Month: December 2016

 

In your role as a care worker, you are sure to meet many new people that you need to help look after. Whilst some of them may welcome you immediately, others may be a little reticent when it comes to accepting you as someone who will be involved in their close personal care. If you are not too sure about how to introduce yourself to a new person that you will be assisting, here are 3 effective ways that are sure to help:

 

Be upbeat and positive

By being utterly professional and very positive, you will give of an air of warmth and happiness that will have an effect upon your new person very quickly. They will be attracted to your positive nature and begin to put their trust in you. It is essential that you do not only rely on the spoken word when it comes to communication but think about your body language, tone of voice and general demeanour. Focus on being calm, understanding, compassionate, well informed and organised. Your ability to remain this way even during problematic periods will help build a strong relationship between you.

Be friendly and personal

Whilst you need to retain an air of professionalism, building rapport between you will be easier if you treat your relationship as a personal one rather than a formal type of doctor-patient scenario. Talk to them about yourself as this will encourage them to open up about themselves. Chat about your family, pets, holidays, TV programmes and generally anything that will gain their interest.

Be a good listener

Whilst introducing yourself in the right way is essential, you must not forget to ask essential questions such as those appertaining to their lifestyle, health, personal situation, medications and anything else that relates to your ability to care for them. As well as chatting with them, be a good listener too; sometimes the people you are looking after may be lonely and want to talk. Allow them to voice any problems and always treat them with respect.

Do all of these things and you will find that introducing yourself to new people is no longer the hurdle it used to be.

What are the most effective ways you’ve found for introducing yourself to the new people you help? Let us know on our Facebook https://facebook.com/lavorocare or Tweet at us https://twitter.com/joblavoro .

Currently looking for a job in care to make a difference to people’s lives? Take a look at our current positions http://lavoro.com/jobs .

 

Being a care worker can be the most rewarding job in the world, even if demanding at times. But if you are new to care working, what can you expect the job to be like?

Do you like early mornings? If so, this will help as you may need to assist the person you help with getting out of bed, washed and dressed. Preparing and supervising them taking the correct medication can also be a vital task.

How are you at cooking? We are talking simple meals as you may need to prepare breakfast, lunch, make hot and cold drinks and generally make sure that the person you are there to help is comfortable and not hungry. Hot meals may be delivered by a door-to-door service so you will need to adapt to fit in with this.

Do you have experience of personal care? Trips to the toilet and bathroom and getting the person bathed and into their nightwear is a regular occurrence. Be prepared to help in any way possible to assist with their daily routine; if they have limited movement, then you need to know the right way to lift and support them.

Travelling between the people you help. Depending upon your contract, you may use your own transport to do this or a company vehicle. Make sure you know where you are going and if you have a Sat. Nav., all the better!

Understand and read Personal Care Plans. Each person you help will have a Personal Care Plan that details their needs and how they are to be met. When you are introduced to a new person, make sure that you take the time to study this before you start looking after them. This way, errors will be avoided and you will know exactly what you should be doing.

Never feel alone. You may be working solo a lot of the time but don’t feel alone; other care workers within your team will be carrying out the same job and you should keep in touch with the office regularly. By getting to know the people you help, you will find that gradually problems become easier to deal with as you understand them fully and build productive person-care worker relationships.

Your role as a care worker is a very special one; you are helping others every day and they will welcome the assistance. By enjoying what you do, you will soon realise that you would not exchange your job for any other.

What would you have found helpful to know when you were thinking of becoming a care worker? Let us know on our Facebook https://facebook.com/lavorocare or Tweet at us https://twitter.com/joblavoro .

Are you currently looking for a job as a care worker? Take a look at our current positions http://lavoro.com/jobs .

 

Working as a care worker can be one of the most rewarding jobs ever. When you are working with a professional agency who take care of their staff and support you, then it is the sort of role that you can turn into a real vocation. The best agencies are those who help you with difficulties and provide you with quality tools to do the job.

As for why I love my job, there are several reasons:

I love meeting new people

Even the most challenging of people you help can be wonderful once you get to know them and they begin to trust you. If they have been unfortunate in the past when working with other care agencies, they may be on their guard at first, worried about letting a new person come into their home and do the essentials. I always begin by being as nice as I can, being patient if they are confused and working to get them to communicate with me. By maintaining a positive and professional attitude, it pays dividends.

I don’t get phased when attending to personal care

By using the appropriate gloves, aprons, disinfectants and cleansers, this becomes routine after a while. By being down to earth, chatty, friendly and even showing a sense of humour, even the most difficult of tasks can be tackled easily and without any embarrassment on the part of the person you’re helping. Just like a nurse or doctor, adhering to a skilful and well-trained approach can work wonders.

