Healthcare Support Workers Day, 2023

Wednesday 23 November 2023, marks Healthcare Support Worker (HCSW) celebration day, which shines a light on the invaluable contribution that all of our HCSWs make to their teams, to our patients and to the families and carers they work with every day.

Healthcare support workers work across a variety of setting across our Trust and they work in roles such as maternity support workers, healthcare assistants, theatre assistants and healthcare support workers.


Jo Bennis, Chief Nurse at the Trust said: "Our healthcare support workers are an invaluable asset, they are the bedrock of the care we provide on our wards and in our clinics. Healthcare support workers are colleagues who are working with everyone from children to adults in all aspects of the care that we can provide at our hospitals. It is why it is so important to recognise the incredible contribution all of our healthcare support workers make every single day in our hospitals."

In order to mark the day, we have spoken to four of our Healthcare Support Workers, you can hear about them, and their roles below: 

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Ali Macit

"My role as a Health Care Asistant consists of personal care and generally helping the Multi Disciplinary Team to care for and look after patients. As a Health Care Asistant a common day varies and each day is unique in its own way, from the patients I meet and the colleagues I work with as well as the events that can occur each shift. Since I am a bank Health Care Assistant, I have worked in various wards but have taken an interest in the Medical Asessment Unit because of the lovely staff and the hectic/busy environment, which I tend to enjoy working in.

"A usual day would start at 7 am where we would get a handover which lasts for around 30 minutes. At around 8 am breakfast starts to come around so I will help patients sit up in bed and have their breakfast. After this, I tend to aid in any personal hygiene that patients may need help with such as toileting, clean bedding, and washing. Then lunch comes around at 12:00 pm and that is followed by dinner at around 6:00 pm. Throughout the day there are jobs to complete such as paperwork like rounding, taking regular BMs, observations, occasional bloods and cannulation, toileting patients, monitoring patients, ECGs, admitting new patients, and a lot more. A lot of the work we do is to assist nurses in delivering the patient's care plan set by the doctors on the ward and helping around wherever we can such as chaperoning doctors during examinations, and helping OT/PTs to mobilise patients. Finally, the day comes to an end at 7:30 pm. 

"I am a medical student at the University of Leeds, so I usually work shifts during holiday periods. I enjoy my studies and find that being a Helath Care Assistant gives me an advantageous edge in my future clinical practice by working alongside nurses and the Multi Disciplinary Team, from which I learn a lot from and am able to gain a fresh understanding of what it is like to work in a position lower in the medical hierarchy allowing me to have an appreciation for all the hard workers of the NHS. In my spare time, I enjoy reading non-fiction books about geopolitics and medical-related themes. I also enjoy going for runs in my spare time and like to exercise frequently. I also enjoy traveling with my family and visiting new areas of the world, learning about different cultures and religions.

"It is hard to pinpoint one thing that I enjoy the most about supporting patients but something that comes to mind for me is the relationship and difference you can make in a patient's life simply by communicating and having a chat with them. We all know that the hospital is busy and many patients may not have family to visit them due to travel. Speaking to many patients and observing them getting medically better and their excitement from conversations makes my role as a Helath Care Asisstant very rewarding and I look forward to every shift I work because of this."