Senior Healthcare AssistantNHS
Job summary
Please note: at this stage, the role is open only to colleagues currently employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts, the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Medway Community Healthcare. Nursing vacancies are also open to Student Nurses and Newly Qualified Nurses.
Join our dedicated Community Hospitals Team and play a vital role in delivering high-quality, compassionate care to patients within a supportive healthcare environment. Based at one of our community hospitals, you will provide both clinical and non-clinical care, helping patients maintain their independence, wellbeing, and dignity. Duties include personal care, basic observations, catheter and stoma care, wound management, venepuncture, ECGs, blood glucose monitoring, specimen management, risk assessments, and accurate documentation of care provided.
Working closely with registered practitioners and a multidisciplinary team, you will contribute to the planning, delivery, and evaluation of patient care, while recognising when to escalate concerns and seek support. Excellent communication skills, kindness, and respect for privacy, confidentiality, and individual needs are essential. We offer ongoing training, supervision, development opportunities, and support to achieve the Care Certificate where required. This is a rewarding role for someone who is adaptable, compassionate, and committed to delivering outstanding patient-centred care.
Main duties of the job
- Deliver high-quality, compassionate clinical and non-clinical care to patients in a community hospital setting.
- Support patients to maintain independence, wellbeing, and self-care skills.
- Monitor and record patient observations accurately within care records.
- Provide personal care, including washing, dressing, and hygiene support.
- Undertake catheter care, including changing catheter bags and catheters.
- Deliver mouth care and stoma care in line with care plans.
- Support patients with nutrition, hydration, and fluid balance monitoring.
- Perform blood glucose monitoring and calibrate blood glucose equipment.
- Carry out MRSA screening swabs and manage clinical specimens.
- Complete risk assessments, including falls, nutrition, hydration, and skin integrity assessments.
- Administer delegated subcutaneous injections (e.g. insulin) and undertake venepuncture.
- Perform ECGs, bladder scanning, urinalysis, and simple wound care, including post-surgical wound management.
- Use aseptic non-touch technique (ANTT) and adhere to infection prevention standards.
- Communicate effectively with patients, families, carers, and colleagues, adapting communication to individual needs.
- Obtain consent and involve patients in decisions about their care.
- Maintain patient dignity, privacy, confidentiality, and respect for cultural and religious needs.
- Work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team to deliver safe, effective care.
- Support registered practitioners in implementing and evaluating care plans.
Job description
As a community Trust, many of our roles require individuals to be able to drive to perform their duties. Where driving is a requirement of the role, you will be asked to confirm that you hold a full UK driving licence or a full driving licence issued by an EU country (not exchanged from a non-EU country) to proceed with your application. We are committed to supporting candidates with disabilities into employment. If you are unable to drive due to a disability, please contact the Recruitment Team via [email protected], quoting the vacancy reference number, so we can support you further.
The job description and person specification gives you all the information you need about this role. Please look carefully at the criteria in the person specification and tell us what you have done that shows you meet this in your application. If you need an application form in an alternative format please let our recruitment team know. All information you supply on your application should, to the best of your knowledge, be true and accurate.
Still have questions? The recruiting manager would love to hear from you, their contact details can be found in the job advert.
We can get a lot of applications for some roles so to be in with the best chance of being shortlisted please make sure you apply as soon as possible. A vacancy may close early if there is a lot of interest in the job.
At KCHFT we strongly encourage colleagues in clinical and non-clinical roles who have direct or social contact with patients to be fully vaccinated. In this way we will be doing all we can to ensure your safety and that of your colleagues and the patients we serve.
Find out more about the community difference here.
Good luck! We cant wait to meet you and welcome you to #teamKCHFT, #cometocommunity.
About us
Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust is due to integrate with Medway Community Healthcare on 1 October 2026. Following integration and to align our community services to the new Neighbourhood Model of care delivery, there will be a period of consultation which may result in changes affecting some services, teams or roles. Depending on the area you are applying to work in, this could include potential changes to your role, work base, reporting arrangements, or terms and conditions of employment. Any changes would be subject to consultation and managed sensitively and in line with relevant employment processes. Please do contact the recruiting manager if you have any concerns about this so they can answer any questions you might have.
Rated 'Outstanding' by CQC, we deliver high-quality care that improves the health of our communities. We are looking for people who share our values:Compassionate, Aspirational, Responsive and Excellent.
We are proud to be an inclusive, welcoming organisation and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We use protected characteristic information for monitoring only and it is not seen by recruiting managers, except where applicants choose to be considered under our disability guaranteed interview scheme.
We know life outside work matters. As a flexible working-friendly organisation, we welcome conversations about arrangements that help you thrive while supporting excellent care for our patients.