Tag: Medical Facilities

Why Choose to Become a Nurse Assistant

With so many possible careers to choose from, why choose to become a Nurse Assistant? It is a very exciting career that offers you the chance to work with people and to work in the medical profession. You will be able to work at a variety of medical facilities all over the Nation. Nurse assistants are in high demand, so securing employment is often very easy.

Being a Nurse Assistant is a great opportunity for anyone who enjoys helping other people. There is a lot of pride in this profession, and it is understandable. After all, at the end of the day, how many of us can truly say we spent our day helping others on the road to being about to help themselves. It is a rewarding career.

A Nurse Assistant is a great bridge between the patients and the Nursing staff. In addition to taking great care in providing all patients with quality assistance with basic needs, a Nurse Assistance is able to offer patients and their families emotional support. The Nursing staff depends on the Nurse Assistants to properly report vital signs for all patients, to check on the patients regularly, assistance with setting up medical equipment, and to help move patients when necessary.

While some people view a Nurse Assistant as lower level staff, the Nurses in any medical facility appreciate and understand just how vital nursing Assistants are for them to be able to provide a high level of care. With shortages of medial staff in most all facilities, Nurse Assistants take care of many important issues that allow the Nursing staff to focus on larger issues that need to be addressed.

For those of you who do not enjoy the same routine day after day, being a Nurse Assistant offers you a job where things change daily. While the basic fundamentals of what you need to accomplish remain the same, what takes place on any given day will never be predictable.

Being a Nurse Assistant is not a position that just anyone is willing or able to do. It takes a special type of person to be able to complete their tasks with compassion, dedication, and patience on a daily basis. It also takes a passionate desire to help others. You need to have excellent communication skills. You will be required to communicate with the patients, their families, and numerous other medical staff members.

Since Nurse Assistants help patients with their basic needs including bathing, eating, and getting dressed; the patients sometimes display their feelings of resentment and anger at needing such assistance towards the Nursing Assistants. This sometimes exposes Nursing Assistants to physical and emotional abuse.

It is important that you understand this can happen, and take steps to reduce the risk and the effects of such occurrences. All medical facilities have procedures in place for dealing with such issues. It is important that you take the time to make yourself familiar with such polices and procedures.

Choosing to become a Nurse Assistant is a decision to be a dedicated and helpful member of society on a daily basis. Throughout your career in this type of position, you will touch the lives of many forever. It is your responsibility to ensure that every patient in your care feels like they were important to you and not just another face for you to see throughout your day.

Support Groups for Nursing Assistants

Working as a Nursing Assistant can be very fulfilling. It is a great feeling to know you spent your day helping others. However, with this job comes a great deal of stress and frustration at times. This is due to short staffing so there is too much to get done, issues with other medical staff, and dealing with terminally ill patients or those who have died while in your care. All of this can start to take a toll on a Nursing Assistant, both physically and mentally. As a result, many Nursing Assistants suffer from burnout. They no longer find joy in the profession they were once passionate about.

To help you manage the stress and other factors that your job as a Nursing Assistant brings, support groups are a great way to discuss how you are feeling, both the good and the bad. It is a way to create relationships and receive support from others in the same profession. You will also have the ability to provide support to others in the group.

There are many ways Nursing Assistants set up support groups. It is very easy to put up a flier at work and ask those who are interested to come to a meeting. Make sure your flier addresses the group is only for Nursing Assistants. Many employers will support this effort, and offer you a meeting place. Make sure you discuss your reasons for wanting to establish a support group to administration prior to advertising.

Some groups meet weekly while others meet every other week. You can have established topics for each meeting or just allow members to bring to the table what ever they want. Make sure to set up ground rules for respect as well as prevent the meetings from becoming nothing but complaint sessions. The purpose of the support group is to help you stay positive, not generate the negative.

If your group of co-workers is very small, you might decide to set up a Nursing Assistant support group in your community, inviting Nursing Assistants from all medical facilities to meet together. You can select a central location such as the library. Often Churches will allow groups to gather in their facilities when not in use. You can also choose to rotate the medical facility that will host each meeting.

Online support groups for Nursing Assistants have become very popular. They allow you a level on animosity that face to face meetings do not. Also, your group will consist of people from all over the Nation, not just in your area. This can lead to learning new ways that work well for others that you can apply to your work environment. Online support groups for Nursing Assistants are free to join. They also dont require an effort being put into reminders for meetings, or securing places to meet.

It is important for Nursing Assistants to be aware of the dangers of stress and burnout in their profession. Having a reliable support system in place is a great way to offset the effects of stress and burnout. While our families and friends are often supportive of our career choice, they dont understand the depth of some of the challenging issues that happen for Nursing Assistants in their job.

Having a support group made up of your peers allows you a resource that is walking in the same shoes. If you are hesitant, give a meeting or two a try. You just might find it is exactly what you need to help you keep that level of enthusiasm for your job at its best.

