1 / 15

The decision to appoint a health care assistant

The decision to appoint a health care assistant Hilary Andrews Helen Dyer Vanessa Whillier Woodlands Health Centre. The decision to appoint a health care assistant. Do I need an HCA? How do I know I need an HCA?. Increased pressures in general practice. QOF targets Pressure of work on staff

sacha-cotton
Download Presentation

The decision to appoint a health care assistant

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The decision to appoint a health care assistantHilary Andrews Helen DyerVanessa WhillierWoodlands Health Centre

  2. The decision to appoint a health care assistant • Do I need an HCA? • How do I know I need an HCA?

  3. Increased pressures in general practice • QOF targets • Pressure of work on staff • Maintenance of morale • Staff retention.

  4. Subjective v. objective measurements of workload • WiPP Workload Analysis Tool • QOF targets • Staff turnover • Activity data.

  5. Woodlands Health Centre • In 2002 Senior Practice Nurse due to retire • Possibility of employing HCA? • Employed an ‘independent’ advisor to report on: • Nursing activity data • What was happening elsewhere • Current skill-mix and future skill-mix options.

  6. Inability to recruit experienced nurses or GPs to the team • Unsuccessful advertisements • Inappropriate applicants • Nurses inexperienced in general practice.

  7. Skill-mix Is the right person for the task undertaking that task? • At Woodlands in 2002 over 3 nursing hours a week were spent on non-nursing housekeeping tasks • Thistlemoor Practice, Peterborough • The Ridge Medical Practice, Bradford.

  8. Skill-mix • Magic formula? • Skill-mix audit • Skills needed by a practice team must meet the needs of the patients in that practice • Problems of ‘role’.

  9. The HCA role

  10. Common concerns • Delegation • Accountability • Regulation.

  11. Woodlands Health Centre • Nurses well qualified, innovative and motivated • Nurses undertaking some long-term conditions management • Nursing hours below the national average • Skill-mix not apparent • Identified tasks suitable to be undertaken by a HCA • Identified the time needed by a HCA to undertake these tasks • Identified 6 skill-mix options • Recommendations for HCA supervision, induction, training and development.

  12. Woodlands Health Centre • Continual evaluation of nursing team and workload • 2003 and 2005 compared • In three years • 64% increase in nursing hours yet only a 44% increase in nursing budget • Increased from a team of three qualified nurses to a team of six including two HCAs • QOF targets • 99.5% of clinical indicator points met.

  13. HCAs • Effective and valued addition to the practice team • Increased overall efficiency of team • Value for money • Wish we’d thought of having one sooner!

  14. The decision to appoint a health care assistant Do I need an HCA?

  15. You’ve decided to appoint a health care assistant YES!

More Related