Covering all the essential components of healthcare assistant and assistant practitioner roles, Essential Knowledge and Skills for Healthcare Assistants is a practical and comprehensive text designed to equip you with the necessary clinical skills for your profession. This book: Equips you with the knowledge to provide the safest and most effective patient care possible Provides evidence-based guidelines to ensure best practice that is matched to the National Occupational Standards Supplies comprehensive coverage of both primary and secondary care settings with an emphasis on the role in primary care Includes information on accountability, communication skills, confidentiality and reflection Uses a light-hearted and accessible style, with definitions, case studies and activities to aid understanding Includes a Foreword written by Tanis Hand, HCA adviser at the Royal College of Nursing This is an indispensable guide for all those training as healthcare assistants and assistant practitioners, as well as a useful reference for students embarking on a degree in nursing or health and social care.