Precautions Nursing Assistants Should Take

Being a Nursing Assistant is a very rewarding career for those who choose to enter the medical field with a thirst for knowledge and a dedication to helping others. Your Nursing Assistant course, clinicals, and trainings often dont prepare you for precautions you need to take. Most employers dont either. Therefore it is the responsibility of every Nursing Assistant to learn about them on their own.

One of the hardest parts of being a Nursing Assistant is taking direction from many other staff on the medical team. They are to report directly to the Nursing staff. It is not uncommon for each Nurse to have a slightly different way they want things to be done. This makes the job of the Nursing Assistant even more challenging. You need to be willing to stand up for yourself and the other Nursing Assistants.

If this type of issue is ongoing in the medical facility you work at, go to the charge Nurse. Explain why the changes among the Nursing staff are confusing and counter productive. Most charge Nurses will look into the situation, and help put policies, procedures, and trainings into place so that all staff knows exactly how something needs to be done.

Nursing Assistants are often required to life patients while bathing, dressing, or even getting them ready to go eat. It is important that you are properly trained in this procedure, or you can injury your back or other body parts. You also run the risk of causing injury to the patient. Since medical facilities are often short staffed, Nursing Assistants try to lift patients alone when they know they are to have a partner assist them. This is dangerous to your health, to your patient, and to your job security. Never cut corners on such practices no matter how much time they save you.

Communicable diseases are very important to avoid as a Nursing Assistance. You will likely be trained in communicable diseases both in your Nursing Assistant training and your employment orientation. However, it is important to remember that most communicable diseases are spread through bodily fluids. No matter how tight your time schedule is, if you find a patient has soiled their clothing or bed, make sure you use rubber gloves, clean the area properly including using a disinfectant, and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. This will help reduce you risk of infection from communicable diseases.

Many patients who require the care of a Nursing Assistant dont want it. This can lead to a variety of feelings including depression, being upset, anger, and hatred. Often, this mix of feelings gets released onto the Nursing Assistant. You may find yourself receiving verbal abuse and sometimes physical abuse from patients as a result. It is very important that you deal with this type of situation immediately. For verbal abuse, tell the patient you understand they are upset but that you are there to help them.

Physical abuse is more dangerous than emotional abuse. Patients need to understand that it will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Avoiding burnout is another key area for Nursing Assistants to be aware of. This is the result of continually feeling overwhelmed by your job duties. The medical field ranks number one in the area of job burnout. It is important that you pay attention to burnout and these other precautions. This will enable you to further enjoy your employment as a Nursing Assistant.

Patient Abuse by Nursing Assistants

We have all heard horror stories of patient abuse by Nursing Assistants. This takes shape in many forms including sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and theft. Most medical facilities Nationwide are taking precautions against such abuse occurring, including completing background checks. In some states, you cant work as a Nursing Assistant if you have any charges relating to domestic violence, harassment, or drunk driving because it is possible such behaviors can escalate in the work environment.

Many organizations complain that Nursing Assistants arent properly looked into because the demand is so great in the industry. As a result, some employers are lowering the background check expectations. However, many states are holding the employer responsible when such abuse occurs, so this will likely help to curb that process.

Sexual abuse charges by Nursing Assistants are taken very seriously. Such sexual abuse reports include allegations of inappropriate touching and sexual intercourse. It is most commonly found to take place with male Nursing Assistants with those they are responsible for bathing. It is the responsibility of Nurses to routinely make a surprise visit into the area where a Nursing Assistant is alone with a patient. This will help convey the message that their endeavors may be interrupted and caught.

Physical abuse by Nursing Assistants is often hard to prove unless it has been witnessed or bruises appear. Often this type of abuse is conducted by Nursing Assistants who are not satisfied with their job. They are easily upset, frustrated, and overwhelmed. Some abuse their patients as a method of teaching them that they think some of their behaviors are inappropriate. For example, some patients have reported being hit for soiling their clothes and bedding. This often goes unreported in elderly populations as they become very afraid.

Verbal abuse is one of the most common types of abuse by Nursing Assistants. It can be simple teasing, belittling, or threats. Often this type of behavior stems out of control issues and the desire to have a more important job.

Theft is the number one reported type of abuse by Nursing Assistants. In can include cash, food, jewelry, and even dietary supplements. In medical facilities, such theft can be hard to prove who did it because the patient comes into contact with so many individuals who work in the facility.

While most Nursing Assistants do their job with as much energy and work ethic as humanly possible, there are those who give the entire profession a bad name. It is sad when you think about it when is the last time a Nursing Assistant who did a good job made National headlines? Yet let one fall out of line, and you will hear it on the TV, radio, and the internet continuously.

The Nursing Assistant profession can be very difficult. It takes a very particular type of individual to be able to meet the requirements. Employers have a responsibility to protect all the patients. This requires money and time to be spent on extensive background checks and training. It also requires workshops and ongoing training for all staff members. Everyone should know signs of abuse to be watching for and how to report them. Abuse by Nursing Assistants will be prosecuted by law. Anyone going into the profession needs to be made very aware of that.