Healthcare Assistant

As a Healthcare Assistant you provide hands-on personal care and support to patients or residents in hospitals, nursing homes, community settings and private homes. Your daily tasks include assisting with washing, dressing, feeding and mobility, monitoring basic observations such as pulse and temperature, and reporting any changes in a patient's condition to registered nurses. You work closely alongside registered nurses and other members of the multidisciplinary care team, following clinical guidelines to ensure safe, dignified and person-centred care. Healthcare Assistants play a vital role in maintaining patient comfort and wellbeing across all age groups, from maternity and paediatric settings to elderly and palliative care environments.

While there is no single mandatory Leaving Certificate subject requirement, subjects such as Biology, Home Economics and SPHE provide a useful foundation for understanding health and care. The most common entry route is a QQI Level 5 Certificate in Healthcare Support, offered as a PLC course through Colleges of Further Education and ETBs across Ireland; this typically takes one year full-time. Some employers, particularly in the HSE and private nursing homes, accept candidates who complete accredited in-house training programmes aligned to the QQI Level 5 award. A QQI Level 5 Healthcare Support qualification is widely recognised as the standard minimum for employment in regulated care settings in Ireland. Although Healthcare Assistants are not currently required to register with CORU, ongoing policy discussions in Ireland may introduce formal regulation of the role in the future. Progression to nursing is possible by using your QQI Level 5 award to access nursing programmes at Level 8 through the CAO or through the Graduate Entry Medicine pathway at selected universities.