I look forward to seeing the people I help

Once we get to know each other and we build rapport and a relationship, the routine becomes smooth and the communication between us is something that I look forward to. By being gentle, even-tempered and empathic, the person I help begins to relate to me, sharing their stories, worries and any concerns. By being able to help them, the rewards are incalculable.

If you like being with people, caring for them and becoming an essential part of their life, then being a care worker is an amazing career to get into.

Why do you love being a care worker? Let us know on our Facebook https://facebook.com/lavorocare or Tweet at us https://twitter.com/joblavoro .

Are you currently looking for a job as a care worker? Take a look at our current positions http://lavoro.com/jobs .

 

How motivated are you? In your role as a care worker, do you look forward to coming to work each day? Do you feel appreciated and well rewarded? If you have never taken the time to ask yourself these kinds of questions, it is always a good idea to take some time out and do so.

At times your job can be incredibly demanding, difficult and intense as mostly you will be working one-to-one with your designated person. Motivation can be external but you also need to ensure that you are keeping yourself motivated. Your employer nor the people you assist want to get to know and value you, only to find that you have decided to move on to something else.

Here are 3 things that will enable you to have a better experience, a more valuable career and a great reason to want to be doing what you do:

1. Be empowered – you are accountable to your employer and have to look after the people you help to the best of your ability – do this by setting your own high standards and managing your time your way; your employer will not be looking to micromanage you so use this as an incentive and make the job your own. The more you put in, the more you will get back.

1. Keep growing – don’t let your position stagnate. Be constantly on the lookout for opportunities for growth such as training courses and project involvement. A lot of training may be free of charge so don’t miss out. You will benefit greatly ,as will your employer ,as your skills will increase.

1. Communicate with your employer – always keep in touch with your base. The more you know about what is going on at the main hub, the more informed you will be. If you are unsure of anything, ask for a one-to-one session. By mutually supporting each other, you will never feel as if you are going it alone and your employer will be delighted by your strength of commitment.

Motivation is a great empowerer and by taking charge of your own life and your career, you will soon begin to reap the benefits.

How do you keep your motivation levels high and keep on improving as a care worker?  Let us know on our Facebook https://facebook.com/lavorocare or Tweet at us https://twitter.com/joblavoro .

Are you currently looking for a job? Take a look at our current positions http://lavoro.com/jobs .

Whether you have just started your career as a care worker or you want to brush up on your skills, there are always helpful tips that will enable you to be more successful.

In terms of success, this can be measured in terms of your love of the job and the feeling of accomplishment that you get at the end of every day. Also, it can be viewed in terms of how happy and well cared for the people you help are and how much they look forward to your visits.

With this in mind, here are a few helpful habits that you may wish to put to good use:

Interact – not only will this make your job far more enjoyable but the people you assist will get to know you, relating to you more easily. As they relax in your care and become more communicative, you will find out more about them and their needs and wants so looking after them will naturally become more instinctive. Your role as a care giver will become less problematic and you will feel closer to those you are looking after.

• Treat with respect – at times, the people you assist may be difficult, demanding and even unpredictable but if you can keep your head and treat them respectfully no matter what, your role will be appreciated by them and they will realise that you are a calm, professional and caring person. This creates a win-win situation so that when difficulties do occur, they are more easily overcome and the relationship returns to normal more quickly.

• Be patient – you may be a naturally patient person or you may need to learn this quality. However, inherent or not, being self-aware and showing sensitivity and good judgement when dealing with people will result in empathy. Being able to put yourself in their shoes and imagine how they and their families feel enables to treat them in the best way. If they struggle due to disability or ill health or just old age, take the time to treat them as you would anyone else and never be controlling.

• Think long term – most people don’t like change so when you begin to work with people as their care giver, think long term. Both they and their family will feel far more secure and happier if they know that you are going to be the key person looking after them for a good length of time; already in a delicate position, people can easily be upset at the thought of their care worker changing for any reason.

• Remember that you are caring for people – like any other career, being a care worker is a job and it earns you money but more than any other role, your services are crucially in demand when you are looking after someone else. No matter their age or condition, when you come into their life you have the ability to change it for the better, so always work your hardest to do so.

It can be a real privilege to hold such an important role in the lives of others. The more person-centred you are, the more your role as a care giver will reward you, enabling you to be a successful care worker that loves what they do.

What do you think makes you a successful care worker? Let us know on our Facebook https://facebook.com/lavorocare or Tweet at us https://twitter.com/joblavoro .

Are you currently looking for a job? Take a look at our current positions http://lavoro.com/jobs .