The Royal Navy - Medical Assistant L5 Assistant Practitioner (Health) Apprenticeship

Being a Medical Assistant in the Royal Navy

Being a Medical Assistant in the Royal Navy means embarking on a career that offers more variety and adventure than you’d ever experience in civilian medicine. From the day you join, you’ll gain new skills, pushing yourself to the limit in some unique and challenging environments.

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you'll do at work

• Make a real difference to some essential operations. That might mean being the only medic on board ship, and taking responsibility for the general healthcare of an entire crew. This could include patient assessment and coordination of care, infection prevention and control, and supporting specialist senior healthcare support workers in their duties
• Use your medical expertise where it’s needed most, providing primary healthcare to trauma victims in conflict zones all over the world
• When you’re not on deployment you will be working in a Royal Navy shore base or even with the Royal Marines. There’s no equivalent civilian role, so you’ll gain all the skills you need
• Work across all medical departments, learning directly from specialists in a number of different fields. You could be training with Special Forces in West Africa, or working in primary care on board a ship in the Persian Gulf

Where you'll work

Navy Command HQ
The Admiral Sir Henry Leach Building
Portsmouth
Hampshire
PO2 8BY

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

ROYAL NAVY

Training course

Assistant practitioner (health) (level 5)

Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)

What you'll learn

Course contents

• Work in line with legislation, policies, standards and codes of conduct that apply to own role
• Work within the scope of practice, the limits of own knowledge and skills, escalating and reporting to others when needed
• Work in partnership with others to champion safe, equitable, non-discriminatory person-centred care and support for individuals
• Promote and maintain the principles of a duty of care, safeguarding and protection, always acting in the best interest of individuals and working across organisations and with other agencies to ensure they do not come to harm
• Undertake and monitor physiological, technical and psychological measurements using the appropriate equipment and tools within scope of own practice
• Select and use the correct equipment and tools to undertake timely assessment of an individual's physical and mental healthcare status within own scope of practice
• Recognise and respond to an individual in pain, distress or discomfort
• Interpret results of assessment in the context of the individual’s health and wellbeing, making appropriate changes or recommendations to the care plan within scope of own practice or escalating in line with local protocol
• Support individuals with nutrition and fluids in line with their care needs, taking action as required
• Undertake evidence-based clinical, diagnostic or therapeutic interventions delegated by a registered healthcare professional in line with scope of practice, and standard operating procedures
• Monitor and review the impact of clinical, diagnostic or therapeutic interventions on an individual’s health and well-being
• Record and store information related to individuals securely and in line with local and national policies, including the safe use of technology
• Report and share information related to individuals securely and in line with local and national policies, maintaining confidentiality
• Delegate work to colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team and engage in supervision
• Liaise with the multidisciplinary team to prioritise and manage own workload
• Communicate with individuals, their families, carers and health and care professionals using techniques designed to maximise understanding
• Promote the use of digital solutions to improve communication systems and practices
• Recognise and respond to limitations in an individual’s mental capacity
• Participate in training and development activities and evaluate the impact of learning on own practice
• Seek out and respond to feedback and engage in appraisals
• Reflect on own practice to improve practice
• Provide leadership and act as a role model for others within the scope of own role
• Identify learning and development needs of others
• Teach, coach and mentor others and confirm that learning needs have been met
• Actively seek out and act on opportunities to support individuals to maximise their health and well-being within the scope of the role
• Promote preventative health behaviours and support individuals to make informed choices to improve their health and wellbeing within the scope of the role
• Conduct and record risk assessments relevant to the activity and scope of own practice
• Uphold the principles of duty of candour, identifying and managing challenging situations, unsafe work practices and addressing comments, compliments, conflict and complaints
• Maintain a safe and healthy working environment for self and others, using techniques for infection prevention and control, including the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and supporting others to comply with policy and procedures
• Move and assist individuals, equipment and other items safely
• Participate in and support others in audit and quality improvement activities in the workplace
• Conduct research activity within the scope of own role and act on the findings
• Identify opportunities to improve quality in the workplace and contribute to local, regional and national quality improvement initiatives