Specialist Healthcare Assistant

Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to escape your current job role and work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? Now is the time to break into offender healthcare and develop your career.
As part of the South West Prison Healthcare contract awarded to Oxleas NHS trust in 2022, we are able to expand recruitment and are looking for a compassionate, knowledgeable and motivated Specialist Healthcare Assistant to join our friendly team at HMP Bristol for a 12 month FTC (likely to be extended).
Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.
As part of our primary care team, you will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (inc pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward-thinking service, who encourage career and personal development to all staff to increase their clinical and interpersonal skills.
As a Specialist Healthcare Assistant you will be responsible for en suring the delivery of high quality primary care which will include assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating care. You will be supporting qualified staff in all activities relating to the delivery of high-quality patient centred care.
You will work and act as a key member of the team, supporting each patient in achievement of their planned outcomes. You will also be required to set up and support clinics for patients.
You will undertake an extended role as BBV Healthcare Assistant supporting offender-focused health promotion activities and programmes.
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
We’re Kind
We’re Fair
We Listen
We Care
To work as directed by a registered nurse.
To work within the clinical substance misuse service, identifying high risk patients to minimise the risk of BBVs through harm reduction
To provide care physical care to patients in accordance with their care plan.
To support the delivery of national screening programmes.
To support and deliver clinics as instructed within the establishments clinic timetable.
Participate in planning and liaison activities for patients
Inform a registered nurse as soon as possible when any change in a patient’s condition is noticed.
Support patients in change due to admission, discharge, death or personal loss and in adapting to their new environment.
Report any complaints or requests for information from patients immediately to the senior nurse on duty to enable prompt response.
Report all risks to the senior nursing staff.
Assist in the general running of the department by undertaking housekeeping and clerical duties as appropriate.
Participate in appraisal and training of self to develop a personal development plan and strive to achieve the set objectives,
Undertake any other duties commensurate to the grade and as requested by the line manager.
Attend staff meetings, updates and attend mandatory training as required.
Work closely with Management to ensure that the Prison Health Agenda is supported at all levels in the Practice.
Actively engaging with offenders in the provision of holistic, needs-led care which takes into account the physical, psychological, emotional, social and spiritual needs of individuals and groups.
Demonstrates a commitment to equal opportunities for all people. Responding to the needs of people sensitively with regard for age, culture, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and disability, especially regarding privacy and dignity
Demonstrates a knowledge of the term ‘professional boundaries’ and how to apply this to working with patients, offenders and others.
Understanding the need for promoting health & well-being and the delivery of health promotion activities and programmes (including self-help programmes) in support of a registered nurse.
Contributing appropriately to risk assessment and individualised care planning.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:
All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.
You will need to provide:
Proof of right to work documentation
Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographic ID
Proof of address documentation
Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.
Address History:
5 years address history will be needed.
Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.
Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited.
In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants
If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website ( http://www.fco.gov.uk/en ).