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An Untrained Nurse For Mum? Healthcare Assistant Training Instead
DecentLivingWage
Posts: 738 Forumite
Our Mums and Dads lives will be put in danger by swapping our excellent nurses for cheap labour untrained 'healthcare assistants' the Royal College of Nursing says today. Many of us would be shocked to think of our beloved Mums and dads being 'treated' by those not trained to do it because they have been pushed into that inapproproiate role by the government who want to save on staff costs. We already hear stories of our loved ones who looked after us all our lives, being left unwashed, unfed, and badly treated when they are in pain or distress.
I for one would like to know what EXACTLY the healthcare assisatants who will be replacing proper nurses are trained to do on their courses and what they are not allowed to do. Could some of them (as atNorthampton I think it was, be surly unwilling jobseekers forced to do this work for benefits and feeling angry? I dont want unsympathetic people looking after my Mum! after all she did for me! This has gone too far now, when the government for the rich can afford private health care and 'austerity' only applies to us. Many assistants are decent people I'm sure but what if theres a flood of unwilling untrained jobseekers taking their jobs cheaper?
Guardian today says
'Carter said healthcare assistants, who often receive their training on the job and have a standard day rate of £9.68 an hour, were invaluable but that all too often they received no training and were being inappropriately used as replacement nurses. A survey last year found that healthcare assistants were taking on work, including looking after intensive care patients, for which they were not always properly trained.
Carter said: "We are concerned that there is a dilution, to the detriment of patient care, of the ratio of qualified nurses to health care assistants. That has been compounded by so many employers not giving their health care assistants any training.'
I for one would like to know what EXACTLY the healthcare assisatants who will be replacing proper nurses are trained to do on their courses and what they are not allowed to do. Could some of them (as atNorthampton I think it was, be surly unwilling jobseekers forced to do this work for benefits and feeling angry? I dont want unsympathetic people looking after my Mum! after all she did for me! This has gone too far now, when the government for the rich can afford private health care and 'austerity' only applies to us. Many assistants are decent people I'm sure but what if theres a flood of unwilling untrained jobseekers taking their jobs cheaper?
Guardian today says
'Carter said healthcare assistants, who often receive their training on the job and have a standard day rate of £9.68 an hour, were invaluable but that all too often they received no training and were being inappropriately used as replacement nurses. A survey last year found that healthcare assistants were taking on work, including looking after intensive care patients, for which they were not always properly trained.
Carter said: "We are concerned that there is a dilution, to the detriment of patient care, of the ratio of qualified nurses to health care assistants. That has been compounded by so many employers not giving their health care assistants any training.'
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PS - here is that link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/24/healthcare-assistants-replace-nurses?CMP=twt_gu
Anyone know which agency will get that training/placem,ent contract? Or...let me guess.... its JobCentreProspects !! or even... G4S a la Olympic style!!0 -
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I'm a health care assistant and I don't replace nurses. I just wash, feed, walk with, talk to and assist with personal hygeine for my patients. Oh and I can take obs and remove canulas. That's it! And I definitely don't earn £9.68 an hour! Unless it's a weekend
DF by Xmas 2013 #135: £833/£1195 (69.7%)0 -
Its not a new issue - for year they have pushed Drs work down to nurses and then nursing work down to healthcare assistants.Carter said: "We are concerned that there is a dilution, to the detriment of patient care, of the ratio of qualified nurses to health care assistants. That has been compounded by so many employers not giving their health care assistants any training.'
For what the role originally intended the wages were probably correct but as more and more is pushed downwards the healthcare assistants are being asked to do more and more for the monies.
In respect of the training for nurses its not actually that good - most skills are picked up on the ward placements from existing staff rather than being formally taught . I would suspect the same goes for many healthcare assistant courses.
It comes down to economies of scale - if a person doesn't need the full range of skills that a nurse provided and can be dealt with adequately well by a trained healthcare assistant then there is no need for the nurse to be involved. If they are being placed in roles that require more highly trained staff then that is an issue but the article doesn't make it clear what " including looking after intensive care patients" actually means - cleaning and feeding patients is 'looking after' them and is within their remit.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
When discussing this it needs a link with the nonsense that all Nurse entrants to the workforce must now be a degree qualified.0
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The thing is...
...as an HLTA with a degree and many years experience, I don't take kindly to MY union (supposedly) ranting about my alleged unsuitability for my post, or telling me and my employer that I shouldn't cover classes or teach. I appreciate the extra responsibility (I love it, actually) and there wouldn't be any point employing me at a higher grade if I didn't do these things.
....so I have a lot of sympathy for the many thousands of dedicated and capable healthcare assistants now being told they are good for nothing but emptying bedpans. The RCN has fought a long and successful battle to see nurses' status elevated above that level, and it's desperately disappointing to see them trying to pull the ladder up behind them.
Trying to stand in the way of people who want to work hard and get on is the absolute *opposite* of how unions should be behaving.import this0 -
When discussing this it needs a link with the nonsense that all Nurse entrants to the workforce must now be a degree qualified.
My wife originally started on the nursing diploma course but had to leave for childcare issues - she's back on a nursing course but had to enter on to either the nursing degree or nursing masters course (she got her degree via the OU so went back on the masters course).
The difference between the degree and the diploma was negligible and made no difference to the job at the end of it.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
There are some brilliant HCAs out there, but there are some who are not what they should be. I do believe there needs to be some standardisation of training and job role nationally, and ideally a framework for accountability and a way to 'strike off' dangerous ones so they can't just get a new job in another trust or (more likely) a care home.
When I was a HCA, my only training was two weeks spent shadowing an incredibly bitter and nasty 'experienced' HCA who taught me a lot of ways to be rude to colleagues, insensitive to patients and families and how to avoid doing any work for as much of the time as possible.
Oh, and I was never paid anything like £9.68, because I didn't have an NVQ I was on NMW.0 -
When discussing this it needs a link with the nonsense that all Nurse entrants to the workforce must now be a degree qualified.
You prefer your nurses to be less educated? Why?
Both diploma and degree nurses spend 50% of their training on theory and 50% out in clinical practice. What is about them having a degree that you think means they won't be as effective?0 -
Both diploma and degree nurses spend 50% of their training on theory and 50% out in clinical practice. What is about them having a degree that you think means they won't be as effective?
It makes no difference to the training or their ability to do the job but it's indicative of the obsession with making everything need a degree - where a qualification system isn't broken there's no point spending a fortune on changing it. for the sake of itI no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0
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