PATIENT CARE ASSISTANT

Covenant Health

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center

Key Responsibilities

• Take and record vital signs: temperature, pulse, respiration rates, blood pressures, weights, heights, and intake-output measurements.
• Encourage patients to turn, cough, and take deep breaths, and to use incentive spirometry as specified by the Plan of Care.
• Ambulate patients, and assist them in and out of bed, into wheelchairs, and transport when necessary.
• Attend to patients' nutritional needs, including distributing meal trays, feeding, and providing water.
• Provide morning or evening care, including bed baths, oral hygiene, hair combing, back care, dressing patients, changing bed linens, cleaning over-bed tables and bedside stands, and straightening rooms.
• Empty drains, canisters, urine bags, bedpans, and emesis basins; record intake and output.
• Assist in maintaining a safe environment by reporting equipment malfunctions and handling linen and supplies appropriately.
• Provide general care such as positioning, lifting, turning patients, assisting with bedpans, urinals, or commodes, preoperative supportive care, and applying/removing abdominal binders, anti-embolism stockings, and sequential compression devices.
• Empty and clean ostomy bags per procedure.
• Collect urine, stool, and sputum specimens as ordered.
• Perform tasks such as Range of Motion (ROM) and assist with ambulatory devices as specified by the patients' plan of care.
• Perform phlebotomy (requires additional training), including correct labeling with two patient identifiers, maintenance of lab-draw supplies, rotating, and restocking.
• Perform EKG (requires special training).
• Promptly answer patient call lights and respond to patient requests.
• Report significant changes in patients' condition to the Registered Nurse (RN).
• Help maintain a clean and orderly patient and work environment.
• Employ all established infection control policies, including standard precautions, transmission-based isolation precautions, OSHA standards, safety measures, and proper body mechanics.
• Document and maintain patient records as appropriate.
• Gather equipment for oxygen setup, check oxygen connections and proper placement.
• Check for proper functioning of equipment at the patient bedside.
• Ambulate patients with oxygen.
• Set up suction equipment and check for proper function.
• Demonstrate knowledge and competency in providing for age-specific needs of the population served.
• Demonstrate ability to perform skills on the Nursing Assistant checklist.
• Follow policies, procedures, and safety standards. Complete required education assignments annually.
• Work towards achieving goals and objectives, and participate in quality improvement initiatives as requested.
• Must be trained and willing to function in a Sitter capacity for patients requiring full-time supervision.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• CPR required.
• Experience with phlebotomy (requires additional training).
• Experience with EKG (requires special training).
• Ability to perform tasks on the Nursing Assistant checklist.
• Willingness to be trained and function as a Sitter.

Qualifications

• Minimum Education: None specified; any combination of formal education and/or prior work experience sufficient to demonstrate possession of the knowledge, skill, and ability needed to perform the essential tasks of the job, typically equivalent to a high school diploma or GED.
• Preference may be given to individuals possessing a HS diploma or GED.
• Minimum Experience: None specified.