Certified Nursing Assistant Job Description

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 01:02:01 +0000

Certified nursing assistant job description

Certified Nursing Assistant Job Description: Most people think of nurses as an assistant to a doctor. It’s a rather simplistic description, but it’s accurate enough. But nurses have their own helpers too, and these are the certified nursing assistants. Here are the sorts of tasks that are usually part of the certified nursing assistant job description:

Take the patient’s vital signs. The CNA measures and records the patient’s temperature, blood pressure, weight, respiration, and pulse rate. Urine and stool samples may also be taken. These are the data that other health care professionals will need to know when treating the patient.

Help in the patient’s personal hygiene. A major part of the job is to help the patient with bathroom activities. This may range from providing bedpans and urinals to helping the patient to and in the bathroom. This part of the job includes helping the patient bathe and shave. A severely injured patient needs help using the soap and shampoo, and will not be able to clean up properly all by themselves. This may also involve keeping the entire patient’s room clean, and that also means changing soiled sheets and collecting laundry.

Help the patient with meals. Many patients can’t eat or even drink on their own, so the CNA has to help out. This involves serving meals or even feeding the patient directly. It also means helping the patient drink water.

Assist patients in moving from the bed. The CNA can help the patient transfer from the bed to a wheelchair or a walker.

Help in setting up medical equipment. This may include setting up the tools needed for a certain medical exam, or to move a heavier piece of equipment from one room to another.

Assist in some medical procedures. For instance, a CNA may help with a blood test by drawing the blood from the patient, or by helping to restrain a patient and keep them immobile.

Offer any sort of requested assistance. This can range from life-saving help such as CPR, or to just lending a sympathetic ear for patients. Sick or injured patients cannot do some things on their own, so they will need help. Even just changing the channel in the TV or getting them a book is much appreciated.

Note changes in the patient’s condition. Doctors and other nurses need to know if something changes so that they can modify the treatments they offer. CNAs offer constant monitoring services to make sure that the doctors know how their patients are responding to the treatments. Essentially, the certified nursing assistant job description is to help patients get better by providing many different forms of assistance. This necessarily includes a wide range of tasks that a patient cannot do for themselves. A CNA may not be as highly paid as a registered nurse but their assistance is crucial in helping patients feel better and get better. They are a source of comfort for patients, and when patients are in pain or severely injured such comfort is invaluable.