A Healthcare Job Description is a crucial document that has an essential role in the hiring and recruitment process. Comprising healthcare tasks, skills, job duties, and responsibilities, the job description can be used to create a job advert, during interviews and candidate screening, and also later on during appraisals and performance reviews.

Considering these points, it is clear that you need to write a good healthcare job description that is as close to perfect as possible. With this in hand, you have the first part of the recruitment solution you need to hire outstanding medical professionals and healthcare support workers that will ensure your organisation’s success.

But where do you get started?

In this explainer, we discuss:

• What Is A Healthcare Job Description?
• How To Write A healthcare Job Description
• Healthcare Duties And Responsibilities To Include In A Job Description
• Healthcare Tasks To Include In A Job Description
• Healthcare Skills To Include In A Job Description
• How To Engage Healthcare Candidates
• How To Use Hiring People’s Healthcare Job Description Templates

What Is A Healthcare Job Description?

A healthcare job description is a document that sets out the role’s duties, tasks, and key skills. Putting these in black and white is vital and will help you find the ideal healthcare professionals for a position that directly affects patient care, other healthcare professionals, and the performance and success of your business or organisation.

An effective job description should be transparent and clearly set out who you are, who you want, what they will do, and why medical staff or a healthcare assistant might want to work for you. It helps tremendously to use language and jargon that connects with and engages your audience.

When you get all of this right and include the best words to use when writing healthcare job descriptions, you will get job applications from qualified candidates that closely match your ideal person specification.

You can read more about Why It Is Important To Define What People Do In Their Jobs here.

How To Write A Healthcare Job Description

When writing a medical services or healthcare assistant job description either for advertising a job or an internal job specification you need to focus on 5 main criteria:

1. What are the key jobs, tasks, and duties required for a healthcare position
2. Consider all the job responsibilities required for a healthcare role
3. What skills the person must have for the job
4. What personality traits the person must have to work in healthcare
5. Appropriate and relevant education and qualifications

These five criteria should help you build a picture of your ideal candidate. Good questions to consider that will help you write a concise company job description that stands apart from others (essential in the current competitive job market), and attracts candidates of a high calibre, include:

• What value does this role bring to your business?
• How does the role align with your company culture, values, and mission?
• How does this role differ from other positions?
• How is this role similar to other positions?
• What are the minimum medical skills or transferable skills?
• What are examples of your standards, risks, goals, and targets?

Suppose you are not hands-on in the health centre or highly familiar with the company’s medical services or products. In that case, it can help to interview one of your healthcare support workers, nursing associates, or medical staff to gain a greater understanding of the role.

A word about jargon: The phrase ‘jargon’ has good and bad connotations, and if it isn’t carefully considered, it may deter candidates from applying. Ask yourself if words and phrases are company exclusive or recognisable by individuals in the industry or by professionals who may have valuable transferable skills refined in alternative business sectors.

Furthermore, if you are hiring for senior-level or management positions, you might expect candidates to have a greater vocabulary and understanding of medical jargon and healthcare regulations. However, if you are hiring for a junior-level position, consider being as straightforward and transparent as possible.

Healthcare Duties And Responsibilities To Include In A Job Description

A healthcare worker’s duties are the must-do and high-priority responsibilities of the role. These are the job aspects that you will likely govern the individual’s performance on, and as you can imagine, these vary significantly depending on the seniority of the position and whether its focus is physical or mental well-being or support and personal care.

THE JOB RESPONSIBILITIES REQUIRED FOR A HEALTHCARE ROLE

A healthcare person’s responsibilities and job duties might include:

• Performing medical tests
• Monitoring patients condition
• Conducting operations and medical procedures
• Providing education to patients and family members
• Administering medication
• Providing emotional support
• Assisting patients with personal care tasks
• Visiting the patient’s home
• Fundraising

These duties are pretty generic, but you can make the job’s duties more engaging and meaningful by saying how the responsibility should be accomplished. For example, ‘Assisting patients in their home by helping them with personal hygiene, household chores, serving meals, and health checks.’

