To tell you about my first week as a HCA in a hospital?

[atronger]

I am gobsmacked.

I didn't get any training. I did an online video training series, that lasted about an hour. Then done.

Some competencies like blood pressure checks etc signed off by a RN during my shift. And that's it

Second day in and I was asked to administer paracemtol twice by two different doctors! I said to them both I'm not a nurse. I cannot administer drugs but I can ask someone to do it. They both told me off, and the last one told me I was 'just being useless'

I was on a morning shift today and a senior nurse was extremely rude to me because I couldn't fix a cast (fracture clinic). I am not trained to! More snidey remarks

Yesterday I was on a night shift and asked by a senior nurse to help clean a wound. Didn't really feel it waa my place to do so, spoke out about it but she showed me once and I got it, so did the other leg for this very lovely patient. All fine. But felt pressured to do it when I wasn't really sure I was allowed. Was completely brushed off like I was being ridiculous and of course I could. Then got a telling off by ward sister for doing so

I came into this because I'm very interested in becoming a Nurse when the time is right in my personal life. But I'm shocked at how some medical staff speak to their colleagues

It sounds like they were very unfair to you, OP. You should never have been thrown on to a ward without the most basic training you needed. But also, senior staff should not have been so rude to you - it wasn't your fault the training was lacking. If they do that a lot, they shouldn't be suprised the NHS is lacking staff.

Sorry you had such an awful introduction to nursing! I hope you find somewhere people treat you with respect and kindness.

I’m in mental health and would be livid if our HCA’s were treated like that! Of course you can’t do aseptic technique or anything else you aren’t trained to do!

Its busy in mental health nursing as well and one shadow shift which our bank HCA’s get is never enough but we do support them when they are new.

I assume if you’re directly asked to give drugs by a doctor it’s ok. It’s not as if you’re the one making the decision.

no, it’s absolutely not ok! You’d be amazed for a start how many times doctors prescribe the wrong dose, etc in hospital. The responsibility for any error lies with the person who gives the drug. So if a doctor prescribes the wrong dose or drug and I give it to someone it’s me who gets a bollocking because I should have known better. You can’t expect a hca to have that level of knowledge.

even if it’s the right drug and dose I need to check identity carefully, check allergies, check the prescription chart to see when it was last given or if any other drug which may interact with it has been given. I need to check the expiry date, potentially do a drug calculation (even a basic 1 such as 1g of paracetamol is 2x 500mg tablets), I need to check the blister pack in the box matches the box. I need to know side effects, contraindications (and this includes for paracetamol) and know stuff such as if the drug needs to be taken with food.

you can not expect a hca imho to have this knowledge. Certainly not in their first week. I have genuinely not known a hcsw be allowed to give drugs.

This is false info. Most band 2s now do the apprenticeship route and it takes 15 months. Aside from that you need your maths and English for a start.

Sorry to quote your whole post, I'm using the app.
Yep, this is what it's like. Been an HCA for three years and I've had enough and I'm fucking off for a couple of years to travel.
Bullying, inadequate training and pressure to work above your ability and training.
I'm really sorry that you've had this experience.

This depends on trust, in ours if you have 6 months of prior experience in care such as a care home, you don't need to do the apprenticeship. But you have to have maths and english at a C/4 grade too.

I can't believe some of these responses!

Cleaning a wound is 100% not the job of a HCA. Are people assuming OP means a wound akin to a scratched knee? Wounds in hospital should definitely be cleaned & dressed by qualified nurses. Often carefully following a plan put together by very highly trained tissue viability nurses (depending on the type of would we are talking about).

It is not common for HCAs to be trained to administer medication in hospital. As a PP said, even student nurses cannot do this without a nurse present. It doesn't matter whether it's just paracetamol or whether it's insulin.

A HCA new to the job will be on minimum wage & likely have no formal training or related qualifications. Of course as their career progresses they will gain skills and attend training but what OP has experienced in her first week is very very wrong.

For a start, she should be shadowing in her first week. Literally watching & learning. She should not be counted in the staffing numbers!

Join the union, pronto! Should be unison. GMB are useless

For training & qualifications I am talking specifically about the large hospital trust I worked for until recently.

What trust is this? I haven't heard stories like this in over a decade, it's hard to believe it's real.

The one I worked for had 1-2 weeks classroom training and then a 1 YEAR apprenticeship as a band 1 before being a HCA - now called a CSW Clinical Support Worker.

I have to say that I am really quite shocked at how little training some of the HCAs (the poor OP included!) are getting in hospitasl, still.

