Duties Of A CNA

There are many potential duties of a CNA.  If you are considering a career as a certified nursing assistant, you will want to educate yourself on which sort of duties a CNA will perform.

As a nursing assistant you will work as part of a healthcare team to provide care for patients who are sick or injured.  There are a variety of settings that you might work in including:  a hospital, doctor’s office, home health setting, rehabilitation or nursing home facility.  Your duties can vary depending on the setting where you work.

A CNA will always provide kind and compassionate care to their patients or clients.  If you are working in a home health setting, you are typically responsible for providing assistance to patients with their activities of daily living.  You might help them to bathe and to dress.  There might be times when you will take vital signs.  You might assistant patients with exercises and range of motion activities.  You might oversee patients taking their medication.  Your exact duties will depend on the agency for which you are employed, regulations in your state and the condition of your home health client.

If you are working in a hospital setting, you are likely to help provide for a patient’s basic comforts.  You might deliver food trays to a patient and will make sure a patient receive a meal that is safe for their health conditions.  For instance, you will make sure a diabetic patient is provided with a special menu.  You might be asked to take and chart vital signs and to monitor the intake of food and liquids.

In a hospital or rehabilitation center, you might help a patient to bathe, comb their hair and with other grooming tasks.  It is often necessary to help a patient to walk or to help move them from one location to another In a wheelchair or bed.  If you have a patient who is immobile, you will help to reposition them every couple hours to prevent bedsores.  You might need to help a patient dress and with toiletry needs.  Your exact duties will be explained by your employer.

When you are working in a continuing care community there are any number of duties you might perform depending on the condition of your patient.  You will probably help with bathing and other grooming duties.  It is often necessary to help patients to eat or even to feed them.  There will be some residents that you will need to change.  You might help to make certain a patient receives and takes their medication.  (You will not directly administer their medications in most states).

The exact responsibilities that you have as a nursing assistant will depend on your employer, your training and the state and setting where you will work.  It will always be important to provide friendly care to your patients.  If a patient is having a health problem or has an injury you will respond as trained to get them help.

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