Role of Healthcare Assistant in Providing Care to Older Person in Ireland

Before understanding the role of Health Care assistant in providing care to older person in Ireland, it is important to under the concept of health care assistant, followed by the duties and responsibilities performed by a Healthcare assistant while providing care to patients in Ireland. It is also important to understand the skills and knowledge required a Health Care assistant and their role in general practice, in nursing home, in multidisciplinary team, in palliative care and in emergency department. By having an understanding of the role of a Healthcare assistant in all these areas, it can be possible to evaluate their responsibility in the context of providing care to older person in Ireland.

Definition of Healthcare Assistant in Ireland

Health Care assistant at the name suggest is a person responsible for providing assistance to people seeking health support. A health Care assistant is required to provide support and direct personal care to patients and residents across different institutional settings such as clinics, nursing home, hospitals and aged care facilities. They are required to carry out a number of responsibilities which includes helping patients with daily activities, and providing complete assistance to the nursing staff when required.

Duties and Responsibilities of Healthcare Assistant in Ireland

When it comes to duties and responsibilities of a Healthcare assistant in Ireland, they are required to perform a number of responsibilities in order to ensure complete support to patients. Their duties and responsibilities include making beds for the patient, helping patients to perform their regular activities such as assisting them while going to bathroom, serving meals and helping them in their feeding, providing complete support and assistance when they want to move around, and performing a regular monitoring of their condition by way of taking pulse and temperature. It therefore requires them to completely observe, monitor and record patients’ condition which includes taking their temperatures, pulse, respirations and weight, assisting them with the clinical duties etc.

Healthcare Assistant Skills and Qualities in Providing Care to Patients in Ireland

As the role and responsibility of healthcare assistant is crucial in providing complete support to patients, it is important that a healthcare assistant should be competent enough to address all the requirements of their patients. They require certain skills and qualities in order to be competent enough in delivering quality health care support. These include

1) Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills: They are required to communicate with the patient on regular basis which requires them a good communication and interpersonal skills in order to make their message understand to patient, and understand patient’s requirements effectively.

2) A caring approach: The responsibility of a Healthcare assistant is to provide care to patient and it is therefore utmost important that they have the ability to adapt a caring approach while assisting patients. A kind and caring approach is crucial in achieving maximum satisfaction within patient.

3) Patience and trustworthiness: It is important that a healthcare assistant has enough patience while providing assistant to patients. It is important because if patient trust their care provider, they would be quite happy to accept the care service and feel confident and disclose their problems positively.

4) Act with sympathy and compassion: It is important that Health Care assistant should have the ability to act with sympathy and compassion. These are required skills within a Health Care assistant in Ireland in order to deliver best quality support to older care seekers.

Role of Healthcare Assistant in Providing Support in Different Situations in Ireland

As identified above, healthcare assistant in Ireland is required to perform their roles and responsibilities across different health conditions, and across different settings. An analysis of the role of Health Care assistant across different settings is discussed as follows:

• Healthcare Assistant Role in General Practice: There are certain specific clinical procedures that are carried out by Health Care assistant in case of a general practice. This includes activities such as taking blood pressure, checking new patient, health promotion activities, weight and height recording, urine analysis equipment sterilization and phlebotomy. Health care assistant is provided with complete training in carrying out all these activities in a general practice.
• Healthcare Assistant Role in Nursing Home: In case of Nursing Home, the health care assistant is required to provide direct support to the patient and work in support of health professionals or associate professionals.
• Healthcare Assistant Role in Palliative Care: The health care assistant are required to apply palliative care approach in providing support to the bereaved people and this approach requires them to provide adequate information and support to all and it also includes identification of those who require bereavement therapy or counselling.
• Healthcare Assistant Role in Mental Health: The working condition of a Healthcare assistant is significantly different in case of a mental health patient as compared to other areas of Healthcare. The role and implication of physical intervention is higher in case of other areas where as in case of Mental Health the focus is on personal interaction with patients and clients. The health care assistant is therefore required to give personal attention by way of interacting directly with patient and help them maintain physical, mental, emotional and social alertness by way of communicating with them, taking them for walk, and participating adequately in activities that includes reading, writing etc
• Healthcare Assistant Role in Multidisciplinary Team: Health Care assistant is considered as one of the most valuable member of a multidisciplinary. The primary role of a Healthcare assistant in case of a multidisciplinary team is to support the delivery of patient care under the supervision and direction of registered nurse.

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