Health Care Worker

Responsibilities

• supporting Service Users to get up/go to bed and get dressed/undressed;
• supporting Service Users to wash, shower or bath including washing of hair and oral hygiene;
• continence care/bowel care, which requires monitoring to minimise risks, for example care associated with urinary catheters, double incontinence, chronic urinary tract infections and/or the management of constipation;
• helping Service Users to eat their food or take a drink;
• assisting Service Users to make a safe transfer or to mobilise. Service Users will have some ability to weight bear or move independently;
• supporting Service Users’ social care needs including social interaction and some domestic activities. Domestic activities will be specifically and exclusively for the Service User and may include but are not limited to light housework, preparing meals, washing up after meal preparation, laundry and shopping;
• working towards maintaining a safe environment for Service Users, respecting Service User and family preferences;
• recognising changing mental, physical and emotional needs, and reporting appropriately;
• EoLC, where appropriate EoLC will be delivered in partnership with specialist palliative care teams, GPs and other healthcare professionals to identify the support and resources required to meet Service Users’ needs and to anticipate changes in their condition;
• care for Service Users who are unable to communicate reliably their needs at any time and in any way, even when all practicable steps to assist them have been taken. Service Users have to have most of their needs anticipated because of their inability to communicate them;
• observation and monitoring of skin including pressure areas;
• supervised feeding where there may be a risk of aspiration. Care will be delivered in line with SALT guidance;
• care for Service Users receiving nutritional support through feeding tubes (such as PEG, RIG, ) delegated by an appropriate registered health care professional (e.g. a district nurse) or where you have completed the relevant training [] ;
• transferring and mobilising Service Users, where Service Users are unable to weight bear and are unable to assist or cooperate with transfers and/or repositioning;
• careful positioning where Service Users are unable to cooperate and there is loss of muscle tone, pain on movement, or a risk of physical harm;
• care for Service Users with involuntary spasms or contractures placing them or others at risk;
• assisting and facilitating Service Users to take medication. Service Users will not be passive in taking medication, and will have the cognitive capacity to manage their medication and to direct the Care Worker;
• administration of prescribed insulin that has been dispensed via an insulin pen, where Service Users cannot do this themselves;
• non-invasive ventilation, including sleep masks and cough assist machines;
• caring for Service Users with Behaviour that Challenges, where the Risk Assessment document indicates a pattern of behaviour that can be managed by appropriately skilled Care Workers and planned interventions; and
• care for Service Users who are unable to assess basic risks even with supervision, prompting or assistance, due to cognitive impairment, and who are dependent on others to anticipate their basic needs and to protect them from harm, neglect or health deterioration;
• Care Workers will respect the fact that the care environment is the Service User’s home. Care Workers will be sensitive to that environment and its contents.