Community Health Worker: Home Base at Anova Health Institute

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Physical Care

• Assist the patient with personal hygiene.
• Wound care, how to dress a wound using appropriate material.
• Stoma therapy, catheter care, nail and foot care, tracheotomy care.
• Observations: temperature pulse and respiration.
• Be able to assess an emergency situation and provide basic life support and first aid in order to stabilize a patient.
• Assist patient with mobility, exercise limbs, take patient for walks, assist in and out of bed and to the toilet, have knowledge of motion exercises.
• Preparation of patient's snacks and meals if necessary.
• Distribution of food parcels where necessary and if patient's circumstances meet the required criteria.

 Care of Patient’s Environment

• Make patients bed, replacing with clean bed linen when necessary. 
• Tidy and clean the patients’ sleeping quarters, disposing of any soiled night clothes and bed linen and washing of these if necessary. 
• Infection control. 

 Health and Education

• Educate patient and relatives about caring for the patient at home and resources available.
• Specialized care of catheters etc.
• Universal blood precautions.
• Nutrition: Identify food groups and educate patient/family on planning suitable meals for their needs 

 Referral Criteria

• Refer patients to health facilities and service providers where necessary.
• Know the when, why and how of referrals.
• Reporting of deterioration of patient’s condition to supervisor

 Administration & General Duties

• Establish a set of records and ensure that they are up to date.
• Complete the appropriate record forms accurately and promptly ensuring that these are given to the supervisor timeously.
• Follow all policies and procedures as required by the organization and ensure that all work targets are met.
• Follow daily work schedule as worked out by the supervisor.
• Participate in meetings as required as well as attending training courses and workshops related to the nature of the work done.

 Medication

• Supervision/administration of medication.
• Collection of prescribed medication (repeat) from the CHC
• Ensure as far as possible that the patient completes their treatment in the prescribed time given.
• Report any patient that defaults on treatment immediately to the staff of the CHC.
• Report any reaction to any medication to the OTL.

 Any other tasks as agreed with line manager.

Minimum Qualifications, Experience and Skills Required 

• Grade 10-12
• Homebased carer qualification/certificate
• Experience working within communities
• 10-day HIV Counselling Certificate (advantageous)
• TB/HIV Adherence Counselling Certificate (advantageous)
• Must have a background knowledge of HAST & NCD