PATIENT CARE ASSISTANT

About the Role

Functions as a direct patient caregiver performing tasks to assist registered nurses at Fort Loudoun Medical Center, part of Covenant Health. This float pool PRN/OCC position provides hands-on care, assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs), and specified technical tasks for a group of patients under the supervision of the Team Leader. May also serve as a sitter for patients requiring full-time supervision in the hospital.

Responsibilities

• Take and record vital signs, including 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.
• Assist patients with ambulation, transfers in and out of bed, into wheelchairs, and transport as necessary.
• Attend to nutritional needs, including distributing meal trays, feeding patients, and managing water pitchers.
• Provide morning or evening care, such as bed baths, oral hygiene, combing hair, back care, dressing patients, changing bed linens, and maintaining a clean patient environment.
• Empty drains, canisters, urine bags, bedpans, and emesis basins, and record intake and output.
• Maintain a safe environment by reporting malfunctioning equipment, handling linen appropriately, and storing supplies.
• Provide general care, including positioning, lifting, or turning patients; assisting with bedpans, urinals, or commodes; preoperative care; and applying/removing abdominal binders, anti-embolism stockings, or sequential compression devices.
• Empty and clean ostomy bags per procedure.
• Collect urine, stool, and sputum specimens as ordered.
• Perform range-of-motion (ROM) exercises and assist with ambulatory devices as specified in the patient’s plan of care.
• Perform phlebotomy (requires additional training), including correct labeling using two patient identifiers, maintaining lab-draw supplies, and restocking.
• Perform EKGs (requires special training).
• Promptly answer patient call lights and respond to patient requests.
• Report significant changes in patients' conditions to the registered nurse (RN).
• Maintain a clean and orderly patient and work environment.
• Adhere to 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 and set up equipment for oxygen administration, check for proper connection and placement, and ensure proper functioning of bedside equipment.
• Ambulate patients with oxygen and set up suction equipment, checking for proper function.
• Demonstrate knowledge and competency in providing for age-specific needs of the population served.
• Complete required education assignments annually and participate in quality improvement initiatives as requested.
• Perform other duties as assigned, including functioning as a sitter for patients needing full-time supervision.

Requirements

• CPR certification required.
• No minimum education specified; any combination of formal education and/or prior work experience sufficient to demonstrate the knowledge, skill, and ability needed to perform the essential tasks of the job is acceptable (equivalent to a high school diploma or GED preferred).
• No minimum prior experience required.