Essential Knowledge and Skills for Healthcare Assistants

Zoe Rawles, Zoë Rawles

Section I – All change 1. Evolving role of the healthcare assistant (HCA) Section II – Some useful stuff 2. Understanding reflective practice 3. Understanding accountability and delegation 4. A bit about protocols Section III – Before you start: the basic ingredients 5. Communicating with patients 6. Simple assertiveness skills 7. Confidentiality, consent and record keeping 8. Health promotion: the key messages Section IV – Core skills 9. Keeping it clean – hand decontamination 10. Physiological measurements 11. Understanding blood pressure and performing accurate measurements 12. Understanding the heart and performing the electrocardiograph (ECG) 13. Venepuncture best practice 14. Understanding lung function and disease: performing accurate lung function testing 15. Kidney function and urine: performing accurate urinalysis 16. Skin and the healing process: basic wound care 17. Chaperoning Section V – Finishing touches 18. Training for the future