Nursing Assistant Career
Overview
- Numerous job openings and excellent job opportunities are expected.
- Most jobs are in nursing, residential care facilities, and in hospitals.
- A high school diploma is required for many jobs; specific qualifications vary by occupation, state laws, and employer requirements.
Nature of the Work
Nursing assistants help care for physically or mentally ill, injured, disabled, or infirm individuals in hospitals, nursing care facilities, and mental health settings. Nursing assistants are commonly referred to as direct care workers, due to their role in working with patients who need long-term care.
Nursing assistants, also known as nurse aides, certified nursing assistants (CNA), geriatric aides, unlicensed assistive personnel, orderlies, or hospital attendants, provide hands-on care and perform routine tasks under the supervision of nursing and medical staff. Specific tasks vary, with aides handling many aspects of a patient's care. They often help patients to eat, dress, and bathe. They also answer calls for help, deliver messages, serve meals, make beds, and tidy up rooms.
Aides sometimes are responsible for taking a patient's temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate, or blood pressure. They also may help provide care to patients by helping them get out of bed and walk, escorting them to operating and examining rooms, or providing skin care. Some aides help other medical staff by setting up equipment, storing and moving supplies, and assisting with some procedures. Aides also observe patients' physical, mental, and emotional conditions and report any change to the nursing or medical staff.
Nursing assistants employed in nursing care facilities often are the principal caregivers and have more contact with residents than do other members of the staff. Because some residents may stay in a nursing care facility for months or even years, nursing assistants develop positive, caring relationships with their patients.
Work environment
Work as a nursing assistant can be physically demanding. Nursing assistants spend many hours standing and walking, and they often face heavy workloads. Nursing assistants must guard against back injury, because they may have to move patients into and out of bed or help them stand or walk. It is important for nursing assistants to be trained in and to follow the proper procedures for lifting and moving patients. Nursing assistants also may face hazards from minor infections and major diseases, such as hepatitis, but they can avoid infections by following proper procedures.
Nursing Assistants also perform tasks that some may consider unpleasant, such as emptying bedpans and changing soiled bed linens. The patients they care for may be disoriented, irritable, or uncooperative. Although their work can be emotionally demanding, many nursing assistants gain satisfaction from assisting those in need.
The vast majority of full-time nursing assistants work about 40 hours per week, but because patients need care 24 hours a day, some nursing assistants work evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays. In 2008 about 24 percent of nursing assistants worked part-time.
Employment
Nursing assistants held about 1.5 million jobs in 2008. About 41 percent of nursing assistants worked in nursing care facilities and another 29 percent worked in hospitals.
Job Outlook
Employment is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations. Excellent job opportunities are expected.
Employment change
Overall employment of nursing assistants is projected to grow 18 percent between 2008 and 2018. This growth is faster than the average for all occupations, predominantly in response to the long-term care needs of an increasing elderly population. Financial pressures on hospitals to discharge patients as soon as possible should boost admissions to nursing care facilities and increase the need for nursing assistants. As a result, new jobs will be more numerous in nursing and residential care facilities than in hospitals, and growth will be especially strong in community care facilities for the elderly. Modern medical technology will also drive demand for nursing assistants, because as the technology saves and extends more lives, it increases the need for long-term care provided by nursing assistants.
Career Learning Institute is currently seeking Board of Nursing approval for the Nursing Assistant Diploma program. For more information about our Nursing Assistant Diploma program, contact us today.
All material on this page is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Handbook, 2010-2011 Edition.