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Health and Social Care

What is the Most Enjoyable Part of Care Work

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Lead Academy

11 Mins Read

You may be thinking that it’s a pretty hectic job as you’re responsible for the well-being of a person. So, there might not be many at all.
You can’t be more wrong than you already are. We can tell you about at least 20 most enjoyable parts of care work. There are plenty more. However, 20 will serve fine to prove our point.

So, let’s get started. But first, let’s see the incentive behind people wanting to be care workers.

Why Do You Want to be a Carer?

It’s difficult to answer the question “What is the most enjoyable part of care work?”. Say I’m a care worker. “Why I love being a care worker” isn’t something that can be pinpointed immediately.

Care work is indeed gratifying in the sense that care workers like nurses and social care workers make a pretty comfortable living. But, intrinsic benefits, the innate happiness they feel, appear to inspire them more than external rewards. They appreciate their profession, and they are socially motivated to help others.
You’ll often get a standard answer on what to say when applying for a care job, and it’s the fact that you love helping people.
It is admirable that people continue to perform their work, whether out of a desire to help others or merely to make a decent living. However, it is advisable that you find a passion for helping people rather than making a penny if you intend to work in care. It will help you in the long run from feeling burned out.

Senior woman greeting and welcoming female carer into her house.

blog-starAre you looking for a Health and Social Care course?

If you’re looking for a Health and Social Care course, you need to ensure that it has addressed all the principles of care as well as the latest legislation. Our Health and Social Care course will help you in this regard. It will also teach you the key aspects underpinning quality Health & Social Care work in the UK and the career prospect in this sector.

Different Types of Carer

Carer isn’t a fixed term. Depending on the service user’s needs, new roles regularly emerge on top of the existing ones.
Many people play the position of caregiver. Parents, for example, look after their children. Grown children thus can also look after their parents. We look after our sick or injured friends and family.
People who are trained and compensated to look for others are known as professional carers.

Further, confidentiality is a very important topic in health and social care and, you can gain an extensive understanding of the same.

However, if you consider age, then carer roles can be divided into two distinctive sections:

1. Young Carer
The carer is under 18

2. Adult Carer
The carer is over 18

If you consider wages and everything associated with professionalism, care work can be divided into three parts.
The term ‘carer’ can refer to both paid and unpaid caregivers, as well as professional caregivers.

1. Unpaid Carers

A partner, family member, friend, or neighbour who provides unpaid care is described as a ‘lay caregiver’. They take the responsibility of providing temporary or long-term care for someone who is:

  • Ill
  • Disabled
  • Has a mental health condition
  • Suffering from drug addiction
  • An old person who requires assistance.

2. Volunteer Carers

These type of carers assist people without asking for any compensation. This type of function could be supplied temporarily. Several channels like an agency, a charitable organisation, or informal networks may volunteer to provide this service. However, it can also be as part of a longer-term arrangement.

Friendly lady in a white lab coat smiling at a senior citizen in her medical care.

3. Professional Carers

The phrase “care worker” is used to describe a variety of professional carers. Note that unpaid or volunteer carer workers also often work with professional carers. So the categories of professional care workers aren’t exclusive to them.

With that said, here are a few branches of care work where these professionals work.

Elder Care

Eldercare employees give care and support to older people. They work in places like elder care homes, clinics, hospitals, and private residences, to name a few. Their assistance includes:

  • Helping with personal hygiene, i.e., showering, dressing, eating, etc.
  • Household chores like cooking and cleaning.
  • Helping the person during the time of illness
  • Companionship and emotional support to help the client stay as healthy and well as possible while also helping to keep their independence and dignity.

Attendant Care Worker

Attendant care professionals support people with disabilities in their homes or at work with personal care. Depending on the individual’s needs, they may assist with:

  • Personal care and hygiene such as bathing and toileting
  • Mobility and lifting
  • Dressing and grooming
  • Exercising
  • Feeding
  • Communication and interaction with other people
  • Domestic responsibilities
  • Education

Disability Support Worker

People with disabilities receive care and support from disability support professionals in their homes, clinics, hospitals or residential institutions.
Their collaboration with other health and social care professionals aims to improve a person’s physical and mental health, as well as provide companionship and emotional support when needed. In addition, they assist the individual in becoming as self-sufficient as possible and encourage them to participate in community activities.

Healthcare worker or caregiver visiting a senior woman indoors at home, helping her to walk.

Home Care Worker

People who cannot care for themselves or their families due to illness, disability, or weakness benefit from the services of home care providers. Home care employees provide in-home care for those who need it. The patient can remain in their own home or residential care facilities to receive the care.

Personal Care Worker

Personal care workers provide activities and programs to assist people in developing and maintaining their well-being in their homes and other out-of-hospital settings. In addition, they may work under other much more qualified healthcare professionals to carry out duties according to the service user’s needs.

