Nurses Aide Jobs Play A Vital Role
Nurse aide jobs consist of carrying out routine tasks under the supervision of nursing and medical staff in hospitals. People engaged in Nurse's aide jobs are also called nursing assistants, geriatric aides, unlicensed assistant personnel or hospital attendants.
A Nurse's Aide plays an important role in today's hospitals and health care facilities. They provide routine care for the patients so that the nurses can carry out the duties and care that only they alone can perform, such as administering medication, performing nursing assessments, and assisting in the surgery room.
The nurse's aide has to be skilled in his/her tasks. She must also be able to make quick observations of the patient's physical, emotional and mental condition. She then would follow up and report this information back to the nurse. The nurse has to spend a lot of time away from the patient's room to carry out other responsibilities, so the nurse's aide functions as the "eyes and ears" of the nurse.
A nurse's aide also needs to have a good grasp of emergency procedures and be able to handle stressful situations in a calm manner. In order to become a state certified nurse assistant, the nurse aide has to master some basic skills which are needed for patient care in hospitals as well as in home settings. These consist of a set of learned tasks needed to help patients cope with their day-to-day living, providing bedside care and basic nursing procedures, all under the supervision of a Registered Nurse or Licensed Practical Nurse. Their day to day caring activities consist of the following tasks: ambulation assistance (a set of techniques to help patients to walk); helping patients to get in and out of their beds; fixing antiembolic stockings on patients to prevent circulation problems; serving bedpans to patients and measurement of urine and stool; denture and mouth care; feeding patients who are too weak, or unable to feed themselves; providing daily hair care; making a patient's bed; nail care; skin care; giving patients bed baths; supplying fresh iced water to patients so that they do not get dehydrated; 'positioning' or changing the posture of bedridden patients to avoid health problems like bedsores; assisting patients to perform exercises that flex the joints of their arms, wrists, legs, fingers, hips and feet, to aid circulation, prevent arthritis and stiffness; taking the patients vital signs (temperature, respiration, blood pressure, pulse, level of pain) and recording them at least once-a-day; bringing any unusual findings to the attention of a supervising nurse or doctor. They also escort patients to examining and operating rooms, keep the patient's room tidy, move and store supplies, set up medical equipment, assist with some procedures. There has been a movement recently to bring nurse assistants under some kind of regulatory control. Considering the present acute shortage of health care personnel, nurse aides can be given further training so that they can perform additional tasks. The nurse's aide, along with the entire team, has to ensure that the patient's rights are respected at all times. Some of these are the right to privacy and dignity while care is being given, the right to be informed of the treatment plan, and the right to accept or refuse treatment.
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