Hospital porter

You may find it useful to get voluntary experience in a hospital or a care home.

You can contact the voluntary services co-ordinator or manager at your local NHS trust for more details.

You can apply directly to get into this job. Work experience in a healthcare setting will be useful though not essential.

You'll normally need a good standard of literacy and numeracy. Some employers may ask for GCSEs in English and maths, or equivalent qualifications.

It might help if you have a manual handling or health and safety certificate, although your employer will train you on these when you start.

Further information

You can find out more about becoming a hospital porter from Health Careers.

You'll need:

• sensitivity and understanding
• patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
• customer service skills
• the ability to work well with others
• to enjoy working with other people
• excellent verbal communication skills
• thinking and reasoning skills
• to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device

You'll need to:

• pass enhanced background checks

Your day-to-day tasks may include:

• move patients, in beds or wheelchairs, between wards and departments
• deliver clean linen to wards
• collect waste, some of which may be hazardous
• move furniture and medical equipment safely
• transfer files, specimen samples and pharmacy boxes to different parts of the hospital
• move deceased patients to the mortuary
• deal with post and parcels

You could work in an NHS or private hospital.

You may need to wear a uniform.