Patient attendants take care of a patient’s basic needs, whether they’re in a hospital, nursing facility, or in a home setting.
They use strong communication skills, compassion, and patience to address any patient need that comes up. Patient attendants provide basic patient care. They are also responsible for helping patients with a number of basic hygiene tasks.
This includes bathing and dressing patients, helping them use the toilet if needed, and feeding them. Patient care assistants also help patients turn and reposition themselves in bed as needed and help them move between the bed and a wheelchair if they use one.
They observe or listen to any health concerns patients may have and report those concerns to the nurses.
Patient attendants (PA) are also sometimes referred to as Patient Care Technicians or Nursing assistants or Certified Nurse Assistants (CNA), or Health Care Assistants (HCA) or Professional Caregivers.
This course is designed to equip a learner with competencies required to participate in the provision of patient attendant services in a hospital under the guidance and supervision of a nurse(s) or in a home setup.
The Certificate course takes 2months of classwork and 2 months of hospital attachment.
