Read more
This revised edition of Essential Knowledge and Skills for Healthcare Assistants is an accessible and comprehensive text designed to equip you with the necessary skills for your practice.
This is an essential guide for all those training as healthcare assistants, nursing associates and assistant practitioners.
List of contents
Section l - All change, 1 The evolving role of the healthcare assistant, Section ll - Some useful stuff, 2 Understanding reflective practice, 3 Accountability and delegation, 4 Using protocols ,5 Communicating with patients, 6 Simple assertiveness skills, 7 Confidentiality, consent and record keeping, 8 Safeguarding, 9 Health promotion - the key messages, 10 Keeping it clean. Hand decontamination, 11 Chaperoning, Section lll - Core skills, 12 Physiological measurements, 13 Understanding and measuring blood pressure accurately, 14 Understanding the heart. How to perform the electrocardiograph (ECG), 15 Venepuncture and capillary blood testing - best practice, 16 Kidney function and urine. Performing accurate urinalysis, Section lV- More advanced skills, 17 Examining the feet of people with diabetes, 18 The skin and the healing process. Basic wound care, 19 Understanding lung function and disease. Performing accurate lung function testing, 20 Administering injections, 21 Ear irrigation
About the author
Zoë Rawles qualified as a nurse in 1980, having trained on one of the first nursing degree courses in the country, graduating from the Welsh National School of Medicine in 1980. She spent most of her career working in primary care as a practice nurse. In 1999, she graduated as a nurse practitioner from Swansea University with a first-class honours degree, and subsequently worked as a lecturer on the same course from 2001 to 2009 during its transition from degree to master's course. In 2010, Zoë co-wrote a book,
Physical Examination Procedures for Advanced Nurses and Independent Prescribers, with two colleagues. In 2003, while working in general practice, Zoë mentored healthcare assistants who were undergoing training, and she became interested in the developing role of the healthcare assistant. She set up a business (HealthTrain) with a nursing colleague and delivered accredited training for primary care staff, including healthcare assistants. Zoë ran the business single-handedly from 2009-2021, and was instrumental in developing a Level 3 Diploma course for HCAs with her local health board (Hywel Dda University Health Board in West Wales).
