Unit Six
Career planning and development for health care assistants
Unit key benefits
Reading this unit will:
- explain the career pathway for health care assistants (HCAs), and what options there are to develop and progess
- describe the career planning progress
- describe the help and support that is available to HCAs and employers to support career development.
Career planning is essential at every stage of an HCA’s career:
- for established HCAs working in general practice and considering their career pathway
- for HCAs working in community or secondary-care settings and considering a move to general practice
- for those individuals considering to begin their career as an HCA.
HCAs are key to effective team working and skill mix in general practice. The challenge for the general practice team, the PCT and the NHS as a whole is to create a working environment that encourages HCAs to remain working within the NHS for as long as possible.
Providing HCAs with career support and guidance will give them the opportunity to undertake a fulfilling career, in which they develop their knowledge and skills in line with new roles and responsibilities throughout their career.
The potential of HCAs working in general practice is only just being realised.
Career planning
Career planning is all about addressing the central questions.
- Where are you now?
- Where do you want to be?
- How are you going to get there?
- What will you do if you do not get there?
So, in general, for someone to have the best chance of ‘getting there’ they need to:
- understand their values, beliefs and preferences – what they want out of their work
- identify their transferable skills – know more about their strengths and the opportunities that exist
- have support to help them formulate and carry out their action plans – from a career mentor, careers adviser, interested line manager etc who can hopefully challenge their limiting beliefs
- be provided with the opportunity for development – to take up progressive learning activities with enough time to learn and practise new skills
- have time and space for reflection – on all the above and progress made.
Career progression
When asked at a recent Unison conference3, 84% of the HCAs attending said that they would like to access professional training, especially nursing. Many remain frustrated because there are no clear pathways for career progression from HCA to registered nurse. There is also a financial consideration that must be taken into account as HCAs are often more mature people with family commitments. This makes it difficult for them to leave their job and take up a course of study.
Financial support
There is support for people who wish to enrole on a nursing diploma or degree course in the form of an NHS bursary. This can be means tested or non-means tested. The grant is awarded to eligible students to cover everyday living costs, such as accommodation, and depends on the level of undergraduate course that they take up. See www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/nhs-knowledge_base/data/225.html for more information.
Contact your local university to find out more about the arrangements for the courses that they offer.
Nurse education
Can be entered by taking either a diploma or a degree course to qualify as a registered nurse. Both courses have around 50% theory and 50% workplace learning, which usually takes place in a hospital setting. The courses are provided by universities; a diploma course lasts 3 years and a degree course 3–4 years. There are no national minimum entry requirements into nursing as each Higher Education Institution (HEI) sets its own criteria.
The first, or foundation, year concentrates on the basic principles of nursing and then students would specialise in adult, children, mental health or learning disability nursing.
Once qualified, students would then be able to apply for jobs within general practice. The GPN toolkit (see toolkit) gives more information about career progression for general practice nurses.
Allied health professions
Unit 6: Career planning and development for health care assistants from a health care assistant’s perspective (PDF 118KB) gives more detail on the different types of roles HCAs may wish to consider.
However, career progression does not have to mean going up the career ladder, but can also mean expanding skills in an existing role. Many HCAs are interested in progressing in alternative ways, such as higher-level NVQs or bespoke courses for HCAs at more advanced levels.
There are PCTs and practices that will support HCAs to progress to more senior roles or to achieve nursing and health professional qualifications (which can be registered), but these are the exception rather than the rule.
Career progression has been made more difficult because the qualifications that underpin HCA training, NVQs, are based on national occupational standards, whilst professional qualifications are not. Without a common language of competence, transition from ‘support worker’ to ‘professional’ (as the occupations are termed in the NHS) is more difficult than it need be.4 The Working in Partnership Programme General Practice Nursing Project is developing a competency framework for general practice nursing to help overcome these differences.
Summary
- It is important to provide HCAs with opportunities to develop their career in an environment where personal development is encouraged.
- Career planning requires the HCA to reflect on what is important to them about their role and how they would like to develop their working life.
- With the support of their employers, HCAs have the potential to develop careers in other areas of healthcare, for example general practice nursing.
References
- Campbell P. A Report on Primary Care Nursing in Shropshire and Staffordshire. Stafford: Shropshire and Staffordshire Strategic Health Authority; 2004.
- Chambers R (editor). Career Planning for Everyone in the NHS. The Toolkit. Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing; 2005.
- Unison. Patricia Hewitt promises action on pay. London: UNISON; 2005. http://www.unison.org.uk/healthcare/news_view.asp?did=2174.
- Kendall L, Lissauer R. The Future Health Worker. London: The Institute of Public Policy Research; 2003.