After what happened some years ago at the Mid Staffordshire trust and what came out in the Francis report/Cavendish review, it basically said that all HCAs should have to complete the Care Certificate when working at a trust (in my particular trust, even bank carers have to complete it) within the first 3 months of the job and have a book of competencies such as how to do obs, what are your roles/responsibilities, how to move a patient correctly, treat them with dignity, how to do ECGs etc) completed before working completely unsupervised. The first month or so of that is mostly just trust induction/theory training on the right ways of treating patients in different scenarios, escalating concerns to nurses correctly, basic life support etc before actually doing any work on the wards, and then being supernumerary until you complete it all (or for the majority of the training, at least).

It's by no means the fault of any of you fellow HCAs that your trusts are not giving you the training you really should be having, but they can't not train you properly and then complain that you don't know how to do your job.... that's just completely unfair on you!

Indeed! As a home carer, I was allowed to change Fentanyl patches, and administer slow release Morphine tablets - on my own, after one afternoon of "meds training".

Confused about why they thought you should, you really can’t. I think they’re the useless ones. They should know that

You know how to clean wounds without any training? I’m shocked at that. Do you think you can do the job of a nurse?

It isn’t false info, though I admit 8 should have been more specific I guess saying no care qualifications needed. To be a hca at my hospital you need an English gcse or functional skills only. And that won’t help with medicines administration.

my dd works on the bank as a hca and has no qualifications at all. Yes she has maths and English gcse (only needed English)but no care/nursing qualifications or experience is needed. She’s certainly not doing an apprenticeship and has no intention of doing so.

I worked in an office for two years when I left school, then started my nurse training, I didn't think I'd ever last due to how people (nurses, doctors, physios, OCC health etc etc) speak to you. By Eck you have to have a tough skin and learn not to be a walk over if you work in the NHS.

atronger
I didn't get any training. I did an online video training series, that lasted about an hour. Then done.

I work in adult education and my annual training in safeguarding alone is 5 hours long. Manual handing is a day, as is fire safety.

HCAs are the backbone of personal care given on most Trust wards and you're being treated very poorly. At absolute minimum you need training in safeguarding, manual handing, infection control, fire safety and basic personal care (because despite what Keyansier thinks its not straightforward).

Can you approach the senior clinic sister and ask for a mentor ?

I'm guessing you don't work in the medical field at all. Unless they have done extra training to dispense from dossett boxes HCAS/carers or whatever label are not allowed to give medication. Full stop.

Nope, not how it works at all.

Even a qualified nurse can't just administer them on a doctors say so, they need to be written up, though there maybe local policies for emergency situations and for paramedics etc

My trust has stopped the apprentice route and there is no need for English and maths. They finally realised these things don't necessarily produce the best staff and actually excludes some great HCA'S.

theres no band 1 anymore, you can pretty much walk into a band 2 role. I did years prior in care as a senior administering meds and managing the team, so when i went to NHS i had no training, no shadowing, just expected to crack on even though i went from and EMI care home to an emergency surgery ward and the jobs were polar opposite. It was just assumed i knew what to do.

Some stupid comments on here but also excellent ones, definitely join Unison if not already a member.

@FlissyPaps had a great post Op.

Im sorry that they’ve treated you like this. It’s all quite alarming, what’s been allowed /encouraged to happen in some Trusts.

You sound like you’d make exactly the nurse the NHS so vitally needs. 👍

Also, in our trust atleast,
HCA - band 2
CSW - band 3
nursing associate/assistant practitioner - band 4

@Battlecat98 is must be a case of different trusts. I started as a HCA 10 years and I had to have a NVQ 2 in health and social care, relevant experience in care too so I didn't do the apprenticeship which was 6 months back then.

My friend applied for the same role as a HCA and they wanted evidence of maths... this was recently this year. It's interesting! How it varies

I had a nurse once try to get me to give a patient their morning medication...I know it was because they were short staffed and this patient often was quite slow with things like that, eating etc and the nurse had lots of patients to see to...I said I couldn't as I had other things I was busy with and needed to do (which was true, and also I was refusing because it's not part of my job to do so)...said nurse came back to me a little while later saying it's a good job "we" (erm...me!) didn't as actually the patient seemed to have an unsafe swallow when she tried them with them and she could have choked on them!

I will give them under direct supervision of a nurse at his/her instruction (rg. Nurse putting tablet(s) in the patient's yoghurt or whatever, known to have a safe swallow and they make sure it's gone and they stay with me the whole time I am assisting with the feed/administration until all meds are given and they are happy it's safe), but any other ocassion I will have nothing to do with them as I don't feel happy being put in that situation alone with meds that I don't know if it's safe for that patient to have or not.