Psychiatric Nursing Assistant Job Description Example

Psychiatric Nursing Assistant Job Description Example

What Does a Psychiatric Nursing Assistant Do?

A psychiatric nursing assistant someone who performs a series of rehabilitative health care activities by administering personal care to mentally challenged patients under the supervision of a nurse or psychiatrist.

The psychiatric nursing assistant job description entails paying close attention to patients and observing their mannerism and actions in order to checkmate deteriorating conditions and harmful behaviors in line with the psychiatric medical ethics.

The assistant is always available to support the nurse or psychiatrist in handling patients’ illnesses and emergency cases in the clinic.

The job of nursing assistants in psychiatric clinics is a sensitive one; therefore, an assistant will have to work under the supervision of the clinic’s nurse. He/she will take instructions from the nurse and attend to patients based on prescription.

His/her duties also include assisting patients to perform basic living activities, guiding them in social activities to improve their mental health and restore their sanity.

The nurse assistant also helps in administering ongoing therapeutic treatment to patients to improve their behavioral pattern. To carry out this function well, he/she will judiciously stick to patients’ treatment plan, ensuring that treatment routines are done diligently and at the appropriate time.

Psychiatric Nursing Assistant Job Description Example

Here is an example of the job description for the position of psychiatric nursing assistant, showing major duties, tasks, roles, and responsibilities of the post.

• Carry out checkups on patients; look out for new developments and inform the professional medical staff in charge of patients treatment of observations so that treatment can be commended quickly to avoid deteriorating health conditions
• Keep records of patients’ information, including their eating habits, actions, and moods, as part of the requirements for treatment, as well as for future reference
• Watch patients closely to keep them away from restricted areas, and to prevent them from causing harm to themselves or to other people, as directed by the nurse
• Maintain good working relationship with the medical team, which consists of nurses, psychiatrists, social workers, and psychologists
• Assist in restraining patients who are acting out of control by employing caution and tactics to calm them down
• Ensure that patients are kept clean by bathing, brushing, grooming, and dressing them up, as well as taking the time to show them how to do these things until they are capable of doing them by themselves
• Help in serving meals to patients and ensure that they are well fed by either feeding them or persuading them to eat, and then administer their drugs to them under close supervision to ensure that the drugs are taken
• Assist patients to get used to their treatment routine to prevent resistance in receiving medication
• Assist in collecting patients’ specimen, such as blood, urine, and feces, for laboratory testing and diagnoses
• Keep patients company by engaging them in recreational activities, such as sports, cards and other games to pass time and exercise their mental capacity
• Keep in touch with family members of patients or those who brought them in; giving them updates of patients’ health condition, and contacting them in an emergency situation to get their opinion on decisions to be taken
• Carry patients around for treatment
• Inspect treatment tools and facilities to ensure they are in good condition for achieving maximum results, and inform management of malfunctioning instruments for repair or replacement

Psychiatric Nursing Assistant Resume Preparation

The employment experience section of a resume for the job of nurse assistant, psychiatric, can be made with information from the job description sample provided above, with some adjustments to tally with the exact experience of the individual.

Requirements – Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities – for the Psychiatric Nursing Assistant Post

• Possess the ability to solve problems: This is important in handling patient related issues in the best possible way to make them calm
• Physical capability: Due to the nature of psychiatric patients, the assistant must be strong enough to withstand disturbances from patients and be able to restrain them when necessary
• Ability to exhibit patience: A great deal of patience is needed in dealing with mentally challenged people because they are not in the right frame of mind