Healthcare assisstant OR carer??

**moe2k7** · 10-11-2009, 08:33 PM

Hi all

Just needed some advice. I'm currently on a gap year, still volunteering at the same nursing home I have been for the last year odd. I wanted to know which job is more favourable to do in terms of experience and how similar are they?
Ive been looking on nhsjobs for a HCA post in my local hospital since like my A2 exams! Ive recently been in contact with with my local nurse bank and they've said they have enough staff and said I need to actually work as a carer for atleast 6months! Plus she said its in high demand etc.

It seems to me its very difficult for me get a HCA job. If I start working part time as a carer will I be missing out?? To be honest I would rather continue volunteering because its alot more flexible but since losing my job in retail recently Im looking for jobs which will give me experience and some money

Any advice would be appreciated

**ljos** · 24-01-2010, 08:24 PM

If it were me, I'd be definitely wanting a Healthcare Assistant job. You'll be in an acute setting rather than a nursing home, getting paid, getting some training, and also getting used to full time hours in healthcare.

I know what you mean about how difficult it can be to get onto the totem pole. When I started as a Healthcare Assistant, my local hospitals wouldn't take me without six months experience either, so I had to work two towns away. It meant five am starts and a lot of travelling, but it was sufferable to get my feet under the table.

Some suggestions:

1. Carpet bomb all acute Trusts and PCTs that are within a reasonable commuting distance - some of them won't require any experience.

2. Read a book about how to write a CV and sell your A Levels, volunteering, commitment to healthcare and so on as making you a good bet for a Healthcare Assistant job. If you do this, even Trusts that want some experience might conceivably waive their requirements for six months experience.

3. Set up email alerts on NHS Jobs and make them specific: Agenda for Change pay bands 2 and 3, and in the staff groups of Nursing, Additional Clinical Services, and Allied Health Professionals. Apply for jobs as they appear in your inbox daily. Don't be too choosy - if you don't have any acute experience yet, it'll pretty much be all the same to you to be honest.

4. If all else fails, carpet bomb all the staff banks in the same fashion, but full time positions mean you get more training, guaranteed shifts, and a team of your own to work with. They're better for the NHS too.

Hope this helps!

**foxyamy** · 25-01-2010, 01:51 AM

As long as you can show what you have learned from it, you will be fine applying with experience as a carer. But getting a job as a HCA would give you a better insight into the NHS as well as just the caring role. It's all relative though, and there are plenty of people who get in having never worked as an HCA.

**moe2k7** · 25-01-2010, 03:17 AM

Thanks guys, its been a while since that post and I had applied to various HCA, lab assistant vacancies at my local hospital (yes they finalllyy had some) and unfortunately all were unsuccessful, didn't even get an interview.
So I pretty much gave up after that, but even at med school I would be keen to work on a bank - with some luck!

**MBharmal** · 04-02-2010, 03:13 AM

unfortunately all were unsuccessful, didn't even get an interview.

moe2k7: Don't give up hope...I applied to about 40 hospitals (no joke) before receiving a job interview as a healthcare assistant. Keep at it and just write a generic NHS form on NHS careers...you should hopefully get it.

It's honestly the best experience you can get in a hospital...I love the patient contact. Also, now that I have been in the Trust for 3 months you are eligible to sign up for Bank. Fingers crossed I'll be getting shifts in A&E if I get through interviews (in our trust you have interviews to work in A&E)

Best of luck!

**The Fantastic Dr. Fox** · 06-02-2010, 10:03 PM

I can only echo what has been said before. I found it so useful, if not just to get a place at medical school but also to affirm your choice to study it as you are going to have to spend a lot of time in hospitals so you need to know if you are willling to do it (as it happened, i really enjoyed it).

Dont be afraid of a commute, its definitely worth it. I was way to narrow in where i applied to to begin with but by spreading my applications i finally got a job (and in a semi-acute setting which is even better).

Also, try your best to get a full-time job. Speaking as someone who has done bank and full time work, i would definitely say it much nicer and much more productive to work in the same place for quite a while. Talk up you experience and the initiative you have shown to obtain it. Keep going and good luck!!!

**ljos** · 07-02-2010, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by The Fantastic Dr. Fox

Also, try your best to get a full-time job. Speaking as someone who has done bank and full time work, i would definitely say it much nicer and much more productive to work in the same place for quite a while.

Oh, I very much agree. You become very close to your team after a year (IME) and it's that esprit de corps that makes the job worthwhile. Bank staff just don't seem to become included in that unless they've been around a while and become known faces.