Nursing attendants are professionals who help patients with personal healthcare activities under the direction of nurses. These types of individuals record patient vital signs such as blood pressure and temperature in addition to preparing rooms for patients. Attendants work in facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes. A person who wishes to become a nursing attendant needs to complete some post-secondary training and acquire hands-on experience in this field.
If you would like to become a nursing attendant, you should complete a certificate program in this field, which typically lasts several weeks. Enrolling in a nursing attendant program requires that you submit your high school diploma or the equivalent certification. You also need to complete your training institution’s admissions application before you can start training to become a nursing attendant.
While in a training program to become a nurse’s helper, you will practice how to help nursing staff complete a wide variety of patient care procedures. For instance, you should get practical experience with feeding and bathing patients who cannot complete these activities themselves. Other important skills you must learn include how to transport patients safely, as well as change their bed linens. You also need to study topics such as infection control, which addresses how to prevent the spread of diseases from one patient to another, as well as how the human body functions. These courses are important to help you to keep patients healthy and understand how to best meet their physical needs if you desire to become a nursing attendant.
Learning how to complete paperwork correctly is also an important part of a nursing assistant's training program. As a nursing attendant, you are responsible for recording the status of patients on the correct forms. Any changes in a patient’s breathing patterns or skin health also must appear on physical patient forms. In addition to documenting patient information in writing, nursing attendants need to have solid verbal communication skills for sharing this type of information with the nurses under whom they work.
A person who desires to help nurses tend to patients should contact their college’s career services department to look for jobs in this industry as well as complete required certification requirements. Your college can provide you with information on employers who are trying to hire nursing aides near you. In some areas, you must be certified before you can become a nursing attendant, which involves successfully completing testing requirements.