Healthcare Tasks To Include In A Job Description

The tasks of a healthcare assistant or healthcare support worker are any other activities that they complete occasionally or on a daily basis. These are usually subsidiary tasks such as administrative tasks, using medical equipment, or updating patient records.

It is tempting to leave some of the more ‘mundane’ tasks out to make your jobs sound more attractive, but this can lead to trouble down the road as you may recruit a healthcare professional that is not a perfect match. If you hire the wrong candidate for your business, the healthcare team, patients, families, and your organisation may suffer. The employee might leave your company, and you are back to square one, requiring another investment in recruitment and training.

If you get to the end of the process outlined here and find that your job description is too long and concise has gone out the window, it is time to review your first draft. To bring things back into line, you should delete unnecessary phrases and fluff, remove prepositional phrases, focus on what is role critical, and refrain from putting your entire ‘about us’ page in your content.

THE IMPORTANT TASKS OF THE POSITION

Important tasks of healthcare roles might include:

• Scheduling appointments
• Preparing correspondence and documentation
• Attending team meetings
• Ordering supplies
• Collaborating with other professionals / other employees
• Liaising with laboratories
• Discussing treatment options
• Accompanying patients to agency and healthcare appointments
• Encouraging individuals to follow a healthy diet

Healthcare Skills To Include In A Job Description

Healthcare skills are defined as hard or soft skills. Soft skills are more general and can include desirable personality traits, such as compassion or attention to detail. Hard skills are technical skills and usually prove a person’s knowledge or aptitude and include professional qualifications, certifications, or accreditations.

THE PERSONAL SKILLS THE PERSON MUST HAVE FOR THE JOB

The relevant skills or personal traits a good healthcare worker or manager should demonstrate include:

• Good communication skills
• Active listening
• Empathy
• Compassion
• Interpersonal abilities
• Decision making
• Time management
• Positivity
• Receptiveness
• Team-working and collaboration
• Problem-solving skills
• Stress management
• Objectivity
• Organisation
• Committed
• Adaptable
• Multitasking
• Detail orientated / attention to detail
• Proactive questioning
• Basic nursing skills
• Motivational leadership (managers and executives)

THE HARD SKILLS THE PERSON MUST HAVE FOR THE JOB

The hard skills, education, and qualifications depend on the role and level of seniority, but might include:

• NVQ or BTEC healthcare qualification
• Nursing degree apprenticeship
• Registered nurse
• Nursing and Midwifery Council registered
• Midwifery degree
• Health and Care Professions Council registered
• A General Medical Council recognised degree
• Social Worker Licence
• Dental nursing qualification
• Ph.D. in Psychology
• Practical experience

How To Engage Healthcare Candidates

As a final note for employers and recruiters, it is crucial to remember that while a job description is about what and who you want, describing this alone will not create an inbox full of eager candidates willing to comply. A care worker, nursing team, or healthcare assistant job description and job advert must go beyond the duties, skills, education, qualifications, traits, and tasks that you want and communicate the position’s value to job seekers.

Your business or organisation should convey its employee value propositions to engage candidates, highlighting both monetary and other benefits. Benefits that will entice qualified job seekers to apply might include:

• Stating the average salary range or pay system (find the average salary here) rather than saying ‘competitive salary’
• Focusing on work-life balance
• Flexible working – is the role remote/work from home or are hours and shifts flexible?
• Opportunities to gain additional qualifications
• Career development opportunities
• The quality of facilities, equipment, or services
• How the organisation’s values align with those of patients, the public, and employees

How To Use Hiring People’s Healthcare Job Description Templates

We have a job description template available for all healthcare jobs. You should pick the job description template most appropriate to your roles and job titles, considering what job seekers may search for on job boards and in search engines.

