Healthcare Assistant - Kestrel Ward

As a Healthcare Assistant you will work as a member of the multidisciplinary Ward team under the supervision of the registered nurse, where you will provide support to trained staff in the health and personal care of inpatients within the Ward. You'll join a team who are focused on exceeding the needs of patients within our Kestrel Ward and will support the delivery of care to a range of complex patients which include: meeting the clinical need of patients with life limiting conditions, supporting rapid discharge for those patients reaching end of life and helping prevent any unnecessary hospital admissions to a patient in crisis.

The work is varied and interesting. Striving to successfully provide healthcare can be both challenging and rewarding and our services are developing to meet the needs of the local population. This is a full‑time role (37.5 hours per week) based at Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital.

• Communicate effectively with multi‑disciplinary team, medical, clinical nursing colleagues and staff from other support departments.
• Actively seek ways to improve the quality of the service provided.
• Recognise when to refer to the trained nurse, contribute to the assessment and care planning process by communicating any concerns you may have or that are expressed by a patient or carer to the registered nurse.
• Report changes in patients´ conditions to qualified nurses and ensure it is documented. Ensure all interventions are appropriately recorded and care plans are maintained to required standards.
• Actively promote the health and wellbeing of patients attending the department.
• Remove dressings and apply simple dressings when trained and competent.

The ideal candidate will have strong communication and organisation skills and have the ability to recognise own abilities and work within sphere of competence. We are looking for someone who is a friendly, approachable team player who can work flexibly and will ensure they deliver positive experiences to patients at every stage of their healthcare journey.

It is desirable that you have experience dealing with the general public within a healthcare setting; however it is not essential that you have worked in a care setting before as we provide full training when in post.

• A salary of £23,875 with access to our group pension.
• Free tea, coffee and milk at your base location.
• Membership of My Reward Hub, giving you access to discounts on everyday purchases as well as cashback and voucher offers for treats for you and those special to you.
• Access to your wages as you earn them to help cover life's emergencies and avoid overdraft fees or high interest rates.
• Online and face‑to‑face help with your mental and physical wellbeing – from healthy recipes and activity challenges through to post‑trauma support, legal, debt and life management help, as well as career coaching and counselling.
• Access to eLearning, bespoke career pathways and opportunities for continuing professional development through our 'Outstanding' learning and development team, The Learning Enterprise.
• An open, just culture where you're encouraged to have and implement ideas which can help us deliver our purpose: changing lives through transforming health and care – backed up by at least £100,000 of ring‑fenced innovation funding each year.

We change lives by transforming health and care. Established in 2006 we are one of the UK's leading independent providers of community health and care services, working with health and care commissioners and communities to transform services with a focus on experience, efficiency and improved outcomes. We deliver and transform adult and children community health services, primary care services including urgent care, sexual health, dermatology and MSK services as well as adult social care and wellbeing services.

Across England, we support communities of many millions and directly help more than half a million people each year – guided by our simple values: we care, we think, we do.

We're committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from a broad, diverse range of people who want to join our team. We're a Disability Confident, Committed company, so we work to provide facilities, work‑environment adjustments and technical solutions to be as inclusive of everyone.

As you would expect, safeguarding and protecting the children, young people and vulnerable adults that we work with is of the utmost importance, so we have policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices and everyone who joins the team is subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.

If you're keen to join our team, we'd love to hear from you, so please apply as soon as you can.