C.N.A.

Nursing Assistant

The primary purpose of your job position is to provide your assigned residents with routine daily nursing care in accordance with our established nursing care procedures, and as may be directed by your supervisors.

Major duties and responsibilities include:

Administrative functions such as recording information on flow sheets, using wristbands to identify residents, reporting accidents, using authorized abbreviations, and reporting changes in resident condition.

Admission, transfer, and discharge functions including preparing resident rooms, greeting and escorting residents, introducing residents to others, making residents comfortable, inventorying personal possessions, storing clothing, assisting with packing and transportation, and assisting with loading and unloading.

Personnel functions such as following work assignments, performing tasks according to policies, notifying the facility of absences, reporting complaints and grievances, cooperating with inter-department personnel, creating a positive environment, and meeting with nursing personnel to identify and correct problem areas.

Personal nursing care functions including participating in nursing report, assisting with dental and mouth care, bathing residents, giving backrubs, assisting with dressing and undressing, assisting with hair care, assisting with nail care, shaving male residents, keeping female residents clean shaven, keeping residents dry, making beds, positioning bedfast residents, changing bed linens, putting extra covers on beds, assisting with bowel and bladder functions, maintaining intake and output records, keeping incontinent residents clean and dry, checking bowel movements, collecting specimens, assisting with medical tests, assisting with activity and social programs, assisting with lifting, turning, moving, and positioning residents, answering resident calls, assisting residents to work with or without self-help devices, performing restorative and rehabilitative procedures, providing eye and ear care, measuring and recording vital signs, weighing and measuring residents, assisting with physical examinations, assisting with care of dying residents, providing post-mortem care, and checking residents to assure personal care needs are met.

Special nursing care functions including observing and reporting pressure areas and skin breakdowns, providing daily perineal care, turning bedfast residents, performing diabetic urine testing, observing disoriented and comatose residents, watching for changes in room conditions, turning medications over to the Charge/Staff Nurse, and providing residents with Reality Orientation.

Food service functions such as preparing residents for meals, serving food trays, assisting with feeding, assisting residents with identifying food arrangements, recording food/fluid intake, keeping water pitchers clean and filled, serving between meal and bedtime snacks, performing after meal care, and checking rooms for food articles.

Staff development including attending training and educational classes, attending orientation programs and activities.

Safety and sanitation including restraining residents, checking restrained residents, releasing restraints, maintaining records of restrained residents, notifying Charge/Staff Nurse of residents leaving or missing, keeping floors dry, storing supplies and equipment, keeping residents' personal possessions off the floor, following smoking regulations, keeping nurses' call system accessible, reporting hazardous conditions, following safety precautions, reporting safety violations, keeping bedside rails up, storing tools and supplies, washing hands, washing wheelchairs and walkers, cleaning resident care equipment, performing routine housekeeping duties, washing hands before entering and leaving isolation rooms, reporting communicable diseases, following isolation precautions, using gowns and gloves, and following Universal Precautions.

Equipment and supply functions including using trained equipment, operating equipment safely, using necessary equipment and supplies, reporting defective equipment, informing Charge/Staff Nurse of equipment and supply needs.

Care plan functions including reviewing care plans daily.

Residents' rights functions including maintaining confidentiality, treating residents fairly and with respect, providing nursing care in privacy, knocking before entering resident rooms, reporting grievances and complaints.

Working conditions include working in well-lit and ventilated areas, sitting, standing, bending, lifting, and moving intermittently, being subject to interruptions, interacting with residents, personnel, visitors, and government agencies, being willing to work beyond normal hours, attending continuing educational programs, being subject to falls, burns, odors, exposure to infectious waste and diseases, maintaining liaison with other department supervisors.

Education requirements include an 8th-grade education and being a Certified Nursing Assistant or enrolled in a Certified Nursing Assistant Training Program.

Experience includes none, on-the-job training.

Specific requirements include writing legible English, making independent decisions, dealing tactfully with personnel and residents, being at least 18 years old, working harmoniously with personnel, having patience, tact, a cheerful disposition, seeking new methods and principles, moving intermittently, speaking understandable English, coping with mental and emotional stress, seeing and hearing adequately, functioning independently, being in good general health, relating to and working with ill, disabled, elderly, and hostile people, and lifting a minimum of 50 pounds.