An assistant practitioner smiling and handing a clipboard to a patient
If you enjoy helping others, providing the best standard of care, and working in a fast-paced environment, then the Level 5 Assistant Practitioner Apprenticeship could be perfect for you.
Keep reading to find out how this apprenticeship could help kickstart your career as a healthcare professional!
Job Summary and Key Responsibilities
This occupation sits within the health sector, where you will work alongside registered healthcare professionals in providing high quality, compassionate healthcare and support to individuals.
You’ll be responsible for providing evidence-based clinical, diagnostic or therapeutic care and holistic support as part of the wider healthcare team. Day-to-day tasks will include:
- Assisting registered healthcare professionals in total patient assessment
- Coordinating patient care (including referrals to other practitioners)
- Undertaking clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic activities
You’ll also interact with a wide range of people, these include:
- Patients, service users and carers.
- Registered healthcare professionals such as doctors, registered nurses, nursing associates, and healthcare support workers.
- Social care staff including registered managers, care workers and social workers.
- Administration, management and other non-clinical staff, such as porters, cleaners and receptionists.
Core competencies for a Level 5 Assistant Practitioner apprentice
You will need to meet some core competencies to help you develop personal and professional skills within your job role. Some of these include:
- Acting within the limits of own competence and within agreed ways of working, following relevant legislation, local and national standards, policies, standard operating procedures and protocols used in the workplace
- Contributing to the on-going holistic assessment of individuals
- Promoting inter-professional and multi-disciplinary team working with peers, colleagues and staff from other agencies
- Communicating complex sensitive information effectively with individuals, their families, carers and health and care professionals
- Maintaining and further developing own knowledge and skills through recognised continuing professional development activities
- Supporting the development of others through role-modelling, supervision, guidance and leadership
- Promoting the health and wellbeing of individuals, acting on opportunities to educate and empower individuals to maximise their own health and well-being
- Contributing to the identification and management of risks to self and others to maintain a safe and healthy working environment
A group of professional healthcare assistants posing for a picture in a medical clinic.
Where Assistant Practitioners work
As this role involves working with a wide range of people, Assistant Practitioners must be able to carry out their duties in a range of settings where required in different circumstances, these include:
- Hospitals
- Clinics
- GP Surgeries
- Patient Homes
- Residential Care
An apprentice sitting at a desk looking on a laptop
How Assistant Practitioner apprentices are assessed
Although it sounds scary, your education provider will give you all the information, support and assistance you need to be successful in the assessment section of your Level 5 Assistant Practitioner apprenticeship.
The end-point assessment is an assessment at the end of your apprenticeship against the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in the occupational standard (all covered within your training). You will be assessed in the following ways:
- Observation with questions – Observation by an independent assessor completing your work. It will last at least 2 hours. They will ask you at least 5 questions.
- Professional discussion – A professional discussion with an independent assessor, lasting 90 minutes. They will ask you at least 7 questions about certain aspects of your occupation.
- Portfolio evidence – Portfolio of projects and work completed throughout your apprenticeship
Conclusion
So as you can see, a Level 5 Assistant Practitioner apprenticeship is a brilliant way to start off an incredible career journey in the healthcare sector. Not only will you experience the opportunity of adapting your methods across a range of people, places and tasks, but you will also receive incredible training from your education provider for required key competencies.
Once you’ve completed your apprenticeship, you can either utilise all the knowledge and skills you have leant by heading straight into a full time role within the health sector, or continue with a higher Level 6 Public Health Practitioner apprenticeship with an integrated degree! You can find out more by clicking here.
Extra information
For more information on this standard, please click here.
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