Would you like a career as a home carer?

As we mentioned last week, we really recommend that you understand what is expected of you when you apply for one of our home carer positions, when you complete the telephone interview and when you come for interview. We don’t want to scare you away, we want you to succeed so that means being prepared. As you can understand, we have to ensure that we are hiring the best. That is not just because we pride ourselves on the high standard of Comfort Keepers care but we owe it to each and every client to ensure our home carers are amongst the best in the country.

Overall Objective: The successful applicant will have personal or professional caring experience. They will be capable of managing all aspects of the day to day care and requirements of the client. Have excellent communication skills and dedicated to providing the highest quality of home care to those most in need.

We will be looking for evidence that you are caring. You don’t need to have previous professional caring experience but you may have cared for an elderly relative for some time, have started a nursing career or can demonstrate your caring nature in other ways.

Applicants will be required to have completed a FETAC Level 5 ‘Care of the Older Person’ and ‘Care Skills’ modules as a minimum or be in the process of completing it.

Applicants must be willing to complete a full FETAC Level 5 (Major) award in a Healthcare related subject within two years of commencing employment if they do not currently hold a relevant qualification.

Note that Comfort Keepers subsidises the cost of the training and you can work full-time while completing the training within the two years if you wish. Your pay rates increase as modules are completed.

Applicants must ensure attention to detail, have excellent interpersonal and relationship building skills, be innovative and have a multitasking ability, be capable of working independently, be caring and empathetic and possess excellent time-keeping skills. 

We will be asking you to provide examples of how you can demonstrate your attention to detail and to multi-task. As mentioned above, we’ll be looking for evidence of empathy and being caring. We will also be asking you some scenario-type questions. These involve getting you to think how you would respond in a particular situation. An example might be ” You arrive at a permanent client’s house for your scheduled visit. You have a key and let yourself in. However, you then realise nobody is at home. What would you do in this situation?” We want to know that you can react appropriately, think independently and are responsible.

The duties of a home carer  includes the following:

• Perform duties as assigned on the personal Care Plan of the Client;
• Assists the client with activities of daily living by providing any of the Comfort Keepers approved personal care activities including, but not limited to: bathing, dressing, toileting, grooming, oral hygiene, incontinence care and providing a clean, safe, and healthy environment for clients;
• Provides light housekeeping tasks including laundering of client’s garments and linens and changing the bed;
• Assists in meeting nutritional needs by providing meal planning, meal preparation, grocery shopping, dishes, and kitchen clean-up;
• Assists the client with movement/transfers as specified in the Care Plan e.g. using hoist
• Reminds client to take self-administered medications;
• Observes and reports any changes in the client’s mental, physical, or emotional condition or home situation to immediate supervisor in a timely manner;
• Establishes and maintains effective communication and a professional relationship with clients, family members;
• Uses equipment and supplies safely and properly in accordance with the company policy and procedures;
• Maintains confidentiality regarding client information;
• Other reasonable related duties as assigned;
• The work requires moderate physical exertion on a regular and recurring basis, such as driving, assisting clients in transfer activities, and light housekeeping.

As you can see, the list is comprehensive and your duties for each client will be different. You will be taking part in regular training once the two day induction is completed. We recommend that you give each duty some thought before the interview so you can answer questions regarding to ability to carry out these tasks and your own personal capabilities too.

Tip: Come prepared for your interview in homecare and remember to bring your documents with you. These include your application form, your references and your garda vetting forms. If you require a visa to work in Ireland, you must bring those forms with you too. Once you are successful, we can then check references and start the garda vetting process immediately.

Home Care Job Vacancies

Comfort Keepers now has a number of home care vacancies across its 17 offices. If you would like to work in homecare, we hope these tips will help you succeed with your application. We look forward to meeting you at interview soon.