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

@DohaDragon there's so many agencies I guess they operate differently to a HCA that's permanently working for NHS.

A basic level of maths and English is expected because you are expected to add observations up, total fluid balances and record input and output.... I know a lot of things are on electronic devices but this has only been the case recently.

I give meds, including controlled meds as an HCA. The training is worth it’s weight in gold for future jobs.

I've worked for several Trusts. Some are excellent. Some are okay. Others are bloody awful - and even within the same Trust some units are great and others awful. Hopefully you'll find one that works for you, and go on to qualify and make sure new staff on your ward aren't treated like this.

It doesn't surprise me OP. I have spent a lot of time sitting with very sick people in various hospitals. The HCAs did what nurses used to do. It was always they who changed my dad's catheter for example, reassured him, checked his progress. They had different coloured uniforms to the nurses, and all the patients assumed they were the "real" nurses because they did so much work and never stopped. They were absolute gold. I didn't like to see how the nurses spoke to them - it was quite disgusting.
Good luck - I bet the patients love you because I can tell from your post you care about them.

If you want someone with no training cleaning a wound (being done in a healthcare setting, so presumably not a small scratch) you may be very much alone.

As a nurse we were repeatedly reminded never to do something outside of our competencies, and this goes for HCA's too. Your training is totally inadequate so well done to you for standing your ground, and of course as a HCA you are right that you cannot administer medication, hope it gets better for you, but if not please have a rethink as it doesn't sound like a safe environment to work in

BTW, that is no criticism of HCAs, just an environment that is extremely unfair to them.

Which is why I suggested telling them straight.

And the trouble is when you scare away the good ones who want to treat,care look after patients.your left with the nasty,god complex abusive bastard ones.

Not much better being a student nurse sadly.

I'm totally with you OP. In health, its your responsibility to only carry out those tasks which you're trained in. It's also the responsibility of the qualified staff to support you in this. There are certain procedures you have to follow and that includes recording which medication has been administered.
I used to be a nurse and we relocated and I recently started as an HCA as it suits me better at the moment. I have seen how some of the other HCAs, without any previous healthcare experience, I might add, are being trained. It's been a real eye opener and I've noticed how different people work differently and have shown them to do the same thing but in different ones. This wouldn't be so bad but they're constantly going on about the importance of following the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) yet they don't all follow them in the order they're meant to!
It's really worrying. It's also unprofessional of them to express their own frustrations at you when they should be welcoming you when the NHS is so short staffed. One of the HCAs I work with is already taking about looking for work elsewhere which is a shame as she's good with patients but she's been treated so badly that I don't blame her.

Amen

Least as a hca i got paid to be spoken down to and used as a dogs body. As a student im just used as an extra HCA but not one valued enough to be part of the actual team constantly with no regard for supernumerary status or learning needs

You did the right thing by protecting yourself and your patients.

If it happens again I’d put it in very plain terms of how you are refusing to do any task that you have not been trained to do, as you have a duty of care to your patients, and doing so breeches protocol. Any more shit from anyone, regardless of stature, I’d be filing an HR complaint.

No one should be speaking to anyone like dog shit. I don’t care how tired or stressed out you are, it isn’t fucking on. I work in a very busy sector and I have never spoken to anyone like they’re beneath me. It isn’t acceptable in professional practice.

Basically this outlines the state of the NHS !!!

Why are your posts always batshit?! I've noticed it a lot over the last few weeks. All the you keep posting. She isn't legally allowed to administer the paracetamol and not qualified to clean a wound! The OP is being sensible and covering her own arse!

Nurses and HCAs have different uniforms. At least in all of Scotland. They are different colours so doctors would know not to ask HCAs to give any meds.

Oh my gosh. Im a hca in a community hospital, have been for 5 years and never had anything like this!

nursing is underpinned by a culture of bullying at least 50% of the time, many of them are great nurses but vile to each other.

