Just enroled on fetac level 5 Caring for the Elderly

Filan

Is this a course with potential would informed minds here think?

wheresthebeef

Filan wrote:

Is this a course with potential would informed minds here think?

I would say that this course would easily qualify you for a job as a Health Care Assistant in a Care of the Elderly Clinical Area. FETAC qualifications are nationally recognised.

mulman

Filan wrote: »

Is this a course with potential would informed minds here think?

hi im doin fetac level 5 care assistants, im lost and in need of help any ideas???:mad::mad::(:(:(

Shelly37

I have a question about care of the elderly fetac level 5 is this Hiqua approved or do I need healthcare one

d9oiu2wk07blr5

Shelly37 wrote: »

I have a question about care of the elderly fetac level 5 is this Hiqua approved or do I need healthcare one

AFAIK, all newly employed HCA's have to have FETAC level 5 qualifications.

flora 86

hi im doing that now,any help or advise for me?please thank you

X1R

I finished that course last May. The only piece of advice I can give is "open your ears, heart and mind. Enjoy every day on your course and any misconceptions in relation to elder care, clear it from your mind!!!!"
I have never worked in a more rewarding line of work, so much so that I have applied for nursing as a mature student. No one will be millionaires from working as a care assistant, but the genuine, heart felt smile you get from a resident/client with dementia will leave you feeling so rewarded you actually grow!!!!!
It's not all smelling of roses but this is only a very VERY small part of your daily role.
The main thing to remember is, the person you are caring for is exactly that, a person, a human being, someone's mother, sister, brother, father, son and, personally my believe and work ethic is exactly that "how would my mother/father feel about how I conduct myself and my actions at work if I was caring for them". All the best to anyone going down this line of work, enjoy it

WildRosie

You need to do the full healthcare support/nursing studies award to meet HIQA requirements. The single module (Care of the Older Person) won't meet those requirements on its own, you need to do at least eight modules for the full award.

flora 86

thank you so much for getting back to me.I know what you mean i cant wait to start helping them out and be more than just a carer.id love to know more about assignments or get an idea of what ther looking for at the end of the course.thanks again

X1R

Flora it really depends on whether it is the full FETAC course in healthcare or an individual moduel that you are doing as Rosie said. The coutse I completed was through FAS and it was a 9 month full time course.
What we found about the course was the provider looked for very different criteria from our assignments then FAS. There was some cross over with what they wanted and the next point was poles apart. There are job opportunities after the course but remember millionaires we will never be. Hope that answers a bit more for you.

Dozen Wicked Words

7 year old thread back from the dead, now THAT'S good health care.

If you actually want to spend a bit of time with patients and looking after people, then a health care assistant gives you a lot more of that compared to Nurses. They are somewhere under tons of new forms, most of which are not designed to protect the patient from poor care, but to protect the HSE from litigation.

I can only speak from a hospital point of view, but a good care assistant is worth their weight in gold to a nurse, and you should feel appreciated.

WildRosie

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

If you actually want to spend a bit of time with patients and looking after people, then a health care assistant gives you a lot more of that compared to Nurses.

This actually varies from hospital to hospital. In the hospital I work in (as a student nurse), HCAs do no patient care at all. The nurses do all the bed making, washes etc etc, as well as all the paperwork of course!

There's huge variations in the work that HCAs do. On the one hand, you have the situation like in my hospital where they do stock ordering and catering, then on the other hand you have HCAs working for Jack & Jill who do tracheostomy care in the home.

There are opportunities out there to specialise, be it in care of the older person, intellectual disability or any number of other areas and while we'll never be millionaires at it, it's very fulfilling and I make enough to get by.

WhatNowHow

WildRosie wrote: »

This actually varies from hospital to hospital. In the hospital I work in (as a student nurse), HCAs do no patient care at all. The nurses do all the bed making, washes etc etc, as well as all the paperwork of course!

There's huge variations in the work that HCAs do. On the one hand, you have the situation like in my hospital where they do stock ordering and catering, then on the other hand you have HCAs working for Jack & Jill who do tracheostomy care in the home.

There are opportunities out there to specialise, be it in care of the older person, intellectual disability or any number of other areas and while we'll never be millionaires at it, it's very fulfilling and I make enough to get by.

That's crazy :O what do the HCAs do? God the nurses must be even more run off their feet!

WildRosie

They do stock ordering, catering and wash down beds after discharge if the nurses are busy, in fairness there's probably more that I'm not aware of, but there's no patient care. There's only one on the ward at any one time and they work shorter days than the nurses. The wards are sufficiently staffed with nurses so it's not too bad And most of us would agree that it's important that we provide that basic nursing care to our patients for all the reasons stated by a previous poster.

I also work in a nursing home as a HCA and 90% of what I do is patient/resident care and I found it very strange at the beginning that these HCAs do no (direct) patient care, but now I think it's good that the nurses do it all, it's how you get to know your patient, build trust and give them the opportunity to talk to you. That's what we're there for

flora 86

X1R wrote: »

Flora it really depends on whether it is the full FETAC course in healthcare or an individual moduel that you are doing as Rosie said. The coutse I completed was through FAS and it was a 9 month full time course.
What we found about the course was the provider looked for very different criteria from our assignments then FAS. There was some cross over with what they wanted and the next point was poles apart. There are job opportunities after the course but remember millionaires we will never be. Hope that answers a bit more for you.

hi im just doing the one moduel care of the older person lasting 9weeks once a week for 4 hours.Im not doing this to get rich i just want to help and hope i can pass this and can do that.

WildRosie

flora 86 wrote: »

hi im just doing the one moduel care of the older person lasting 9weeks once a week for 4 hours.Im not doing this to get rich i just want to help and hope i can pass this and can do that.

That's a great place to start, but you will (at some stage), have to do the other seven modules to work as a HCA (HIQA requirements). IIRC, you have to start the full award within two years of working as a HCA but most employers are a bit more strict than this. Best of luck with your course

flora 86

i hope to do the rest in sept maybe,just hope im smart enough wanna know if i can pass this first

Cymini Sectores

WildRosie wrote: »

This actually varies from hospital to hospital. In the hospital I work in (as a student nurse), HCAs do no patient care at all. The nurses do all the bed making, washes etc etc, as well as all the paperwork of course!

Well, having worked in the health sector in the last nine years, pardon me if this is a bit much to swallow, that (as you put it) 'HCAs do no patient care at all'. One begins to wonder what the letters HCA stand for.

flora 86

could i get a sample of a research project anywhere,i dont get some of the demonstrate questions,like
understanding and application of concepts associated with caring for older people with specific needs.........what?

Aero28

X1R wrote: »

Flora it really depends on whether it is the full FETAC course in healthcare or an individual moduel that you are doing as Rosie said. The coutse I completed was through FAS and it was a 9 month full time course.
What we found about the course was the provider looked for very different criteria from our assignments then FAS. There was some cross over with what they wanted and the next point was poles apart. There are job opportunities after the course but remember millionaires we will never be. Hope that answers a bit more for you.

Hi, i'm thinking about doing this course. Would you recommend it? I'm currently unemployed and would be interested in doing this Care course, but 9 months seems like a long time and i'm just wondering do you get any extra money besides the job seekers payment amount for doing it, because its a traineeship and not a normal 5 day week course.