Once you have selected your job description template, download it, personalise it, or convert it to a job advert. From here, you can post/advertise your job across our network of general, niche, and geographical job boards.

FIND YOUR HEALTHCARE JOB DESCRIPTION BELOW:

SUPPORT WORKER JOB DESCRIPTION

The Support Worker job title is held by a person whose duties include providing practical and emotional assistance. Using excellent communication skills, healthcare support workers complete tasks such as scheduling meetings, assessing individuals, supporting families, and performing light domestic duties.

Support Worker Job Description Example

CARE ASSISTANT JOB DESCRIPTION

The Care Assistant job describes a role where the duties consist of supporting people with physical care and mental well-being. Compassionate, care assistant duties comprise performing mobility-related tasks, preparing food and drink, maintaining accurate patient care records, and working with individuals to achieve greater independence.

Care Assistant Job Description Example

SOCIAL WORKER JOB DESCRIPTION

The Social Worker job title is given to qualified individuals whose duties include providing care to those affected by domestic violence, substance abuse, child abuse, and neglect. They use their skills to complete tasks such as providing crisis intervention, providing training and support, and connecting clients to physical and mental support services.

Social Worker Job Description Example

CARER JOB DESCRIPTION

The Carer title is held by care workers whose duties are to help those who are ill, fragile, or disabled. These care workers may work unsocial hours, visit patients in their homes, feed patients, help them prepare for bed, and remind them to take their medication.

Carer Job Description Example

NURSE JOB DESCRIPTION

The Nurse job title describes a person whose duties include providing nursing care in a healthcare or hospital setting. With excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a busy environment, their daily tasks include monitoring patients’ vital signs, taking their blood pressure, administering medicines, ordering clinical tests, providing health education, relaying medical information to family members, providing end of life care, and implementing treatment plans.

Nurse Job Description Example

CARE WORKER JOB DESCRIPTION

The Care Worker job title covers professionals specialising in helping patients with their daily lives. Care worker tasks include scheduling and accompanying individuals to healthcare meetings and activities outside the home, preparing meals, washing and personal care, and ensuring people follow their treatment plan. Care workers should be committed, supportive, and trustworthy.

Care Worker Job Description Example

HEALTH CARE ASSISTANT (HCA) JOB DESCRIPTION

The Health Care Assistant role requires knowledge of health and safety policies and regulations. A health care assistant works with physicians and nurses to complete administration, schedule patient appointments, record patients’ vital signs, maintain a sterile examination room, and prepare correspondence.

Health Care Assistant (HCA) Job Description Example

DENTAL NURSE JOB DESCRIPTION

The Dental Nurse job title is held by individuals whose duties include assisting dentists in performing oral procedures. They need outstanding communication skills to reassure patients and conduct tasks such as sterilising tools and equipment, disposing waste materials, ordering stock, and liaising with laboratories.

Dental Nurse Job Description Example

COUNSELLOR JOB DESCRIPTION

The Counsellor job title covers professionals whose duties surround emotional and mental health issues. They use their counselling skills to assess and set goals, diagnose disorders, listen to patients, prescribe medicine, and provide access to government resources and support networks.

Counsellor Job Description Example

MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT WORKER JOB DESCRIPTION

The Mental Health Support Worker title is held by a person who works with clients with mental illness. With excellent communicative skills, their tasks include safeguarding adults, connecting with the local community, providing living assistance, and monitoring the physical and mental condition of the patient.

Mental Health Support Worker Job Description Example

PHYSIOTHERAPIST JOB DESCRIPTION

The Physiotherapist job title covers allied health professionals whose duties include helping people improve their physical mobility following operations or illness. These skilled professionals perform manual therapy, formulate treatment plans, and advise patients on healthy living practices.

Physiotherapist Job Description Example

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST JOB DESCRIPTION

The Occupational Therapist job title is used by allied health professionals whose duties are to help individuals overcome the challenges of illness, ageing, or injury. An occupational therapist’s daily tasks include providing practical support, referring clients to specialists, considering treatment plans, and goal setting to help patients return to work.

