A Certified nursing assistant is a certificate for nursing to provide authenticity to the nurses to officially take care of their patient. A CNA works as a direct link between a registered nurse (RN) and the patient. They provide the best services and care for their patient. Certified nursing assistant are the first in any care center that have the closest interaction with the patient. They play a vital role in recovering the health of a patient. Being the most demanded profession, a CNA works in variety of places from hospitals, care centers to rehab and home health aides.
CAN Personal Traits
Before getting on with the nursing assistant CNA job description and CNA duties, we should know the personal traits that a CNA should have in order to steadily perform their duties. As CNA duties can be a little depressing and sometimes stressful. These personal traits will help to accomplish those duties without any difficulty and grow steadily in their career. Some of the basic skills involved are decision making skills, listening skills, communication skills, work ethics and the ability to maintain interpersonal relationships. Other than that, here are some important traits of a CNA:
It requires understanding your patient needs and wants. And to truly understand that you need to put yourself in shoes of the patient. Because there are times when a CNA is assigned to elderly, disabled patient or patients who are struggling their way to recover, so as these patient don’t really talk much, you have to understand what they really want. Imagine yourself as the patient and then think what you would want when you are sick or struggling and only then you will know what the patient really wants.
The most important trait of a CNA is to provide personal care to the patient. It also means to listen to the patient concerns carefully. CNAs are required to perform some very personal activities like bathing; shaving, dressing and other personal hygiene duties like help the patient for toileting needs. So a CNA should have patience and should be comfortable and respectful at the same time in order to make the patient feel secure.
It is defined as how you feel about your patient, the one in grieve. It requires patience and kindness towards your patient. Regardless of all the details of the patient you need to be generous towards your patient. The more compassionate you are with the patient, the more comfortable the patient will be with you.
Along with these personal traits here are some other skills of a CNA:
Another important skill of a CNA is to keep everything in patient surrounding organized. This helps in keeping record of all the medicines a patient needs and if anything goes bad, the solution could be found easily. Also that keeping everything organized will keep the environment clean and tidy.
Keeping the record of even the slight changes in the patient health is also a valuable skill. It requires a CNA to be proactive in order to record temperature, the intake of medicines and meal and should be quick in reporting any vital signs of any reaction to the concerned doctor or the registered nurse (RN).
Job description and duties
Now that we have learned about the personal traits and skills of a CNA, let’s have a look at the nursing assistant job description and its duties. What a CNA do is that they carry out all the duties and responsibilities that are required to keep the patient healthy and help them in their time of suffering. Depending on the work place the role of a CNA, but there are some general duties that are common for all the CNAs, which are:
- To wash and dress the patient
- To maintain the surroundings of the patient
- To help maintain the intake of medicine for the patient
- To observe the patient for any vital signs and measure temperature, blood pressure and respiration.
- To provide full support emotionally, physically and socially.
- To file a document about the various changes and health issues of the patient for the concerning doctor to check.
Along with that here are some distinctive CNA duties that are carried out in accordance with where they work daily:
It means to maintain patient’s personal hygiene that includes bathing, helping the patient with shower, grooming of the patient like hair brushing and trimming nails if needed. It is also required to keep the surroundings of the patient clean to avoid any germs or bacteria to cause any other disease.
This CNA duty requires to keep the surroundings cleans to avoid any germ to cause any kind of infection. Along with surroundings CNA should also wash their hands and keep themselves clean at all times. Cleaning the rooms and toilets is also essential to avoid any infection.
Dietary and Nutrition
An important duty of a CNA is to keep track of the diet of the patient. Providing nutritious food as guided by the doctor and to avoid intake of any unhealthy food is really important. CNAs also have to keep in record of how much and what the patient eats and if the patient needs help in eating, nursing assistants are to help them out.
Usage of equipment
As a CNA, you have to use different equipment like, blood test apparatus, blood pressure apparatus, bladder scanner and bedpan. So a nursing assistant should have proper knowledge of how to use them, sterilize them and keep them clean. CNAs might also help in the administration of treatment.
A CNA has daily interaction with the patient. So they play a vital role in the recovery of the patient health. A CNA should the record of even the slightest change in the patient regarding temperature, blood pressure and other vital signs. Altogether, a CNA files a documented report about the health status of the patient and communicate it to the concerning doctor or registered nurse(RN).This documentation will help the doctor to analyze the patient more quickly and efficiently.
CNAs duties include physical as well as emotional support. Emotional support plays a vital role in the recovery of the patient. As they interact with the patients daily so they know about mood of a patient and how they feel, what they fear and what are their concerns. CNA can help relieve any stress and pain by just talking to their patient and showing a little emotional support. For a nursing assistant it is important to carefully listen to what the patient wants to say and then counsel them accordingly.
The duties of a CNA are essentially same for job description, regardless of where they work. There is only a slight variation as in hospital their duties might be additional depending upon the assigned floor. Apart from that CNA also handle many activities that are not related to medical duties, such as cooking and other housework. Keep in mind that while some responsibilities vary in location, the personal traits, such as personal care, empathy and compassion would be your long life partner.