between these hours.
West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK.
Our 3,982 staff care for people in hospital and in the community, helping them to recover and go on to lead full and productive lives. We aim to be the best organisation of our kind in the country.
We provide care and treatment for more than 800,000 people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow, delivering services in the community (at home, in GP surgeries and care homes), hospital, specialist clinics and forensic (secure) units.
We’re rated good overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Together, we’re committed to promoting hope and wellbeing, working with patients, service users, carers, families and partners across the communities we serve.
We are keen to ensure that our workforce reflects the community it serves, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ and experience of mental illness.
Post Title: CIS Health Care Assistant
Department: CIS – 4thFloor 145 King St, W6 9XY
Responsible to: CIS Home First Senior Therapist
Accountable to: CIS Rapid Pathway Lead
Key Relationships: CIS, Imperial Health Care NHS Trust, Primary Care Network, LBHF Adult Social Care, community nursing, care agencies, community pharmacy and third sector organisations.
Grade: 3
Job Summary:
Whilst experience within the health care sector is not essential, the post holder will have a passion for working in frailty and elderly care, with an innate ability to demonstrate empathetic and kind care. The post holder will work closely with people who use our services, their families, friends and carers to make a meaningful and important contribution in people’s life and how they experience our services.
The post holder will recognise their limits of their skills and the Health Care Assistant role, and work under the guidance of the Home First Senior Coordinator and other health care professionals to deliver a safe and effective service.
The post holder will be based within H&F, however may be required to support the tri-borough CIS teams as necessary. Flexibility and a proactive can-do approach towards the service and your day to day duties are essential qualities for the post.
The service is operational seven days per week between the hours of 8am and 8pm, with alternating early and late shift pattern including weekend and bank holiday working.
Day to day duties of the post holder may include:
1. Carry out day to day care of patients within their own home environment, such as personal care, medication prompting, toileting and meal preparation.
2. Carry out safe moving and handling of patients with the use of equipment prescribed by Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists, for example rollator frame, sara steady, re-turn and hoist.
3. Review and adjust basic equipment that has been prescribed and installed by Occupational Therapists or Physiotherapists, for example mobility aids or toilet frames.
4. Support team members within the Home First team and wider CIS teams including rapid response with any follow up visits and joint working as required.
5. To be able to take observations (for example blood pressure and temperature) after completing the appropriate competency, NEWS2 scoring and early identification and escalation of the deteriorating patient.
6. Support the CIS administration team with any day to day tasks, for example calling for patient feedback and completion of PPE packs.
7. Participate and contribute to audits, service development and projects associated with improving the quality of service of CIS.
8. Travel between patient homes within a community setting within H&F, and occasionally tri-borough (Kensington & Chelsea, and Westminster) via public transport, personal transportation (mileage can be expensed) or on foot.
For further details regarding the role and responsibilities, please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification.
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