7. Answer the following questions.

1. Who do healthcare assistants work with?
2. Where do they work?
3. Is their work the same wherever they work?
4. What para-medical task can they perform in a hospital?
5. What kind of personality should they have?
6. What skills are needed to work as a healthcare assistant?
7. Is it necessary to attend high school to become a healthcare assistant in Italy?

8. Match the following definitions/synonyms to the suitable term from the reading passage.

1. People qualified to deliver babies and to care for women before, during, and after childbirth:
.........................................................

2. Staff:
.........................................................

3. Private hospitals, especially for old people:
.........................................................

4. Nursing homes that specialise in caring for the terminally ill:
.........................................................

5. Assisting someone (especially an infant or invalid) in using a toilet:
.........................................................

6. Showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another person:
.........................................................

9. Describe the picture below.

images/52_f.webp

10. Listen to a healthcare assistant talking about her job and fill in the blanks with the missing words.

My typical day revolves around the 1. ............................... care of patients on the hospital 2. ............................... . I help them perform basic tasks, including washing, getting 3. ............................... , and eating meals. I also monitor their temperature, 4. ............................... pressure, and take other observations throughout the day. I have regular contact with both doctors and nurses and am responsible for updating them on the 5. ............................... of patients. I love the amount of patient 6. ............................... demanded by my job. I appreciate the relative lack of 7. ............................... and enjoy chatting with patients and getting to know them as people. I find it 8. ............................... to help people and also love seeing the 9. ............................... effects of my daily tasks on my patients. The 10. ............................... task carried out by a healthcare assistant, such as turning a patient over in 11. ............................... , can make a huge 12. ............................... and this is something which I really value.

COMMUNICATING WITH ELDERLY PATIENTS

Elderly patients may seem to be irritable, when in fact they are
simply frustrateci because they can't hear what you're saying.
Some ideas when dealing with hearing loss include:
• get their attention by putting your hand gently on their shoulder, or speaking their name to get their attention;
• reduce background noise (i.e. turning off the music or television or moving away from crowded areas)
• speak clearly, slig htly slower than normai and face the person; speak a little more loudly than normal, but don't shout;
• repeat: people with hearing loss may compensate by nodding as though they understand, when in fact they didn't hear you.
• have good lighting, so that facial expressions and body language can be seen clearly.

GLOSSARY

along with: insieme a
as well as: oltre a
cheerful: allegro
fee-paying: *a pagamento
hospice: casa di cura per pazienti lungodegenti
internship: tirocinio
midwife (pl. midwives): ostetrica
nursing home: casa di cura/riposo
pulse: pulsazioni (sentite al polso)
vocational: professionale
well-being: benessere