Healthcare Support Worker (Band 2-3 Developmental)

Job description

Healthcare Support Worker – Band 2 to 3 development role.
Salary: £25,272 pro rata per annum.
Work Location: Totton Dialysis Unit, Southampton, SO40 3ZN.
Hours per week: Full time, 37.5 hours per week
Operating pattern: Three shifts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and two shifts on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Working arrangements: Primarily based at Totton, with flexibility to work across other WKC units when required.
Are you the kind of person who always puts patients first? Are you a team player? Are you always looking to improve our patients' well-being?
If this is you, you could become a Healthcare Support Worker at Portsmouth Hospital University NHS Trust - you could be new to Health and Social Care, or an experienced support worker, we would love to hear from you!
Healthcare Support Workers (HCSW) are essential providers of everyday care for our patients. The HCSW role is rewarding, it's the kind of job where you will need to be organised, adaptable, resilient, and hardworking. You will have great prioritisation skills, good observational skills and have empathy for others.
You will start your career with us by taking part in our full time two week induction programme, designed to support you in finding your feet within our organisation, and enable you to feel part of the team. The induction program leads to the Care Certificate.
Totton Dialysis Unit is a nurse-led satellite dialysis unit based in Totton, Southampton, and forms part of the Wessex Kidney Centre (WKC) at Queen Alexandra Hospital. WKC is a regional renal and transplant centre, providing specialist care to over 1,500 patients receiving renal replacement therapy, including kidney transplantation, haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. The centre also performs approximately 100 kidney transplants each year.
Situated on the outskirts of the beautiful New Forest, Totton offers convenient road and rail links, making it an accessible location.
As a Band 2/3 HCSW, you will play an integral role within our friendly and supportive team, delivering safe, effective and compassionate haemodialysis care. You will work collaboratively with the wider multidisciplinary team to ensure care is coordinated, efficient and responsive to individual patient needs, while supporting patients and their families throughout their dialysis journey.
The role offers opportunities for ongoing professional development through clinical practice, education, training and participation in service improvement and research. Although primarily based at Totton, you may also be required to work across other areas of WKC, including satellite units and the main renal dialysis unit, to support the wider service when necessary.
Key Responsibilities:
Under the supervision of registered healthcare professionals, you will be assisting the team with the provision of clinical care for a defined group of patients. In addition, you will take all possible steps to safeguard the welfare, safety and security of patients, visitors, and staff.
Typical day-to day duties include:
• Providing care for patients, which will sometimes include handling of bodily fluids and excrete.
• Providing physical comfort for patients, whilst ensuring their privacy and dignity is always maintained
• Helping them to safely move around
• Assisting with cleaning tasks
• Monitoring patient conditions and report to senior team
• Recording information to patient administration systems and assist with other administrative duties
For job details and person specification please refer to the  Job Description
Qualifications
• English and Maths qualification at GCSE/Functional Skills at level 1 (or an internationally recognised equivalent).
• Completed Care Certificate or ability to complete within 3 months of appointment (Pro rata for part time employee).
• Complete Knowledge and Behaviour Framework within 6 months of appointment.
• ​​​​​Compliance with mandatory updates annually (or as required) on an ongoing basis.
Desirable:
• Level 2 qualification in a Health-related subject or equivalent in a relevant area gained through experience, on the job training, short courses and completion of work-based competencies.
• Experience in acute hospital setting, community setting or nursing home.
Skills and Knowledge
Essential:
• Ability to carry out assigned tasks effectively in a busy environment.
• Understands and complies with HCSW mandatory induction and code of conduct.
• Completion and maintenance of statutory & mandatory learning activities.
• Ability to deal with a range of difficult situations.
• Awareness, understanding and compliance of policies and practices e.g. Escort Policy, Infection Prevention and Control and Health and Safety. This post holder is therefore able to work within the scope of their practice under direct and indirect supervision by a registered nurse (training will be provided).
• Can demonstrate knowledge of equipment used within the department to support the registered nurse and ensure that they are compatible and in good working order. Will escalate any concerns to registered nurse or appropriate professional.
• Can demonstrate a range of core skills to competently undertake personal care for patients and related tasks and activities.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills/literacy/numeracy skills, including basic computer literacy, record keeping and time management.
• Teamwork, taking the initiative, multitasking, adaptability, organisational skills and emotional intelligence.
• Good observation skills and recognition of the importance of reporting.
Additional Information
The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.
We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.
For more information, please see our  People and OD Strategy 2026
Smoke Free Policy:
All of our hospitals operate a strict no smoking policy. Smoking cigarettes or tobacco products is not allowed on any of the grounds or in any of the buildings run by us. This applies to patients, staff, carers and visitors to Trust premises.
Our goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone we care for and, by making sure that our NHS services are smoke-free, we benefit the health of people who use our services as well as the health of the people who work for us.
About the Company
Here at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, we are proud to provide expert, compassionate care for our local population. We are ranked as the third in the country for research, embedding education and training across the organisation. Our main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals on the south coast employing over 8,700 staff.
Our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for getting it right for patients, colleagues, and our community, you will find a home at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.