OP what you are experiencing is a large part of why the NHS is on its knees. You’ll see that it’s not all financial problems and bed blocking. The culture within many many clinical areas is absolutely appalling, to the extent what most sane people would walk away. Its a culture that harms staff and patients. What do you think patient safety is like in these teams where they ask untrained staff to perform patient care? And try and humiliate these staff into compliance?

Would anyone accept being spoken to like this as a new starter in any other workplace?
And I wonder why the NHS has a recruitment crisis.

I think it's a bit rich that someone accuses you of being useless when they have spent decades in training for their job and don't know that HCAs can't administer drugs! I'd be making formal complaints about the lot of them and putting them down a peg or two if they try it again!

You always get this in high stress work environments, rather than helping each other and having a sense of camaraderie, you get morons who just bully others. These people are just plain nasty and immature. Treat them like the childish bullies they are behaving like.

You are right on the money.

When I had DD1 I had an awful HCA who I still believe was the ultimate trigger for my PND.

She absolutely destroyed any confidence or self esteem I had as a first time mum. She made me feel so small and inadequate.

She was shit at her job (she couldn’t do basic things like fastening a mask on my baby who was being treated for jaundice properly, and she overfed her to the point where she projectile vomited everywhere, despite me showing her her feeding chart and saying that she definitely did not need more milk). She refused to help me hours after a c section which was under GA, and I had also had an epidural a few hours before that. I had to spend 20 minutes slowly moving up and out of the bed to pick up my baby. I was explicitly told by a midwife earlier to ring for help because of those reasons, but when I did she looked at me like I had 3 heads, said “I’m busy”, and never came back.

That’s before I even get into her bullying behaviour. Purposely moving my items (ie a clean babygro, a packet of baby wipes and a nappy) to the furthest away corner in the bay I was in. She picked up my phone off the bed and set it there, too, when she wasn’t even checking me or baby (she wandered in, lifted my phone, set it down and walked out again. I was too gobsmacked to speak). She constantly kept coming in and out for no reason (not checking me or baby, none of us had any drugs being used at the time, etc), constantly immediately opening the curtains when I had just closed them for a bit of privacy, etc. Always coming in and waking me when I’d just managed to doze off, but never when I was wide awake the rest of the 20h of the day. And she was always as nice as pie when my partner was there, but as soon as he left to go home she completely changed her attitude and the way she spoke to me. I felt like I was going insane.

To this day, she’s the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever met.

@greencarr And I wonder why the NHS has a recruitment crisis.
You think thats the only reason, its just a drop in the ocean.

You have to be a registered nurse or have a PGD for administering any medication in a hospital setting and you have to be seen as competent in aseptic dressing changes. Which are generally done by a registered practitioner or an HCA/ nursing associate who’s had extra training.

I’m sorry you have had a bit of a tough week OP. I hope it improves and doesn’t put you off completely! Might be worth speaking to your manager about your responsibilities and job description. You sounds sensible but someone else might come into the job and feel pressured into doing these things.

@atronger, ignore this. You sound like you have a sensible outlook and I’m sure you’ll be a great HCA and nurse.

Hopefully it was just a bad shift and things will improve. If not, speak to your manager and ask to be transferred, maybe back to gynae?

Hi, fellow HCA here, but a long timer. Nope, you should not be giving patients medication unless you feel confident it's something simple and not a controlled drug ("Could you help Patient X take her paracetamol" is perfectly reasonable. but only if you feel okay with it.) I helped one of my patients take her meds this morning and then almost sht myself because for probably the first time ever, I hadn't checked with the trained nurse that they were newly administered, and not left over from the night before, or whatever. (It happens!) I'm wondering what kind of ward/unit you are on, if you are helping dress wounds and also being expected to put patients in plaster? As far as I'm aware, plaster training is really very in-depth, and certainly not the remit for a new HCA - or a long standing one, such as myself, come to that. Helping nurses re-dress a wound, yes, I get that, but not to do it yourself. I am very surprised about all of the content of this post, are you in the UK? For what it's worth, I've had a hard day on the ward too! I hope you can find someone to talk to - you should at the very least have another HCA working with you, to show you the ropes. Good luck...! :-D