Certified Nursing Assistant Job Description Example

By | August 31, 2023
Certified Nursing Assistant job description, duties, tasks, and responsibilities
Certified Nursing Assistants help provide relief and comfort to patients undergoing treatment from ailment. Image source: Nursejournal.org

Certified Nursing Assistant Job Description Example

What Does a Certified Nursing Assistant Do?

A certified nursing assistant (CNA) is a health care provider who renders personal hygiene service to patients, helping them get relief and comfort from ailments and other medical conditions.

The basic responsibility of the certified nursing assistant in a clinic is to help patients lead normal and comfortable lives, despite their medical condition.

The certified nursing assistant job description usually includes keeping patients’ immediate environment clean, washing their clothes, and cleaning the house.

It also includes scrubbing the wall and floor, changing bedspreads, and arranging items in place.

The role of the nursing assistant entails bathing of patients, brushing their teeth, and glossing their hair and nails to ensure that they are neat at all times.

Nurse assistants who have been certified to practice may also be responsible for helping patients who are not able to walk due to the severe nature of their medical condition to move around.

They will serve as a support system for such patients to achieve balance as they make use of the convenience and go for treatment.

The CNA also helps patients to lead healthy lives by giving them the right quantity of food.

He/she will carefully follow the nutritionist’s instructions in preparing patients’ meals with the right nutrients, or ordering for them as the case may be.

Other duties the nursing assistant may perform include helping in feeding patients, ensuring that they eat just enough to give them the needed strength for recuperation.

They will also combine patients’ meals with fresh water and other nutritional drinks to boost their body energy.

Certified Nursing Assistant Job Description Example

The duties, tasks and responsibilities usually assigned to people who have been certified to work as nursing assistant in most health facilities are given in the job description example shown below:

  • Keep patients conscious and stable by checking and monitoring vital body signs, such as weight and temperature for normalcy, and administer medication when their condition is abnormal
  • Record details of check-ups in patients’ files for doctors to review before administering treatment to patients
  • Administer medication to patients based on physician’s description, following treatment charts or schedule, to ensure treatment efficiency
  • Observe patients closely to check whether they are responding to treatment, and make suggestions for a change of treatment plan when patients aren’t responding positively
  • Guaranty patients’ well-being by taking safety precautions within the treatment arena, getting rid of harmful objects and equipment
  • Practice insect control measures by fumigating the clinic environment to ward off insects that could infect patients
  • Create games and activities to keep patients psychologically active, engaging them in recreational events during their spare time, to boost their mental and psychological strength
  • Interact with loved ones and relations of patients to identify their interests and inculcate them in treatment plans in order to get positive response from patients
  • Handle details of patients’ treatment and behaviors with a high sense of confidentiality, respecting their right privacy in line with standard medical practices
  • Protect the interest of the clinic by adhering to standards of the medical profession, hospital procedures, and federal, local, and state laws
  • Improve self of knowledge of healthcare by taking professional courses, participating in seminars, and reading materials on healthcare services
  • Collect patients’ specimen for diagnostic tests in the laboratory as part of effective treatment measures

Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Resume Preparation

The preparation of a resume for the position of certified nursing assistant can be aided by using information from the sample job description shown above in making the professional history section of the resume.

Requirements – Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities – for Certified Nursing Assistant Job

Applicants seeking the job of certified nursing assistant, CNA, should ensure to have the following qualifications and skills to increase their chances for the job as most employers find these qualities important to excel on the job.

  • Professional Certification: Applicants must hold nursing certification from a recognized medical institution
  • Good judgment: He/she must have the ability to decipher patients’ needs that are not of any danger to their health
  • Medical knowledge: He/she should posses some knowledge of the human body and medical procedures to handle situations and interpret treatment charts
  • Good listening skills: He/she should have the ability to listen to instructions from the doctor on patients’ treatment and follow it to the letter
  • Communication skills: He/she must be able to pass and receive information from the medical team and patients