Part Time Auxiliary Nurse/HCA

Hummm im gonna try ringing and harrassing the HR departments now - i just keep getting rejected online. Do i tell them im a medical student or not??
I did have a nice care in the community job which i liked assessing peoples homes and stuff until the stupid DVLA decided they needed to wait another month and a half on my licence!!

Don't apply online. Call HR/recruitment directly. Have you tried NHS professionals?

Do you reckcon its easier to write a letter to HR departments or call? (or letter then follow up by phone?)

If I send a letter, would it be best to include a CV or a sheet explaining why I'd be suitable, or just to leave it as "blah blah blah any information on opportunities available would be greatly appreciated, as to which I shall take it from there." kinda thing?

Do you reckcon its easier to write a letter to HR departments or call? (or letter then follow up by phone?)

If I send a letter, would it be best to include a CV or a sheet explaining why I'd be suitable, or just to leave it as "blah blah blah any information on opportunities available would be greatly appreciated, as to which I shall take it from there." kinda thing?

CALL. Or visit. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you seem very reticent to get in touch with anybody in person. I understand it is nerve wracking (for the research project I am doing this year I have to ring up total strangers and try and get them to give up three hours of their time to do MY research study, it's horrible!), but at the end of the day you are much more likely to get a response in person. It's like with shadowing - send 30 letters to doctors, you'll be lucky to get one back. Approach one in person (my favourite method!) and they can't say no!!

i only had to do one orientation shift, and was then employed, but my training took forever (it was only actually 4 days, but they were spread over 4 months!!! not good)
however it has been worth it, for sundays i get time + 78% (so like almost £12 an hour) and i also do "specialing" shifts on neuro, which involves just looking after a single patient which can be nice from time to time.

Its a really good job and bank is good because you only have to work one shift minimum every 6 months (at my trust anyway) so i can keep the job through university by working holidays, as well as hopefully going at the bank wherever i go to study medicine.

That sounds just like my experience, and I see you're Welsh as well - Cardiff and Vale by any chance? If so, I guess we've probably done 'special' shifts with the same patients, haha..

Either way, it's a fab job OP: I work for the Nurse Bank and get paid around £10/hour overnight and on Saturdays, and around £7/hour the rest of the time (I don't work Sundays, but if I did I think the pay would be around £12/hour - same goes for bank holidays). Besides the regular personal care duties (washing, feeding, aiding patients to the toilet etc) I also perform observations (blood pressure; oxygen saturation; heart rate; temperature etc), ECGs, enemas, suctioning and BMs (blood-sugar tests for diabetics) as well as changing feeds, dressings, colostomy bags, catheter bags and so on. Aside of that, the job also entails preparing dead bodies for the morgue, 'special' work (where you work as an individual or as part of a team with just one patient) and assisting senior nurses or doctors with more complicated procedures such as sigmoidoscopies, cannulation, catheterisation and so on. It's not complicated in the slightest - it's actually really good fun a lot of the time, and gives the opportunity to pick up a huge amount of knowledge, if you're observant. The brilliant thing about working for a Nurse Bank, too, is that you get to work *everywhere* - I've been in theatre, A&E, post-surgery, neuropsychology, rehab, mental health, even an 'infectious diseases' unit, where everyone is barrier-nursed... basically you name it, I've worked there. Which is fantastic if you're looking for broad work experience.

I was 19 or 20 when I started doing it, and am now just about to turn 23.

Hope this is of some use to you!

I was volunteering on my ward today, talking to one of the nurses about stuff in general, and she came up with how some med students are part time auxiliary nurses/HCA's, and how you can do it from age 18. There was also an article in SBMJ, namely http://student.bmj.com/issues/08/06/life/232.php

Does anyone have any experience on applying, pay, working conditions etc. etc.? I'm considering changing my part time job from tescos to this kinda thing when I become 18, if it is, of course, possible.

Any advice appreciated

aah no offence taken. See I'm only 16 at the moment, 17 in march, and so just thought in a way it'd be better to write in a 'requesting information, seeing if the opportunity is avaiable now/for when I turn 17', but from what people have said, it seems much better to go in person, which I shall do.

that sounds really interesting!
I volunteer on a surgical ward, and I'd primarily want to be there if I got the job, but you say theatres (surgery is something im considering as a speciality in the many many many years time until I get past FY1 and 2...), what kind of work does that entail? Is it in the theatre area, like pre op and all that? I'm unsure, as the only HCA's ive seen are ward based, anything theatre is technicians, theatre nurses, drs etc. etc.