Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aideNursing and psychiatric aides help care for physically or mentally ill, injured, disabled, or infirm individuals confined to hospitals, nursing care facilities, and mental health settings. Home health aides� duties are similar, but they work in patients� homes or residential care facilities. Nursing aides, also known as nursing assistants, geriatric aides, unlicensed assistive personnel, or hospital attendants, perform routine tasks under the supervision of nursing and medical staff. They answer patients� call lights, deliver messages, serve meals, make beds, and help patients eat, dress, and bathe. Aides also may provide skin care to patients; take their temperatures, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure; and help patients get in and out of bed and walk. They also may escort patients to operating and examining rooms, keep patients� rooms neat, set up equipment, store and move supplies, or assist with some procedures. Aides observe patients� physical, mental, and emotional conditions and report any change to the nursing or medical staff. Nursing aides employed in nursing care facilities often are the principal caregivers, having far more contact with residents than other members of the staff. Because some residents may stay in a nursing care facility for months or even years, aides develop ongoing relationships with them and interact with them in a positive, caring way. Home health aides help elderly, convalescent, or disabled persons live in their own homes instead of in a health facility. Under the direction of nursing or medical staff, they provide health-related services, such as administering oral medications. (Personal and home care aides, who provide mainly housekeeping and routine personal care services, are discussed elsewhere in the Handbook.) Like nursing aides, home health aides may check patients� pulse rates, temperatures, and respiration rates; help with simple prescribed exercises; keep patients� rooms neat; and help patients move from bed, bathe, dress, and groom. Occasionally, they change nonsterile dressings, give massages and alcohol rubs, or assist with braces and artificial limbs. Experienced home health aides also may assist with medical equipment such as ventilators, which help patients breathe. Most home health aides work with elderly or disabled persons who need more extensive care than family or friends can provide. Some help discharged hospital patients who have relatively short-term needs. In home health agencies, a registered nurse, physical therapist, or social worker usually assigns specific duties and supervises home health aides, who keep records of the services they perform and record patients� condition and progress. They report changes in patients� conditions to the supervisor or case manager. Psychiatric aides, also known as mental health assistants or psychiatric nursing assistants, care for mentally impaired or emotionally disturbed individuals. They work under a team that may include psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, and therapists. In addition to helping patients dress, bathe, groom, and eat, psychiatric aides socialize with them and lead them in educational and recreational activities. Psychiatric aides may play games such as cards with the patients, watch television with them, or participate in group activities, such as sports or field trips. They observe patients and report any physical or behavioral signs that might be important for the professional staff to know. They accompany patients to and from examinations and treatment. Because they have such close contact with patients, psychiatric aides can have a great deal of influence on their patients� outlook and treatment. Related news articles Storm `care packages' offer backup to seniors - Oct 9, 2006 Sun-Sentinel.com,His 84-year-old widowed father had been having health problems, so Harris had arranged through Bartlestone's agency to have a nursing aide periodically check ... Still playing to win - Oct 1, 2006 The News Journal,...wheelchair with his chin. He asks nursing aide Gloria Zhang for help moving the headset. "No, no, that's not right Gloria. To the left ... Inquiry into David Milgaard's wrongful murder conviction hears ... - Oct 4, 2006 Canada.com,Milgaard spent 23 years in prison for the nursing aide's 1969 murder, and the $10-million inquiry has spent the last year and a half trying to find out why. ... Sask. inquiry into David Milgaard's wrongful conviction hears ... - Oct 4, 2006 680 News,He was only a 16-year-old kid travelling through Saskatoon on a road trip with friends on the January morning in 1969 that nursing aide Gail Miller was raped ... A quest to help kids - Oct 5, 2006 News-Leader.com,The carpenter and his nursing aide wife are taking their time walking across the country to raise awareness — and money — to fight child sex abuse. ... Final witness testifies in Milgaard inquiry - Oct 5, 2006 Guelph Mercury (subscription),He was 16 and travelling through Saskatoon on a road trip with friends on the January morning in 1969 that nursing aide Gail Miller was raped and stabbed to ... From nurse to entrepreneur - Sep 16, 2006 INQ7.net,...clear that the family was US-bound. Her first job in Hawaii was a nursing aide in a nursing home. When she passed the board exams ... The patients will suffer most from reorganisation - Sep 19, 2006 The Herald,This scheme proposed a three-tier system consisting of the nursing aide, the community nurse and the clinical associate/nurse practitioner (CA/NP); only the ... Hospital worker sues over own mom's care - Sep 19, 2006 Political Gateway,Nursing aide Loraine Files sued the Oak Forest Hospital where she and two siblings work after her mother, Pearl Harris, broke her legs in November while trying ... Gordon relieved hearings on PCGG suspended - Sep 22, 2006 INQ7.net,The three doctors, two nurses and a nursing aide who worked round-the-clock to keep watch over Sabio, whose blood pressure fluctuated while he was detained at ... Wrongly convicted are stigmatized, inquiry told - Sep 18, 2006 CTV.ca,...government opted to stay the charges when the Supreme Court of Canada quashed David Milgaard's conviction for the murder of Saskatoon nursing aide Gail Miller ... More information on Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aide from The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook Overview of Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aide occupation Number of Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aide in the U.S. Salary and earnings for Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aide Working conditions for Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aide Significant points for Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aide Training requirements for Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aide Labor Information Home | Occupational data by city | Search Rainforests | Madagascar | What's new |