PATIENT CARE ASSISTANT

Covenant Health•Knoxville, TN

6d•Onsite

About The Position

The Patient Care Assistant in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit provides direct patient care and performs tasks to assist registered nurses. Under the supervision of the Team Leader, the assistant provides hands-on care, help with activities of daily living, and specified technical tasks for a group of patients. The role may also include serving as a sitter for patients who need full-time supervision in the hospital. The position is listed as PRN/OCC, with variable hours per pay period, on the day shift at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center.

Requirements

CPR is required.
No minimum experience is specified.
No specific minimum education is required; applicants must have a combination of formal education and/or prior work experience sufficient to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for the job, typically equivalent to a high school diploma or GED.
Must be trained and willing to serve as a sitter for patients requiring full-time supervision.

Nice To Haves

A high school diploma or GED may be preferred.
Additional training is required to perform phlebotomy.
Special training is required to perform EKGs.

Responsibilities

Take and record patients’ temperature, pulse, respiration rates, blood pressures, weights, heights, and intake-output measurements.
Encourage patients to turn, cough, take deep breaths, and use incentive spirometry as specified by the Plan of Care.
Ambulate patients and assist them in and out of bed, into wheelchairs, and with transport when necessary.
Attend to patients’ nutritional needs, including distributing meal trays, feeding, and filling and distributing water pitchers.
Provide morning or evening care, including bathing, oral hygiene, grooming, back care, dressing, changing bed linen, cleaning bedside surfaces, straightening rooms, and other supportive care as needed.
Empty drains, canisters, urine bags, bedpans, and emesis basins, and record intake and output.
Help maintain a safe environment, including reporting faulty equipment and appropriately handling linen and storing supplies.
Provide general care, including positioning, lifting, and turning patients; assisting with bedpans, urinals, or commodes; preoperative supportive care; and applying or removing abdominal binders, anti-embolism stockings, and sequential compression devices.
Empty and clean ostomy bags according to procedure.
Collect urine, stool, and sputum specimens as ordered.
Perform range-of-motion tasks and assist with ambulatory devices according to patients’ plans of care.
Perform phlebotomy after additional training, including labeling specimens with two patient identifiers and maintaining, rotating, and restocking lab-draw supplies.
Perform EKGs after special training.
Promptly answer patient call lights and respond to patient requests.
Report significant changes in patients’ conditions to the RN.
Help maintain a clean and orderly patient and work environment.
Follow infection-control policies, including standard and transmission-based precautions, OSHA standards, safety measures, and proper body mechanics.
Document and maintain patient records as appropriate.
Gather equipment for oxygen setup and check oxygen connections and placement.
Check that equipment at the patient bedside is functioning properly.
Ambulate patients with oxygen.
Set up suction equipment and check that it functions properly.
Demonstrate knowledge and competency in meeting the age-specific needs of the population served and ability to perform skills on the Nursing Assistant checklist.
Follow policies, procedures, and safety standards; complete required annual education assignments; work toward goals and objectives; and participate in quality-improvement initiatives as requested.
Train and be willing to function as a sitter for patients who need full-time hospital supervision.
Perform other duties as assigned.