School of Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK.
Med Teach. 2021 Sep;43(9):1092-1093. doi: 10.1080/0142159X.2020.1817351. Epub 2020 Sep 29.
This personal view, regarding the value of healthcare support worker (HCSW) assistantships, is based on our experiences as medical students entering our final year, having both worked as HCSW's during the COVID-19 pandemic, and from SC's experience as a HCSW before and throughout medical school. HCSW's provide a large proportion of the basic care patients receive on the wards, in clinics and primary care. The proximity to patients attracts individuals with excellent communication skills and bedside manner, and means they are well-positioned to assist in the management of both the general wellbeing of patients and equally, to recognise the signs of a deteriorating patient making them a versatile and invaluable member of the multidisciplinary team (MDT). This piece aims to highlight the value of our time spent working as a HCSWs, thus promoting the formation of a mandatory assistantship for medical students, like that seen in Germany. Through this, essential communication skills, empathy, 'ward smarts' and an appreciation for the wider MDT can be gained in a way that typical clinical attachments and classroom teaching do not replicate.
这篇个人观点文章探讨了医疗支持工作者（HCSW）助理的价值，其依据是我们作为医学生在最后一年的经历，我们在 COVID-19 大流行期间都曾担任 HCSW，并且从 SC 在医学之前和整个期间作为 HCSW 的经验中获得了这一观点。HCSW 在病房、诊所和初级保健中为患者提供了大量的基本护理。与患者的接近吸引了具有出色沟通技巧和 bedside manner 的人，这意味着他们能够很好地协助管理患者的整体健康状况，同样能够识别患者病情恶化的迹象，使他们成为多学科团队（MDT）中不可或缺且非常有价值的一员。本文旨在强调我们作为 HCSW 工作的价值，从而提倡为医学生设立强制性助理职位，就像德国那样。通过这种方式，可以获得典型的临床实习和课堂教学无法复制的基本沟通技巧、同理心、“病房智慧”以及对更广泛的 MDT 的欣赏。
