Personal Account of a Day as a Care Home Healthcare Assistant

History of HSE

HSE stands for Health and safety executive.

The role you take while working in HSE is management of healthcare and safety at work regulations.

Keeping every residents safety in mind. The main categories that’s are most important in healthcare are:

• Physical
• Safety
• Psychosocial
• Ergonomic
• Chemical
• Biological
• Ensuring all residents are safe from hazards/risks at all times

HCA ROUTINE

As a health care worker my have a daily routine involving their residents daily living needs and activities. The team of health care assistants and nurses start all the team have an assigned partner and specific residents to care for the next few shifts that my team will be working. Myself and my partner Ben start the day of by transferring our residents from there beds to the chairs there is a lot of team work involved while working as a health are assistant. Team work is very important especially for a healthcare assistants. Without team work many things would not work.

Team work and communication is needed while working in healthcare. Without team work and communication there could be many fatal incidents. A common incident that can occur could be, while sitting certain residents upwards in bed one health care assistant will have to hold under the arm while supporting the there upper body by placing your hand on the shoulder blade area while Ben holds Sheila’s legs. If this is done wrong you can injure yourself or your resident. Many incidents can occur while working as a health are assistant. A more common incident that can occur can be as easy as not following food levels/ fluid levels. When feeding a client this is always Important to look at as well as there allergies. after breakfast and some documentation on the resident such as the residence current mood fluid intake, food intake. And which level diets that the residents require. Another important piece of information to remember is the residents environment such as if they have a floor mat or chair mat and that it is connected. As a health are assistant documentation on each resident is vital ,as the documentation is reviewed by the nurses they can ensure the resident is getting the exact care needed such as if there fluid intake was low the nurse will inform a healthcare assistant to give more fluids. Documentation is very important and must be accurate.

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Continuing the day, all the healthcare assistants begin to prepare the residents ready for the day. Myself and Ben transfer our first resident Sheila to the toilet or the shower chair depending the personal hygiene requirements. We begin to ask Sheila for consent to take her clothes of and to wash her. Sheila agrees so myself and Ben proceed to take her clothes of then proceed to cover Sheila’s body with a towel for privacy and safe guarding privacy matters. A healthcare assistant should always ensure there residents are comfortable.

PERSONAL HYGIENE

The personal hygiene will always include:

• Hair – wash hair if needed, brush hair. Using specific shampoo if needed depending on condition of the residents scalp.
• Skin- use ointments or sprays if needed on skin, always moisturise, make sure resident is dry and clean at all times, depending on the residents use creams, perfumes, deodorants.
• Nails- all residents finger nails should be cut, filed and clean at all times.
• Mouth, eyes, and ears- if the resident has dentures they should be cleaned by using a soft toothbrush and warm water ensuring you brush starting inwards working your way outward brushing gums too, this should be done every morning and night. Eyes should never have sleep in them as it can cause problems for the resident. If your resident wears glasses they should be cleaned if needed to be. Ears should be cleaned or if your resident has a hearing aid it should be cleaned when needed.
• Perineal areas- this specific area should always be cleaned as it can create fungal infections if not cleaned properly. Always taking in to consideration of your residents toileting needs if the pad is clean. If the resident is using a catheter it should always be emptied and in tact and clean. This area should always be covered when washing the rest of the body for the residents privacy. This will ensure they are more comfortable while preforming personal hygiene
• Facial shaving- facial hair should always be attended to if needed using the technique of pulling the skin back while shaving your ensuring the patient does not get cut during.
• Dressing your resident- while dressing a resident always dress the weakest side of the body first, and always make sure the residents clothes are clean and labelled by the laundry staff.

EVENT - Felting & Knitting

Myself and my colleges brainstormed event ideas. We decided as a team the idea that really stood out to us all was felting and knitting and making pictures/hats sensory blankets out of felt so this is the activity that we picked because all residents could participate.

