As a healthcare assistant (HCA), you’ll work under the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional, usually a nurse. Sometimes staff working in HCA roles are known as nursing assistants, nursing auxiliaries or auxiliary nurses.

The work varies depending on where you’re based. In a hospital for example, you may be

• washing and dressing patients
• serving meals and helping to feed patients
• helping people to move around
• toileting
• making beds
• talking to patients and making them comfortable
• monitoring patients’ conditions by taking temperatures, pulse, respirations and weight