Honoring Nursing Assistants

June 13 through 20 is Nursing Assistants Week, a time set aside to promote recognition, education, research, advocacy and peer support development for nursing assistants in nursing homes and other long-term care settings. Nursing assistants go by many titles, and can also be known as nurse aides, direct care workers, caregivers, certified nursing assistants, geriatric aides, unlicensed assistive personnel, orderlies, home health aides or hospital attendants. Whatever name you know them by, they are essential to providing the best hands-on healthcare.

An integral part of the many different types of home care employees, nursing assistants perform routine tasks under the supervision of nursing and medical staff. There are an estimated 2.5 million nursing assistants, and they provide nearly 80 to 90 percent of the direct care received by clients in long-term care facilities. The responsibilities of nursing assistants may include:

• 
  housekeeping (making beds, doing laundry, washing dishes)
• 
  preparing meals, shopping
• 
  personal care (bathing, dressing, grooming, etc.)
• 
  transportation to and from physician offices and routine errands

In addition, if a nursing assistant is a home health aide they have received state-approved advanced training so they are able to recognize any undesirable signs and symptoms in patients and report them immediately. Depending on you or your loved one’s needs, Interim HealthCare can customize a care plan with our nursing assistants that provides services for any where from a few hours a week to full-time care.

 

If you’re a nursing assistant and looking for a job in home care, visit our careers website at www.careersbyweb.com. From all of us at Interim HealthCare—THANK YOU to ALL nursing assistants for all you do!