Healthcare Assistant - Skin Team | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

The Health Care Assistant will work without direct supervision on occasions providing care to patients inclinics across Liverpooland other community settings, as delegated by theSkinTeam leader following appropriate training and supervision to ensure clinical competence and safe effective care.

Operational hours of the service areMonday to Friday 08:30-17:00

Ensure the delivery of the quality strategy within the designated area incorporating establishment of systems and processes.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 11 million people.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

1. Carry out a range of clinical procedures including leg ulcer, wound and pressure ulcer care in arrange of setting such as clinics, nursing homes and patient own homes with supervision from trained member of staff.
2. Undertake screening processes such as, blood pressure, height, weight, urinalysis and blood glucose measurements and collection specimens for laboratory investigations.
3. Prepare `and clear clinical settings.
4. Assist with assessments, reassessments and Doppler ultrasound.
5. Maintain, order and check expiry date of stock for variety of clinics.
6. Undertake a range of personal care activities with patient such as removing soiled bandages and dressings, cleaning wounds, applying treatments and creams under supervision of trained staff. This will include maintaining personal dignity and privacy when undertaking these activities.
7. Work within existing clinical guidelines, protocol and infection control procedures.
8. Offer advice to patients and carers on range of health issues such as avoidance of pressure damage, prevention of reoccurrence of leg ulceration, excise importance of emollients treatments in dermatology conditions.
9. Communicate factual and sensitive information to patients and carers form diverse backgrounds and/or with variety of sensory deficits, ensuring their strategies to overcome barriers to communication and understandings.
10. Offer a level of psychological support to patients and carers in arrange situations and conditions such as psoriasis, eczema, leg and pressure ulcers.
11. Ensure contemporaneous record keeping both manual and computer based that supports care and delivery by range of professionals and provide an audit trail.
12. Understand process of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, associated emergency. Procedure and appropriate contacts in changing and complex situations. All procedures will be undertaken after theoretical underpinning and regular updating is demonstrated.
13. Be accountable for own clinical practice.
14. Show analytic skills through interpretation of test results using policies/ SOP and flow charts.
15. Working unsupervised in well leg clinics being aware of long-term conditions supporting patients to prevent leg ulcer reoccurrences.
16. Working within well leg SOP and trust policies.
17. Skills and competencies complete in leg ulcer management, waterlow risk assessments.
18. Be an advocate for patient’s whilst conducting well leg clinic and also when supporting the specialist nurses
19. Educating patients in well leg clinics to self-care in managing their hosiery and skin conditions.
20. Identify the need for further referral, e.g., refer to treatment rooms or podiatry and district nursing teams following agreed processes.
21. Develop patient/service user specific goals educating students, new staff, patients and carers on treatment options.
22. Enable individuals to develop necessary skills in health promotion, the ability to discuss and explain information leaflets provided. Identifying the risks and educating the patient.
23. Collaborative working, discussing patient issues within safety huddle, to ensure that appropriate decisions have been made.
24. Recognise the different health needs for individual patient’s assessment. Across localities.
25. Undertake waterlow risk assessment for pressure ulcer prevention following trust guidelines and well leg SOP.
26. Liaising with GPs, and other health professionals. Writing to GPs to request prescription of recommended products.
27. Appling compression bandaging in complex clinic and homeless clinic under supervision from trained nurse.
28. Working on audits required by the organisation. Data inputting of patient information, using spread sheets for archiving within the trust guidelines. Leg ulcer Audit
29. Undertaken relevant mandatory training is complete and up to date.

1. Arrange clinic appointments for patients.
2. Assisting with entry of information on database.
3. Photocopying, of information as requested.
4. Assisting nurses in organising their caseload through discharge of patients.

1. Undertaking NVQ level three.
2. Offer support to nurses and students from a variety of disciplines.
3. Undertake teaching with patient and carers to improve concordance.

All staff will be expected to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing, safety and security and assist in maintaining a healthy, safe and secure working environment for everyone. They must not intentionally misuse or interfere with anything provided in the interests of health and safety e.g., misuse of equipment. It is a legal requirement that all employees attend training provided by the employer and report to their manager without delay, any accidents, incidents, and defects in equipment, place of work or system of work which might endanger safety, health or security of which he/she becomes aware.

This advert closes on Tuesday 24 Sep 2024