Patient Support Assistant

About the role

Assist Registered Nurse in providing direct patient care to multiple patients at a time on a designated nursing unit.

Responsibilities and duties

• 40% — Patient care and unit support
  • Performs and/or assists the patient with activities of daily living (e.g., bathing, grooming, eating, walking).
  • Maintains environmental cleanliness and safety of patient rooms, unit, and equipment.
  • Provides assistance to patients, visitors, and nursing personnel in assigned unit; maintains flexibility to help other departments with patient care as needed.
  • Assists in creating the ideal patient experience through development of respectful and compassionate relationships with each patient and family.
  • May serve as a patient safety champion, empowering equal responsibility for all safety guidelines among all licensed and unlicensed caregivers.
  • May assist in telemetry cardiac monitoring, recognizing life-threatening arrhythmias, and communicates immediately to available licensed clinician.
  • May act as a transporter for the nursing unit assigned.
  • Runs errands to either pick up or deliver items for patient care.
• 40% — Delegated nursing tasks
  • Performs delegable nursing tasks assigned by the Registered Nurse, including tasks that:
  • Can be performed without requiring judgment based on nursing knowledge;
  • Have reasonably predictable results;
  • Can be performed safely according to exact, unchanging directions;
  • Do not require complex observations or critical decisions;
  • Do not require assessment;
  • Have minimal consequences if performed improperly and are not life-threatening.
  • Performs other basic nursing care duties as directed by the RN, including but not limited to:
  • Waived testing (fingerstick glucose, urine dipstick, occult fecal);
  • Non-sterile specimen collection;
  • Nasogastric tube care;
  • 1–2 lead EKG;
  • Simple clean non-sterile dressing changes.
  • Accurately collects data such as height, weight, vital signs, intake and output, and records data on the appropriate documentation form.
  • Competent in the use of portable technology, using handheld wireless devices for measurement and documentation of intake and output, vital signs, and point-of-care testing (e.g., fingerstick glucoses or urine dipstick).
  • Reports patient observations and concerns to the Registered Nurse.
• 20% — Support, coordination, and technology
  • Assists hospital visitors and staff with information needs.
  • May utilize wireless devices and technology for coordination of healthcare (e.g., scheduling, flowchart documentation, nutrition service ordering).
  • May serve as a super user for nursing assistant information technology and/or preceptor for new nursing assistants.
  • Maintains supplies and equipment necessary for patient care operations.
  • Secures and handles appropriate supplies, medications, and lab specimens transported from/into and within the unit.

Minimum qualifications

• High School diploma or GED