Healthcare Assistant: HMP Nottingham

Job content

Looking for something new & exciting in the NHS? Ever considered Prison healthcare?

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Healthcare Assistant to join the Offender Health Directorate working at HMP Nottingham. HMP Nottingham is a Category B Prison.

As part of a small team, you will be part of a team offering a holistic package of care to a vulnerable group of men ensuring any immediate healthcare concerns are managed, prescribed medications are continued, and a safe discharge is facilitated. An important part of your role will be to offer emotional support to this group of men at an uncertain time in their lives.

The service provision will be seven days a week 24 hours a day and you will work in partnership with other providers to achieve high quality outcomes for the client group. We aim to provide healthcare to those detained that is equivalent to those in the community.

Working as part of a small team you will have the opportunity to make a real difference to our patients, who are often not in receipt of essential healthcare services in the community - for a variety of reasons.

As a Healthcare Assistant, you will work closely with the nursing team to support patients who are accessing Healthcare whilst at HMP Nottingham.

As a key member of the Healthcare Team, you will contribute to a wide variety of care being delivered from initial assessment / screening for all new patients, clinical triage, emergency response, and the care of minor illness and injuries.

You will play an active role in providing a positive healthcare experience to a group of patients who are usually identified as experiencing poor health outcomes.

Whilst in our care you will support patients to become more aware of their own health needs and offer advice and guidance around health promotion.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare employs over 10,000 colleagues who help #MakeADifference every day. We provide intellectual disability, mental health, community health, forensic and offender healthcare services across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire. Care is delivered from over 120 sites within the community from acute settings and across low, medium and high secure environments including prisons.

As one of the largest mental health and community trusts in the East Midlands and one of the biggest employers in Nottinghamshire. We are also home to national and regional services such as the National High Secure Deaf Service and the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health.

We are committed to flexible and agile working, including the opportunity to join our bank.

Your health and wellbeing is our priority and as such we invest significantly in this via our in-house Occupational Health Service, Staff Counselling Service and Health and Wellbeing Team.

We offer a number of employee-led staff networks, including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) groups, our Green Champions Network, Freedom to Speak Up Network. Health and Wellbeing Champions Network and Menopause Champions. We provide care to a diverse range of communities and are passionate about supporting diversity and inclusion in the Trust.

If you believe in our values of Trust, Honesty, Respect, Compassion and Teamwork, then we would love to hear from you!

#TeamNottsHC

The Offender Health Directorate is one of the largest and most successful providers of prison healthcare in the UK. The Directorate provide physical, mental health and substance misuse healthcare services in prisons across the East Midlands, Lincolnshire & Leicestershire.

The Directorate provides healthcare to 9 prisons and one Short Term Holding Facility. You are part of a large peer group of 400+ healthcare professionals with access to peer support, supervision and excellent opportunities for learning and development. We also offer services within the Personality Disorder Pathway, including Therapeutic Communities (within prisons), Community and Prison Personality Disorder services and specialist Veteran Services.

We are committed to working in partnership with prison services, national probation service other healthcare providers and our criminal justice system partners to improve health, support justice to reduce re-offending behaviour. The Offender Health Team truly believes it can make a difference to the lives of offenders by offering consistent, high-quality care in primary, mental health and substance misuse services that are equivalent to health services delivered outside of Prison.

In this role you will:
Support GP and nurse led clinics including assisting with minor surgery.

Support registered nurses in maintaining general and specific patient observations and record all relevant information.

Undertake technical and clinical procedures following appropriate training and assessment, for example, venipuncture, wound assessment and care, urinalysis, ECG recording, physical observations, peak flow measurements and obtaining specimens.

Follow protocols and patient pathways in response to patient need.

Report health abnormalities identified during general health checks to the Senior Nurse on duty.

To work within the offender healthcare team to undertake a range of health promotion activities, for example sexual health screening and advice, smoking cessation clinics.

Support the registered nurse in responding to health emergencies.

Provide health escort duty to hospital if the senior nurse has assessed it as appropriate.

Ensure that the clinical environment is prepared and maintained according to health and safety, infection control policy and report any incidents to senior staff.

Facilitate the monitoring and maintenance of supplies of materials and equipment within the care environment.