Healthcare Assistant: What is the cost of hiring?

What is a healthcare assistant?

A healthcare assistant (HCA) provides support to nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals. They help with day-to-day patient needs, such as washing, feeding and mobility assistance. They also carry out basic health checks. The role ensures patients are comfortable and that clinical staff can focus on specialist care.

Why recruit a healthcare assistant?

Recruiting a healthcare assistant helps maintain high standards of patient care and reduces the pressure on qualified medical staff. They play a critical role in improving patient wellbeing, supporting families and ensuring wards or care facilities run smoothly. You may need to recruit a healthcare assistant if patient demand is rising, staff are overstretched or your facility is expanding.

Contributions of a great healthcare assistant:

• Providing compassionate support to patients in daily activities
• Assisting healthcare professionals with routine tasks and observations
• Helping to maintain a safe, clean and supportive care environment

Defining your recruitment needs for a healthcare assistant

Before recruiting a healthcare assistant, clarify the type of care your facility requires. For example, decide whether the role will be based in a hospital, care home, GP surgery or community setting. Consider your budget, shift patterns and whether you need full-time or part-time staff. It’s also important to distinguish this role from similar ones, such as support worker or nursing assistant, to attract the right candidates with clear expectations.

What are the types of healthcare assistants?

Healthcare assistants can work in different environments and at varying levels of responsibility. Some may focus on general patient care in hospitals, while others specialise in mental health, elderly care or community outreach.

Here are some common variations of the job title for a healthcare assistant:

• Hospital healthcare assistant
• Care home healthcare assistant
• Community healthcare assistant
• Mental health support assistant
• Senior healthcare assistant

When writing your healthcare assistant job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on healthcare assistant jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Care assistant
• Support worker
• NHS
• NHS healthcare assistant
• Care worker
• Care home
• Care home tier 2 visa sponsorship
• Care
• Healthcare

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Where to find healthcare assistants?

To find the right healthcare assistant for your business, consider combining both traditional and modern recruitment strategies. The most effective approach often mixes NHS or care-sector job boards, networking in healthcare communities, and online postings. Think about where qualified healthcare assistants already spend their time and direct your recruitment there. These could be training courses, NHS job boards or healthcare associations. By targeting relevant spaces, you’ll reach candidates with the right blend of compassion and clinical support skills.

To find the right healthcare assistant for your business, consider trying out a few different recruitment strategies:

• Healthcare job boards: posting on NHS or healthcare-specific job boards ensures you reach candidates actively looking for care roles
• Training providers: colleges and vocational schools offering health and social care qualifications are strong sources of early-career HCAs
• Care networks: local and national care associations often share opportunities for healthcare support staff
• Recruitment agencies: hiring an agency worker through agencies specialising in healthcare can connect you with pre-screened candidates quickly
• Post your job online: try posting your healthcare assistant job on Indeed to find and attract quality healthcare assistant candidates

Skills to look for in a healthcare assistant

A successful healthcare assistant candidate will typically have the following skills and competencies, which may be gained through a variety of experiences, training or education:

• Compassion and empathy
• Strong communication and listening skills
• Basic clinical knowledge such as taking vital signs
• Ability to work in a team under pressure
• Attention to hygiene and safety standards
• Physical stamina and resilience

Writing a healthcare assistant job description

Now that you know the key skills, salary expectations, popular jobseeker search terms and recruitment insights for a healthcare assistant, you are ready to write a job description.

A healthcare assistant job description typically includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position. You may also want to include information about your facility’s culture, training opportunities and benefits to attract candidates to your open role.

Ready to get started? See our full guide for writing healthcare assistant job descriptions.

Interviewing healthcare assistant candidates

Strong candidates for healthcare assistant positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Experience in patient care and support tasks
• Handling difficult or emotional situations
• Knowledge of infection control and hygiene practices
• Working effectively within a healthcare team
• Flexibility with shift patterns and workload demands

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of healthcare assistant interview questions for examples (with sample answers).