23 May 2011
Helping Hands Offers Superior Care Training
We have known it for years and have been telling all our customers, recruits and carers that we have the best home care training team and facilities on offer. Now it has been officially recognised by the Great British Care Awards that our very own Training Manager Julie Mills is the best trainer in the land. Julie Scooped the top prize at a lavish awards ceremony held in London Last week, beating off six other trainers from different organisation across the country.
Julie manages and is supported by an amazing and diverse training team with over thirty years of experience between them. We thought that it would be interesting to write about what actually goes on during the training sessions and the role that Julie and her team play in making the training offered by Helping Hands the best in the country.
To become a Helping Hands Carer, an intensive residential training course must be undertaken and passed successfully. The training course is held over 5 days at our new specialist training facility at Minerva Mill Innovation Centre Alcester, where new recruits are continually assessed, monitored and interviewed by our recruitment team.
The new training facility provides a number of break-out group training areas, fully fitted training kitchen, multiple mock residential areas for role play training as well as a comprehensive collection of care equipment. The centre has been developed in order to continue to deliver quality training as the development and wellbeing of our carers is at the heart of Helping Hands since the business began in 1989 and remains a key focus today
Moving and Handling
In many circumstances, carers will need to assist a customer with their movement by offering a steadying arm or using a specialist piece of equipment such as a hoist to physically move the customer. Safe handling techniques and assessment of risks involved are demonstrated with every single carer using each piece of equipment to demonstrate their understanding of the skills and steps involved.
Medication
With medication it is vitally important to understand the correct way in which it is to be taken and administered. To ensure all home care providers fully understand the practices involved our fully qualified trainers guide them through dispensation and how to safely store as well as dispose of medication, this is in accordance with the Care Quality Control (CQC) guidelines.
Health, Safety and Security
There are health and safety hazards in every home and each care situation is different. When in placement and caring, our carers must be on the look out for any hazards or security issues that may affect themselves or the service user.
Emergency First Aid
Knowing what to do in the event of an emergency is crucial for any carer. Helping Hands carers are instructed what to do in an emergency situation and how to keep calm and focused. By the end of the first aid training all the carers will know how to:
- Assess a situation
- Make it safe
- Emergency aid
- Get help
- What to do in the aftermath
Infection and control
The spread of infection and bacteria is a hot topic and one that we take very seriously. Each carer is shown how to reduce the risk of infection.
Effective Communication
We know that communication is so important to our customers and being able to understand and communicate with their carer is vital, therefore all the carers undertaking the course are trained in and assessed on their methods of communication. Written communication is also key, all records (such as the care plan) must be kept up to date with all the relevant information in a legible and tidy manner.
Cooking
We know how important food and meal times are to our customers, this is why we take time to teach our carers some good wholesome recipes
Final Interview
At the end of the five day training course, our qualified recruitment managers will review all the feedback received from the training staff about the individual carers. The feedback covers the carer’s attitudes, willingness to learn, competency and how they interacted with other carers and Helping Hands staff.
Each carer is then interviewed and questioned on what they have learnt and how they felt the training has benefited them. Any remarks or observations that our training staff made during the five training days will be tackled and the responses to these issues recorded and weighted accordingly when it comes to making the final decision on whether we offer the carer a position.
