Nurse Aide Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post presents detailed information on the nurse aide job description, including key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may be expected to meet to be hired for the nurse aide role.

What Does a Nurse Aide Do?

A nurse aide is responsible for taking the vital signs of patients, including temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure.

The nurse aide job description involves checking for changes in patients’ vitals on a regular basis and reporting any abnormalities to the supervisor or patient’s doctor right away.

It also entails cleaning and sterilizing all kinds of medical equipment, including syringes tubes, containers, needles, bandages, etc.

Nurse aides clean and sanitize hospital rooms and equipment on a regular basis.

They act as patient’s advocate and inform the patients of their right to get proper treatment in accordance with the law.

It is also their duty to document all changes that occur in patients’ condition so that they can communicate these changes to their supervisors or doctors without any problems at all.

Accessing records like blood pressure, medication and pulse rate on a regular basis in order to ensure that the patient is comfortable at all times is also one of their duties.

The nurse aide assists the nurse before and after surgery to ensure that the patient is comfortable at all times.

One of their duties involves providing assistance to patients in any way possible, such as helping them in going to the bathroom or getting food and drink.

They handle emergencies and make sure they keep a cool head while doing so.

This position helps with clean up procedures during and after surgery when necessary.

The nurse aide work description entails maintaining optimal safe working conditions by complying with unit policies and procedures, following infection control guidelines, monitoring safety/security of patients, visitors, staff and facility, as well as transporting equipment as required for various work locations within facility/department operations.

They maintain the current knowledge of the condition of patients and report physician instructions, changes in status, and patients discharged from care.

Nurse aides also pay close attention to any abnormal signs or symptoms and inform supervisors or doctors immediately to prevent complications from occurring.

They help ensure that any question that the patient may have about their condition is properly answered.

It is also their responsibility to ensure that the patient receives proper medication, treatments, and care.

Another key task of the nurse aide is communicating with other health care providers to seek clarification on questions or concerns from patients regarding their treatment, and to obtain a report from them as well for their records.

It is also their responsibility to take ownership of any situation that arises within the facility, including but not limited to those involving patients and other health care providers.

Nurse Aide Job Description for Resume

The nurse aide job description consists of the following duties, tasks, and responsibilities:

• Keeps a clean facility
• Assists in caring for sick, disabled, and elderly patients
• Administers medication to patients who cannot do so themselves
• Transports and helps with bathing of patients
• Provides personal care needs, such as dressing, bathing or grooming needs, including makeup and brushing hair
• Ensures staff is well informed about the health conditions of the patient or client in their care
• Maintains proper temperatures of rooms, equipment, and supplies and operates water systems when appropriate
• Provides support in other areas of nursing care when requested by the nurse or physician, such as meal preparation
• Provides support when needed for other aides in order to ensure timely completion of tasks.

Nurse Aide Job Description for Resume

If you have previously worked as a nurse aide or are presently working in that role and are making a new resume or CV, then you can create a compelling Professional Experience section for your resume by applying the sample nurse aide job description provided above.

You can express the duties and responsibilities that you carried out or are currently performing as a nurse aide in your resume’s Professional Experience by utilizing the ones in the above nurse aide job description example.

This will show to the employer/recruiter that you have been successful performing the work of a nurse aide, which can greatly enhance your chances of being hired, especially if the new job that you are seeking requires someone with some nurse aide work experience.

Nurse Aide Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

Here are important requirements you may be asked to meet to be hired for the nurse aide role by most recruiters/employers:

• Minimum age is18 years
• Must be healthy and physically fit for the job
• Possess good communication skills (written and verbal) to be able to clearly explain patients’ health to doctors, nurses, and other medical staffs
• Ability to establish rapport with patients, family, and coworkers easily
• Patient care experience is an advantage but not required. Training is provided by the facility where you will work at on how to do your job properly like any other professional would receive training in their field of choice
• Be willing to learn new things, as they will help you in your nursing career later on in life if you decide to attend a professional nursing school
• Possess good work ethic as part of the work is physically demanding
• Some employers may ask for a high school diploma, but some may be able to hire you without you having a high school diploma as long as you are willing to learn and have the skills necessary for the nurse aide job
• Patient with others especially when dealing with patients and their family members
• Punctuality, which means starting and ending your shifts on time
• Have an honest personality; this is important because the job entails handling patients’ personal belongings (such as clothing) and their money (such as helping them count their money).
• Ability to follow instructions and be dependable.
• Willingness to work in a fast pace environment, where performance is monitored closely by the supervisor and peers.

Nurse Aide Salary

According to Glassdoor, the national average compensation for a nurse aide in the United States is $43,616 per year.

Conclusion

This post is helpful to individuals interested in the nurse aide career. They will be able to learn all they need to know about the duties and responsibilities typically performed by nurse aides to decide if that’s the job they want to do.

It is also useful to recruiters/employers in making a detailed job description for the nurse aide position in their organizations, for use in hiring competent people for the role.