Healthcare Assistant Training at Mid Cheshire

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust introduced training for healthcare assistants (HCAs) in April 2011. The initial drive for an improvement in the training of HCAs arose from recognition that this workforce received very little tuition prior to working on acute care wards.The programme is a mandatory three-day training programme for all newly recruited HCAs. It covers a range of topics across nine core clinical skills, and includes both theoretical and practical teaching sessions. Practice educators and specialist nurses deliver training over a three day period during the corporate induction programme, which takes place once a month. Places are also available for existing employees to attend training if nominated by their line manager.Delegates are asked to score their confidence levels in performing the nine clinical skills, before and after training, and over a four month period the difference in the scores is collated to measure any percentage increase in confidence.