Healthcare Support Worker

Job Overview

Are you compassionate, caring and communicative? Would you like to be the best you can be or grow your career in a world‑class teaching hospital? Have you been considering a change of occupation and looking for secure and rewarding employment?

We believe our Healthcare Support Worker (HCSW) role offers this opportunity and our tailored training programme supports you whether you have experience or if you are new to care.

University Hospital Southampton (UHS) is one of the largest acute teaching trusts in England and provides a wide range of healthcare services to some 1.9 million people living in Southampton and South Hampshire. Our Healthcare Assistants help our nurses and doctors at UHS, by offering the highest standards of personal care and support to our patients.

As a Healthcare Support Worker, you’ll work under the guidance of a Registered Nurse or healthcare professional on one of our busy adult or child wards or outpatient areas. You will help our nurses and doctors at UHS, by offering the highest standards of personal care and support to our patients.

A Healthcare Support Worker at UHS is not just a job, it’s a career opportunity that can start your exciting journey within healthcare. Our HCSW’s receive top industry training and development, with a tailored career programme and amazing links to support nursing or higher healthcare apprenticeships. We lead the way in benefits too – our HCSWs receive:

• A minimum of 35 days paid holiday
• A one‑week intensive induction to set you up for success in your new role
• Guaranteed contracted hours
• Access to extra shifts and overtime pay for those who want it
• A dedicated mentoring team, who will help with emotional, personal, and professional support
• A central hospital location with great transport links and reduced fares for UHS staff
• Continued professional development
• A generous pension scheme and life insurance
• Access to national and local NHS discounts including popular high‑street and online retailers
• Onsite subsidised restaurants, cafes and high‑street shops
• Financial awards through our refer a friend scheme
• An internal mover process which allows you to transfer wards every six months if you wish
• Support with flexible working requests which are regularly reviewed against the service need

Your main day‑to‑day duties will include:

• Washing and dressing patients and aiding in their personal hygiene
• Assisting patients to access and use toilet facilities
• Serving meals and helping to feed patients
• Helping patients to safely move around
• Assisting with bed making, cleaning tasks, errands, or general duties
• Collecting pathological specimens e.g., urine, faeces, sputum
• Making patients and their families feel comfortable

After you have completed your 1‑week foundation induction you will attend an extended induction consisting of 1 study day per month for 5 months (total 5 study days). During this time, with the support of your line manager you will be learning the additional skills necessary to be a Senior Healthcare Assistant such as:

• Taking physiological measurement
• Maintaining patients skin integrity
• Local specific skills such as cannulation, catheterisation and ecg’s

Upon successful completion of this training and its associated competency document containing the core HCSW competencies as well as the additional competencies required for a Band 3, you will progress into a Band 3 Senior Healthcare Support Worker role.

Our remote HCSW interviews currently occur on Wednesdays over MS Teams.

Our fantastic staff can teach you the required skills if you share our values, are ready to learn and:

• Be able to work a variety of shifts as part of your work roster. You will cover some mornings (shifts could start from 7 am ending around 3 pm), short days & long days (shifts are generally 8 – 12 hours long and occur between 7 am and 8 pm), evenings (till around 8 pm) and nights (from around 7 pm to 7 am the next day)
• Be available to work any day from Monday to Sunday depending on your shift pattern, including bank holidays
• Have excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Are happy to…