Job Duties 

OF A CNA

Certified Nursing Assistant is non-technical professionals who provide basic nursing care to patient under supervision of RN (Registered Nurse). Before pursuing the careers in CNA you have to know about the courses, job opportunity, work nature, job responsibilities etc. The duties of a CNA can be classifies as follows:

1. Assist in Personal Hygiene

2. Toileting Needs

3. Housekeeping

4. Patient’s Record Keeping

5. Monitoring The Health of Patients

6. Dietary Care

7. Administering Medicines

8. Prevent Bed Sores

9. Assist in Surgery

10. Equipment Care

11. Exercising the Patients

12. Transport the patients

13. Sample Collection

14. Laundry Storage

15. Change Dressing

16. Assist in equipment usage

17. Maintain Cleanliness

18. Emotional support

Feeding the patients

One of the common job duties of a CNA is to help feed the patients, who are the victim of paralysis or are physically or mentally disable in some way that inconvenience themselves from eating the food on their own.

Dressing and grooming the patients

One of the other essential nursing assistant job descriptions tells that the CNAs would also have to assist the disable patients in dressing themselves.

If need be, the CNAs can also play the role of a secretary and take their patients out for a walk or for meeting a doctor. Moreover, CNAs are also expected to groom the patients and make them look better such as by combing, shaving and/or cutting their hair.

Maintaining the patient's health and hygiene and keeping the environment sterile

Being a nurse aide, the utmost job responsibility of a CNA (or any healthcare and medical practitioners) is to keep the patient healthy and their environment sterile so as to prevent the disease transmission. CNAs make sure that the patients are maintaining their health and hygiene.

CNAs provide the required dose of medicines as well as other necessary care to the patients. In addition, they also tidy up the patient's room and change their bed-sheets and bedpans. CNAs help to maintain clean environment around the patients.

Checking vital stats of the patient

CNAs have responsibility of taking the vital statistics of the patient, such as checking the patient's blood pressure, respiration rate and so on.

In case, the patient shows any abnormalities on inspection of the vital stats, then the CNAs are recommended to inform a senior nurse practitioner or a doctor as soon as possible.

Checking the Patients’ Inputs and Outputs

To find out how the patient’s body is functioning and provide treatment accordingly, it is necessary for the CNAs to assess the inputs and outputs of the patient. In other words, the CNAs are expected to record the intakes of the patient relating how much water and food they consume.

If the patient is drinking and eating properly, then it is a good sign of their improving health but if otherwise, then the CNAs will have to examine their outputs, especially the urine, stool and sputum (or blood also), in order to help the doctors find out the defects in the functioning of the patient’s body.

Inspecting the Activities of Daily Livings (ADLs) of the patient

The physical condition of the patient can be assessed by observing their Activities of Daily Livings or, rather say, ADLs. Therefore, observing the patient’s ADLs is also a part of the CNA duties.

The CNAs are required to observe how much the patient is able to walk, what self-care they can administer themselves as well as how long they sit in the chair or out of bed.

While observing the patients, the CNAs should also check ordinary things like whether the patient experiences any dizziness while standing up or whether he/she has other minor problems like irregular breathing, difficulty in swallowing and incontinence.

As a Home Health Aide, the CNAs may also have to do additional job duties like cooking and washing.

Assisting the patients to go through the Range of Motion (ROM) exercises

The aim of the ROM (i.e. Range of Motion) exercises is to improve the physical condition of the patient and ascertain that their joints or muscles do not contract. This way, the patients would be able to retain the ability to stretch their limbs.

Repositioning & Transporting the Patients

The CNAs should be well trained to move the patient from the bed to the chair (or wheel chair). In addition, it is also the responsibility of a CNA to reposition the patients every 2 hours, in case the patients are weak or paralyzed. This way the patients will be spared from feeling the pain caused by the bedsores.

Other Job duties of a Certified Nursing Assistant

Like many other medical or nursing job positions, the CNAs also have a wide variation in their job duties, especially when they are hired in different work settings. The above mentioned duties are merely highlights the basic nursing assistant job descriptions regarding the patient care.

CNAs working in a hospital setting (especially that of an ICU) will have the major job responsibilities like checking the patient’s vital stats, recording their inputs and outputs, managing the medical equipments and infection control. On the other hand, CNAs in long-term care facility or in nursing homes have the main job responsibility of administering patient care services.

There are many other CNA duties, aside from patient care. CNAs are allowed to take specialized trainings (be it from accredited schools or online training classes) to perform valuable nursing skills such as wound treatment, pain management, long term patient care, urinalysis, IV lines etc.

Note that CNAs are expected to take a specialization test in order to practice these specialties legally.

Additional CNA Duties

After completion of CNA courses nurses can also work as psychiatric. They work under the supervision of psychiatric, psychologist. They perform more duties along with above mentioned duties. Some duties of a CNA are as follows:

1. Being sociable with patients

2. Play games with patients

3. Participate in various activities with patients conducted by hospitals

4. Go along with patients during therapy sessions

5. Record abnormal condition and behavior of patient which is importance in treating patients.