- Nursing and psychiatric aides help care for physically or mentally ill, injured, disabled, or infirm individuals in hospitals, nursing care facilities, and mental health settings.
- Nursing aides and home health aides are among the occupations commonly referred to as direct care workers, due to their role in working with patients who need long-term care.
- The specific care they give depends on their specialty.
- Nursing aides, also known as nurse aides, nursing assistants, certified nursing assistants, geriatric aides, unlicensed assistive personnel, orderlies, or hospital attendants, provide hands-on care and perform routine tasks under the supervision of nursing and medical staff.
- Specific tasks vary, with aides handling many aspects of a patient's care.
- They often help patients to eat, dress, and bathe.
- They also answer calls for help, deliver messages, serve meals, make beds, and tidy up rooms. Aides sometimes are responsible for taking a patient's temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, or blood pressure.
- They also may help provide care to patients by helping them get out of bed and walk, escorting them to operating and examining rooms, or providing skin care.
- Some aides help other medical staff by setting up equipment, storing and moving supplies, and assisting with some procedures.
- Aides also observe patients' physical, mental, and emotional conditions and report any change to the nursing or medical staff.
- Nursing aides employed in nursing care facilities often are the principal caregivers and have more contact with residents than do other members of the staff.
- Because some residents may stay in a nursing care facility for months or even years, aides develop positive, caring relationships with their patients.
- Psychiatric aides, also known as mental health assistants or psychiatric nursing assistants, care for mentally impaired or emotionally disturbed individuals.
- They work under a team that may include psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, and therapists. In addition to helping patients to dress, bathe, groom themselves, and eat, psychiatric aides socialize with them and lead them in educational and recreational activities.
- Psychiatric aides may play card games or other games with patients, watch television with them, or participate in group activities, such as playing sports or going on field trips.
- They observe patients and report any physical or behavioural signs that might be important for the professional staff to know.
- They accompany patients to and from therapy and treatment.
- Because they have such close contact with patients, psychiatric aides can have a great deal of influence on their outlook and treatment.
- Financial pressures on hospitals to discharge patients as soon as possible should boost admissions to nursing care facilities.
- As a result, new jobs will be more numerous in nursing and residential care facilities than in hospitals, and growth will be especially strong in community care facilities for the elderly.
- Modern medical technology will also drive demand for nursing aides, because as the technology saves and extends more lives, it increases the need for long-term care provided by aides.
- However, employment growth is not expected to be as fast as for other healthcare support occupations, largely because nursing aides are concentrated in the relatively slower growing nursing and residential care facilities industry sector.
- Psychiatric aides are a small occupation compared to nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants.
- Most psychiatric aides currently work in hospitals, but the industries most likely to see growth will be residential facilities for people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, and substance abuse problems.
- There is a long-term trend toward treating psychiatric patients outside of hospitals, because it is more cost effective and allows patients greater independence.
- Demand for psychiatric aides in residential facilities will rise in response to increases in the number of older persons, many of whom will require mental health services.
- Demand for these workers will also grow as an increasing number of mentally disabled adults, formerly cared for by their elderly parents, will need care.
- High replacement needs for nursing and psychiatric aides reflect modest entry requirements, low pay, high physical and emotional demands, and limited opportunities for advancement within the occupation.
- For these same reasons, the number of people looking to enter the occupation will be limited.
- Many aides leave the occupation to attend training programs for other healthcare occupations.
- Therefore, people who are interested in, and suited for, this work should have excellent job opportunities.
Other occupations that help people who need routine care or treatment include: Child care workers; Home health aides and personal and home care aides; Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses; Medical assistants; Occupational therapist assistants and aides; Registered nurses; Social and human service assistants;
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Nursing and psychiatric aide training is offered in high schools, vocational-technical centres, some nursing care facilities, and some community colleges.
This career information is drawn from data provided by the U.S. Department of Labor.