Occupational Therapist Job Description Example

PARAMEDIC JOB DESCRIPTION

The Paramedic job title is held by a person with a Paramedic Science degree. Highly skilled and able to remain calm during stressful situations, their tasks include responding to emergencies, using life-saving medical equipment, and reassuring patients and their family.

Paramedic Job Description Example

PHARMACIST JOB DESCRIPTION

The Pharmacist job requires a Master of Pharmacy degree, attention to detail, and good communication. Job tasks include controlling medical stock, filling prescriptions, and advising on dosage and medical risks.

Pharmacist Job Description Example

PSYCHOLOGIST JOB DESCRIPTION

The Psychologist job title describes an individual who assesses the patient’s condition and diagnoses psychiatric illnesses. They use their skills to develop treatment plans for individuals, groups, and families, working with patients of all ages.

Psychologist Job Description Example

CARE COORDINATOR JOB DESCRIPTION

The Care Coordinator job title defines a worker who arranges the care of elderly or disabled people. With business administration and medical management skills, they organise training courses for care workers, maintain well-belong policies, ensure access to high-quality information, and collaborate with health care workers such as doctors and nurses.

Care Coordinator Job Description Example

MIDWIFE JOB DESCRIPTION

The Midwife job requires a candidate that is Nursing and Midwifery Council registered. Their clinical duties and tasks include performing gynaecological exams, health promotion, preparing parents for birth, performing deliveries, checking vital signs of mother and baby, and assisting surgeons during caesareans.

Midwife Job Description Example

DOCTOR JOB DESCRIPTION

The Doctor job title is given to professionals with a medical degree working in a healthcare setting, such as a hospital or general practice. They use their extensive knowledge and skills to administer physical exams, diagnose medical conditions, advise on topics such as infection prevention, prescribe medicine and basic treatments, and arrange x-rays and blood tests.

Doctor Job Description Example

YOUTH WORKER JOB DESCRIPTION

The Youth Worker job entails mentoring young people and promoting positive behaviours and healthy living. Youth worker tasks include encouraging young people to make positive career, relationship and life decisions, overseeing recreational areas, organising activities, and completing incident reports and application forms.

Youth Worker Job Description Example

MENTAL HEALTH NURSE JOB DESCRIPTION

The Mental Health Nurse job title describes a person whose duties include working with people with disorders such as depression or anxiety. They visit people in their homes, performing tasks such as planning nursing requirements, building patient relationships, updating records, and ensuring the patient takes their prescribed medication.

Mental Health Nurse Job Description Example

FURTHER HEALTHCARE JOB DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES

• Physiotherapist Job Description
• Pharmacist Job Description
• Paramedic Job Description
• Occupational Therapist Job Description
• Mental Health Support Worker Job Description
• Mental Health Nurse Job Description
• Forensic Psychologist Job Description
• Dental Nurse Job Description
• Carer Job Description
• Care Worker Job Description
• Care Coordinator Job Description
• Care Assistant Job Description
• Veterinary Receptionist Job Description
• Veterinarian Job Description
• Ultrasound Technician Job Description
• School Nurse Job Description
• Recreational Therapist Job Description
• Psychologist Job Description
• Psychiatric Technician Job Description
• Psychiatric Nurse Job Description
• Pharmacy Manager Job Description
• Paediatric Nurse Job Description
• Nurse Practitioner Job Description
• Midwife Job Description

Further Resources For Employers And Hiring Managers

If you are not quite ready to submit your job advert and are at the beginning of the hiring process, we recommend reading:

• How To Hire Healthcare Staff
• Key Roles And Responsibilities In Healthcare
• Preparing Job Descriptions
• Posting On Job Boards And Leveraging Fixed Cost Recruitment

Healthcare Job Description FAQS

Here we answer your questions on healthcare roles, job titles, and job descriptions.

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