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20 Most Enjoyable Parts of Care Work

As you can see, the duties and responsibilities of care workers vary according to the service users. However, one thing is common among them- it’s an incredibly rewarding job.

So, what is the most enjoyable part of care work?

It’s not that just the mental fulfilment of helping people and earning a comfortable living as well are the only factors here. There are many others.

Here are the 20 most enjoyable parts of care work.

1. The Obvious: Satisfaction of Helping the Helpless

You’re sure to find a lot of appreciation in care work. People naturally get attached to people that care for them.

2. Making a Difference

It’s just not the fact that you’ll find appreciation. You’ll also find the joy of making a difference in people’s lives. Whatever you do to help them live independently will bring a smile to their face when they see you walking through the door.

Male care worker serving dinner to a senior man at his home.

3. Value

Not all of us have the luxury or the luck to help people all the time. Care workers are different in that regard. It will make you value your own self because of what you do: value others’ lives.

4. Building Personal Relationships

Your service users are bound to get attached to you most of the time. In turn, you’ll build a personal relationship with them. For example, imagine hearing stories of a faraway village in World War 2 or a love story of the 60s or the 70s over a cup of tea.

5. Job Satisfaction

Your job satisfaction will tend to generally stay high even if you have to work under pressure, as you’ll receive good reviews from your service users all the time.

6. Challenges

Care work is incredibly challenging, no doubt. Taking responsibility for a person is no small feat. Those who love challenges will love this aspect of care work.

7. Social Interaction With Other Care Workers

Most other care workers will have likely entered the caring sector with the same motivation as yours. You’ll find so many like-minded people here who you’ll love to hang out with.

Female psychologist conversing with a depressed teen girl in the workplace.

8. Support

Generally, care workers receive great support from the staff of their local offices. Rarely will you find people who are hindering your work.

9. Continuity

After you pick up a client, you’ll most likely work with them for a long time, possibly daily. General satisfaction of helping people aside, the fact that you get to help someone, for example, get back on their feet, not just for a day, but throughout the process is equally satisfying.

10. Family Environment

You’ll always find that care work rarely leaves the gesture of a family environment outside. Instead, you get to treat your clients as if they are your own family, and your gesture of love will almost always be returned equally.

11. Variety of Role

Your role changes, just like your clients all the time. Your role may include a mixture of caring, client reviews and doing spot checks. You’ll enjoy the variety.

12. Variety Within Your Own Role

Depending on your client, your role today may be an elegant Mediterranean chef. However, the next day, you get to be a Parisian fashion designer. But, like most other professionals, you’ll never get tired of doing the same thing every day.

Female beautician working with a female customer wearing mask.

13. Variety of Workplace

Care workers rarely work in the same place for a long time. You’ll work in a variety of places, including the client’s home, residential facilities, clinics, hospitals etc. What’s more, if you don’t like a particular area, the fact that you’re only there temporarily is a luxury that only a few other professionals get.

14. Networking

You’ll constantly be working with other healthcare professionals depending on your client. As such, you’ll have the chance to build a very strong professional network within your sector.

15. Subsidised Training

One of the biggest perks of care work is that you get training on expertise like-

  • Care assistant skills
  • While working with a client who loves their independence, how do you ensure that you do not infringe that person’s human rights while you’re working?

Funding will vary depending on the organisation, but you don’t have to worry about these costs.

16. The Flexibility of Working Hours

Care work is a 24/7 job. Someone somewhere will always meet the criteria on how you intend to give care. So working weekends and during the evenings if you’re busy with other things like studying during the day will not be hard.

Clinical professionals in a meeting looking something at a computer screen.

17. The Universal Nature of the Job

Care work, wherever you go, will always be more or less the same. So if you switch places or countries, you’ll likely find another job relatively quickly. So the job security in this field is relatively high.

18. Celebrations

Even if you can’t find time for your own celebrations, your clients will somewhat keep you entertained throughout the year with theirs.

19. Wisdom

Working with older people will get valuable insights into various fields. There will be no shortage of advice for you from life to business insights if you choose to listen.

20. Finally, Another Obvious Point: Job Benefits

You might not be aware of the advantages of working as a care assistant. You’ll get paid holidays, a pension, and continual training. You may also receive paid breaks and reimbursed meals while on duty.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn that the perks of working as a support worker are plenty to those of other occupations.

Recognise the type of observation in health and social care check the blog for comprehensive information.


Conclusion

As you can see, care work is definitely very satisfying. There is no single answer to “What is the most enjoyable part of care work?” it’s many. The fact that you get to enjoy all of them while earning a decent income for yourself makes it even sweeter.

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