Part Time Auxiliary Nurse/HCA

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applemilk1992

Quick question - My local hospital. better to write to the 'recruitment and retention' or human resources? I'd say the first.

Reply 41

*Stargirl*

Hello, I work as an HCA on a surgical ward. I do 4 shifts/week and am paid £6.6/hour, more for nights or weekends.

many patients are elderly as they take a lot longer to recover. i'm sure you've read a lot about the work involved from these posts. you may like to know that a new hca on our ward used to be a manager in a buisiness firm and she loves her new job here.

Reply 42

*Stargirl*

what i suggest you do about finding work is go on the nhs website because they put up all their vacancies on there (thousands!) then apply to all the ones you think are suitable and hope to be called for interview.

Reply 43

abbie robson

How do i get on to the bank?

Reply 44

345rty

I did a bit of agency work one summer, it was fairly pleasant. I had 40 hours a week in one place sitting around drinking tea with the residents and being fed for £6.50 an hour. On the days off from that I got long days at the hospital (14 hours at generally the same rate) the trick there was to obviously be a medical student temping over the summer then the nursing staff seemed to expect you to be hopeless and just ask you to do obs rounds and make tea. Occasionally school nurse stuff where I got £14 an hour to play board games with kids who were slightly tired and eat a constant stream of sandwiches delivered by beautiful spanish girls.

Good stuff for a summer job, I could work every day and rake in the cash, but I wouldn't do it in term time. I certainly wouldn't do it in a hospital where I might study, I saw one chap mid ward round be told by the consultant to go and do some HCA stuff as 'he works here'.

Reply 45

Subcutaneous

As a RN auxillary nurses are our back bone and support us- just like what we do for the doctors and the experience will be invaluable and you can always tell the doctors who's had the hands on practical care, and they are much liked on a busy ward as they do relate to the patients better and won't say no to getting their patient a commode after clerking rather than saying 'I'll tell a nurse' and walk off and forget to tell us.... :colonhash:

(can you tell this has happened recently lol).

Pay does vary when I was a HCA it was £7-£14 an hour depending on the type of shifts.

Reply 46

CourtyJade

Hi, I've just this week been trying to enquire about bank HCA and haven't got very far I've been told to ring my nearest hospital (royal Albert Edward infirmary) and ask for the HR department, I'm 19 and applying to university for children's nursing for next September hopefully, I have previously volunteered at that hospital not sure how many hours I did though, I was there for quite a few months. Just wondering if you had any advise ??

Reply 47

username1160024

Original post by abbie robson

How do i get on to the bank?

See if your local hospital has any guaranteed interview schemes. I did 100 hours volunteering and was guaranteed an interview and then got the job

Reply 48

skotch

Best way to get on is probably through nhs jobs. It's not very likely that you'll be able to go straight onto the staff bank.

Starting an HCA job in January at a really nice London hospital! Very excited. My pay will be somewhere between £17-21,000, plus I'm hoping to supplement it with bank work when I'm more established. Going to be tough though - 12.5 hour shifts!

Reply 49

CourtyJade

I'm not actually applying for a job usually once you turn 18 you can apply for bank work so that you can get experience etc

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Reply 50

aspiringbuddhist

Original post by .x.--Lou--.x.

It's a fab job!! But im guessing you want to know what i actually do...
First of all it depends on what hospital im working in (main or community), what ward im on (childrens/adult/surgical/medical/Rehab etc..) and finally what shift im working.

If im on a medical ward then I generally have more patient care to do, feeding, washing, basic obs etc. On the surgical ward its more kind cleaning the ward/bedmaking etc. The morning shifts tend to be the most hectic...I prefer working these, i don't like sitting around!!

If im working in a communtity hospital theres also less to do...just because their smaller and don't have as many patients.

I reckon if you have experience a a voluteer then there wouldn't be much of a step up, plus you get all the training you need...and if you feel you need more then you can just ask.

And I was 17 when I started...suprisingly you have to be 18 to volunteer with my trust, but I can work at 17!!

Hi x--Lou--x,
Did you have any qualifications when you applied that were essential, because the HCA job available at my nearest hospital says that 'A minimum of 12 months recent post registration experience is essential. A minimum of 9 months experience in a NHS acute trust setting is desirable.' ????