"As an HCA many of my colleagues want to do their nurse training because HCAs get a lot of the not so nice jobs. I know how hard nurses work but it's the HCAs who do the majority of the changing pads, washes, turns, the work that isn't always pleasant and is quite back breaking."
As I say, my base rate is £11.4854 per hour. I work in ICU. I work in ICU. I've just finished a Masters level specialist qualification. I was given study days for the course attendance, but had to get my competencies signed off during my normal working hours and I had to compete the assignments in my own time.
I do all my own washes for my patients, all my own turns, etc. We have one care assistant for the entire unit on some shifts, but they do lots of other jobs and for the most part nurses rely on other nurses to assist with turns (most of our patients are immobile and require two or three people to turn them for safety).
For my £11.49 per hour I'm expected to safely manage a patient's ventilation, making sure they have adequate oxygen levels, their lungs aren't over-expanding, they're getting enough airflow and they are offloading enough carbon dioxide; control their blood pressure with powerful drugs that have a very short duration of action (less than 5 minutes); monitor their heart rate and rhythm; monitor their urine output to ensure their kidneys are perfused; monitor their fluid balance, taking action where necessary; check that any enteral feed that is being given is being absorbed and that the patient isn't suffering from gastric stasis; ensure the patient doesn't develop pressure damage; the list goes on.....