If you are someone who has considered a career in the healthcare sector with no prior education or experience, then starting as a health services assistant could turn your life around. It will not only introduce you to the field, but also open up a plethora of options. However, it does require certification and some training. By the end of this blog, you will have a clear plan of action with proper knowledge about the field you are about to get into.

Who is a Health Services Assistant?

The healthcare sector is one of Australia’s fastest-growing industries. With a career in healthcare, you are also offering yourself flexibility, stability, and job satisfaction. A health services assistant is an individual working under the supervision of a doctor or a nurse. They work at hospitals or community facilities.

A study from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that approximately 14.5% of the Australian population is employed in social and healthcare assistance. Actually, the healthcare sector is much more wide-ranging than one would think it to be—more than doctors and nurses. The job prospects are immense without the cost of an extremely expensive degree.
Job Types and Designations in Healthcare Sector

As mentioned above, healthcare is much more expensive than it is thought to be and also provides a lot of jobs. The types of jobs include Patient Services Assistant, Nursing Assistant, Theatre Orderly, and other similar designations.
In the future, if they study and train, healthcare assistants can also become assistant practitioners, podiatrists, and registered nurses.

The Course of Action toward becoming a Health Services Assistant

On your road to becoming a health services assistant, apart from the goodwill and heart to do it, you also need one more thing and that is training. Patient Services Assistant training is important to receive as it ensures that an individual has the ability to take care of a patient and can do the job well. After all, they are patients because of the complications, and to have a career in the healthcare sector, one needs to know how to deal with patients and how to provide them services.

Certification

For this no-less-than-first step, get certified by doing a certificate course of Health Services Assistant. Why? Because to stand out in competition you not only need personality traits but also require the relevant practical knowledge to be applied. There are several levels in these programs and a great way to start. Some open colleges offer comprehensive certificate courses for Health Services Assistants that amount to an actual diploma and help you kick start your career in the healthcare sector.

Skills Required to be a Health Services Assistant

For making a successful career as a health services assistant, the crucial skills that you will be needing are as follows:

Personality Skills/ Traits
An eye for detail – Being a keen observer becomes imperative as you will be working around critical conditions where compromise in the right equipment, true cleanliness, sterilisation, and other things can result in unwarranted consequences.

Communication skills – Having great communication is a must almost everywhere. It becomes a mandate where you not only have to follow instructions from the medical staff but also listen to a patient’s needs carefully to fully understand.

A positive attitude – as you will be around negative emotions all the time, carrying a positive attitude and being hopeful will not only help you get by but will improve other people’s disposition as well.

Pressure bearing – Bearing high pressure on a day-to-day basis will become highly commonplace. You should be competent enough to survive in a high-pressure team environment.

Empathy – Empathy is a very desirable trait to have, especially in someone working with people be it in business or medical settings. It will help you understand and follow your patients better, and will help you react in ways that are more impactful.

Patience - While working with patients who are suffering from various ailments that affect them in multiple ways, one must be patient and kind towards them. Understanding them becomes more important than trying to reason with such patients.

Practical Skills

Physical strength – It is necessary for a healthcare assistant because the job might require you to help patients having trouble getting up and moving. To help them in and out of beds, chairs, and baths, one must be strong enough to carry out these tasks and also be up on feet at all times.

Checking the vital signs of the patients with accuracy – The healthcare worker should not only be able to take measurements of vital signs like blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate but should also have the idea if anything is unusual about them.

A healthcare assistant does not need to have formal medical training as such. However, one might sometimes learn to do certain tasks like checking vitals.

Certification that you adhere to a defined set of standards is definitely a plus but not mandatory before starting work. It can be gained even after.

Relevant work experience in the field of care work is appreciated.

The other requirements of the role are generally taught during patient services assistant training; the effectiveness of which can be gauged through the willingness to work hands-on.

Conclusion

As becoming a healthcare assistant does not require any specific degree or graduation, it opens up the healthcare sector for many people and acts as a bridge. As a health services assistant, there are many benefits that one gets including flexibility and fulfillment.
For those who fear having zero knowledge related to healthcare and still want to pursue, there are many courses and training that cover everything right from the basics as to how the human body works, how to provide a safe and sterile environment to the patients, and also the medical terminology and jargon that one might encounter on a daily basis.

When followed correctly, the above-mentioned steps can make your career in health care as a health care assistant super smooth. Moreover, there is always a chance to upskill and upgrade. For example, from being an assistant in nursing to become a registered nurse.

If beginning your career in health as a Health Services Assistant sounds like the perfect career path for you, then take a look at our [url]https://guidestartraining.com.au/certificate-iii-in-health-services-assistance/ [/url]page to find out more. or https://guidestartraining.com.au/contact-us/ at GTPS for further information on this course.