Health Care Assistant > Reviews

Advantages: Phenomonal job satisfaction.
Disadvantages: can be quite upsetting at times.

...initiative and common sense. As a Health Care Assistant, you can complete NVQ’s, up to NVQ3. These are workplace based qualifications (generally available to most workplaces these days). As each NVQ is completed the pay increases … The salary is approximately 11,000 (with no NVQ) – 13,800 (when completed NVQ3) per annum. With each NVQ completed, responsibility increases; allowing you to do such things as dressings; taking bloods; inserting canuler’s; ... Read review

Advantages: job satisfaction
Disadvantages: hard work

...ill nursing home and a Health Care Assistant (HCA) on a urology unit and on the nurse bank, which meant working from ward to ward (medical, surgical, orthopaedic, elderly, gynaecological, ENT, outpatients the list goes on..) all before starting my nurse training and now qualifying (all last). It is the role of the HCA that I am reviewing, A HCA is a valued member of the Multi Disciplinary Team (MDT) who is trained at there own level NVQ 1 & ... Read review

Advantages: To know that you have made a real difference to someones life
Disadvantages: Can be sad, depressing and hard work at times

...the job as a temporary Health Care Assistant on a Care Of The Elderly Ward at one of the local hospitals. It was a 3-month contract and I decided that while I was doing this I would gain some experience and join the nurse ‘bank’. So that when it did end if I had not secured a more permanent position in the Trust by then I would be able to work as and when I could get shifts with the ‘bank’. This was April 4th 1994!! By ... Read review

Advantages: A really rewarding job
Disadvantages: when the residents die it`s heartbreaking

At around the age of sixteen I left school, due to the fact that they were only offering an NVQ in Leisure and Tourism, this was`nt for me so I left in November 1996. My mum was`nt an easy person, she did`nt allow me to join the YTP as it was known then, by joining this I would be payed £32 a week for working in a work placement job and she was`nt having this. Before leaving school, I had already decided that I wanted to look after the elderly, ... Read review

Advantages: Rewarding
Disadvantages: very Demanding and Hard Work

...because the position stands between Health Care Assistant and a Theatre Technician. So you can see you play a more technical role. Imagine this life of all competencies, Obstetrics and Gynaecology is my domain. Yes, I Help to deliver many babies everyday and once you have witnessed this.You will certainly have the wow factor. Other competencies include Urology, Ear Nose Throat, General and Orthopaedics, Bones to you and many other operations that ... Read review

Advantages: Helping people to stay at home, job satisfaction, puts a smile on peoples faces.
Disadvantages: Can be very long hours and some at very short notice.

I was just being made redundant from a boring tedious job of picking and packing eggs. I had worked 7 yrs of weekends and bank holidays so I decided that I wanted to try something completely different. It wasn't a hard job but it involved alot of lifting. A friend told me about her job in a local nursing home and said she thought I ought to give it a go. I thought about what she had told me and decided to give it a try. Caring is a demanding but ... Read review

Advantages: Interacting with the residents
Disadvantages: Poor pay

I work as a care assistant on the dementia (SRC) unit of a residential care home. I've held my current post for a year now, having started off work in the kitchen. On the SRC unit we have 12 residents with varying needs, which is why I find it so interesting and rewarding. There are those who are more aware of their situation and surroundings and only get the odd moment of confusion about what time of day it is, for example, and then there are ... Read review

Advantages: Giving and receiving as much as possible in each day.
Disadvantages: Mountains of paperwork,training and unrealistic wages.

My job is very similar except for the fact that I work in a private care home and I work with residents with disabilites or learning diffculties. The day starts at 8am with a cup of coffee and a hand over from the night carer.It is then all systems go with showers, followed by breakfast and laundry distribution to appropriate rooms. I then clear away breakfast dishes and check all residents to make sure that they have everything they need to go off ... Read review