We proceeded to put the residents and healthcare assistants in selected teams to ensure everyone was getting the help if needed. We proceeded to go to the arts and crafts store. the nursing home we work in kindly supported the funds. I bought lots of felt and wool and in lots of different colors, I also bought some badges and glue and knitting/felting needles. We decided to knit hats, hand.

The reason I picked this particular event was because I thought it would be a great activity that everyone can join in on including the more unable residents. Felting is also a very safe activity as the needles being used are not harmful and can be easily used by more residents. I thought this activity would be great for the residence that suffer with Alzheimer’s I learned that felting includes a repetitive pattern. This makes it easier on the residents as they will have the memory to participate.

Another advantage of using felt, can be helpful because the material is soft it can be used like a sensory toy. Sensory toys can help stimulate the senses in people and can be very effective if given to a person suffering with dementia. It can ease any anxiety or discomfort also. I work with a lot of people that suffer with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other mental disorders. I noticed all of the residents with these specific disorders were all at ease while carrying out this activity.

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Myself and my team planned this activity out over three days. The first day included picking the colors of felt that the residence would like to use. The second day I worked with my residence whom were Austin, Sheila, Mina, Bill & Will. We then picked what style of hat we would felt. In between the event we would make teas/coffee and snacks for the residents. After a break we picked the style/color it was then time to start felting. myself and my colleges whom were Kenneth, Craig, Ben and Sanju. As a team we all participated and helped all residents including our groups with any difficulties they may encounter.

One of the residents I care for whose name is Sheila encountered some difficulties at the beginning. Sheila got very confused and frustrated while attempting to felt. Seeing Sheila struggle I proceeded to go help her. I listened to her as she told me she had some difficulties with the pattern. I understood so I proceeded to show her a step by step method. I stayed with Sheila until I seen that she knew what she was doing and I seen her enjoy felting and become less frustrated.

To ensure everyone remembered the methods used and to make sure they understood completely I demonstrated each method used each day ensuring that none of the residence would be confused and clearly understood what was being demonstrated.

I checked up on Sheila a number of times after to make sure she was okay and needed my help with anything she explained that she understood after my second demonstration I took this as good feedback and personal development as in the future I would continue to demonstrate things twice to ensure everyone knows exactly what is being done.

As a health are assistant it is always important to listen and understand the person your caring for. You want your resident to feel comfortable and get the care that’s needed in a respected and professional way. The resident needs to trust you completely and by listening and communicating it can make the job a lot easier on both healthcare assistant and resident.

A lot of the residents knew exactly how to felt as it was one of there many hobbies growing up. Certain residents explained how it brought back a lot of memories from there past times. we listen to everyone tell there stories about there past times.Each of the healthcare assistants gathered around and asked each resident a couple of questions about their pastime and about themselves. The residents asked questions too. This was a great bonding exercise. Each of us became closer.

Day three included making felt pompoms by tying felt sheets together. We also glued badges on to the hats. the residents loved this event they got to communicate with each other while enjoying felting and decorating there hats, some of the residents even gave there family member the hat as a special hand made gift. We took pictures and videos while carrying out the event and sent them to each family member with a personal message from there loved one.

The nursing home I worked in saw how much the residents enjoyed this activity and suggested they fund myself and the other healthcare assistants to organize events similar to this one each week. The residents had a great time.

EVENT EVALUATION

The event was planned out great. It all went according to plan. I wouldn’t of done anything differently. While taking part in the planned event. I learned a lot about myself, my residents and my colleges. I learned that when demonstrating something its always a good idea to demonstrate it more than once. Some people may have difficulties understanding especially when it is there first time participating. I was also lucky enough to learn about my residents life’s as they told us all stories. This also helped created a bond between the healthcare staff and residents by learning. I learned it is also very important to have patients and communication skills while working in healthcare there should always be communication between a healthcare assistant and the person there caring for. There should also always be good communication and team work when working with other staff.