Personal Care Assistant Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides in-depth information on the job description of a personal care assistant, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that constitute their role.

What Does a Personal Care Assistant Do?

A personal care assistant is someone who takes care of people with various forms of physical disabilities, illnesses, injuries, and mental disorders, as well as the elderly, helping them to live a better life.

The job description of the personal care assistant entails giving care and comfort to patients by attending to their personal needs, ensuring their safety, mobility and general wellbeing.

He/she will engage in light housekeeping duties which may include cleaning, washing and preparing of specified diets for the clients in order for them not to get stressed up.

His/her role also includes organizing activities and schedules of patients when they have to go around.

Other responsibilities they perform include making sure that patients meet up with their doctor appointments, and ensuring that they take their drugs diligently as prescribed.

Trained on the importance of personal hygiene to wellness, the personal care assistant inculcates good personal hygiene in patients by bathing them regularly, washing their clothes and wearing them neat ones and cleaning their mouth.

In addition, he/she ensures that the environment where patients stay is kept clean and tidy.

Often times, these patients are left on their own, thus, the assistant becomes their companion who keeps them busy, talking with them and helping them pass time without getting unusually bored.

Other roles they perform include helping patients to keep fit by assisting them with their exercise routine by not only making them do it, but putting them through it for support and encouragement.

Personal care assistants exhibit great strength and endurance in the course of duty as the job entails standing for long hours, stooping, bending, kneeling, climbing, walking etc to adequately provide comfort to clients.

Due to the mobile nature of the job which requires them to move clients around for appointments and other functions, the assistant must be able to drive with a valid driver’s license and is ready to take clients to their destinations.

Personal Care Assistant Job Description Example/Sample/Template

Shown below is an example of the job description for the post of personal care assistant. It gives a list of key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that individuals who work in the position usually perform.

• Operate by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) policies to prevent sanctions
• Keep all information about clients’ health highly confidential as a sign of respect for their privacy
• Maintain good relationship with clients’ family members and loved ones as this will affect their wellbeing positively
• Assist clients with toileting
• Assist clients with bathing
• Give clients respiratory assistance through exercises
• Assist clients with the application and maintenance of prosthetics and orthotics
• Assist clients while dressing and undressing
• Assist clients with eating, preparation of meals, and shopping for food items
• Observe and monitor clients’ behavioral pattern to ensure emotional stability
• Report negative behaviors observed in clients to their doctor or healthcare provider for intervention

Personal Care Assistant Job Description for Resume

To prepare a resume for the position of personal care assistant, the sample job description shown above can be utilized in writing the job history section of the resume and other sections.

Personal Care Assistant Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

The skills, knowledge and other qualities usually required from applicants to be considered for the post of personal care assistant by employers include the following:

• Ability to pay attention to detail
• Ability to empathize with people
• Ability to keep to time
• Ability to multitask
• Have a recognized PCA certification