CNA Job Description and Duties

What are the responsibilities in a CNA job description in the medical profession?  In a typical day, the duties of a certified nursing assistance vary widely.  Most of their care time is centered around the primary needs of the patients based on ADL’s or Activities of Daily Living.  While they essentially take directions from doctors and head or charge nurses, their primary duties involve helping patients with dressing, eating, grooming and other activities that promote the welfare of those entrusted under heir care.

The average day of a certified nurse could be characterized as a person who is supervising and monitoring the daily needs of patients by helping them function throughout the day.  From the time a CNA reports in to work, their day begins by accessing the number of patients or residents assigned to them.  After arriving to work, their first duties are to spend a brief amount of time with each resident.

This brief visit is to quickly assess any immediate physical or medical needs that may have arisen over night.  This is especially true for those elderly residents who may be ill, may have recently returned from surgery, or require an increased amount of monitoring.

Additionally, the nursing assistant may be charged with checking vital signs such as heart rates, blood pressure and pulse rate and also may be required to listen to how well the resident or patient is breathing.  The results of each of these checks are then logged into a charge that is assigned to the specific person needing the care.  This is usually a typical function at the start of the day.

Once this initial assessment is done, they help prepare the residents for their morning meal.  This means they will have to assist those assigned to them by helping they get to the meal room or by serving meals in assigned areas.  While some patients or residents may free visit the dining room in a facility, others may be confined to a room.  It is the duty of the certified nursing assistant to insure that each person receives their assigned meal.

Moreover, some patients may be on a restricted diet as designed under the direction of a resident dietician or the patients doctor.  It is the job of the CNA to make sure that each person receives their assigned type of meal.

In many cases, there will be patients that have incontinent issues and will be required to wear diapers.  When this is the case, you will be responsible to help by first clean the patient and then changing the diapers.  Some diapers are disposable while others are not.  Disposable ones will be discarded in the assigned waste cans, while non-disposable diapers will have to transported to a Hopper Room where they are hosed down by high pressure water and prepared for machine wash.

Other duties that nursing assistants will be required to perform in the course of the day are to take care of a patients catheter needs if they have one. This can be closely associated with emptying the bad pans too.

Those nursing assistants assigned to the night shift take on a slightly different role although very similar in nature.  While it is the duty of a day worker to help with the activities of daily living, the night time assistant will assist with those requirements needed to make patients feel comfortable throughout the night.   This may be checking vital signs, changing diapers, helping patients get to the bathroom, or running errands.

If this sounds like a great career, you may be want to know how to become a certified nurse.  There are a series of CNA training classes that one must take and pass with a minimum exam score.  The training classes are typically provided at a local college in the area.  One you complete the required amount of training, and meet the testing requirements, you then you will be issued your certification.  Some states may require you to officially apply for your CNA Certification with proof of having completed all testing and exam requirements.

The job outlook for a Certified assistant looks great for 2011 and beyond.  This is one of the fasted growing areas of assisted care as many new baby boomers are entering the years where some form of extra help is needed.

In conclusion, certified nursing assistants are employed to help patients who need additional help live more fulfilled lives.  Their job responsibilities are often issued to them by a charge or head nurse under the aided supervision of a medical trained doctor.  Just as the head nurse (LPN/RN) must document and report all findings of the day in a chart, nursing assistants are required to document the daily and night time care of each patient and make it available to the charge nurse assigned over them.