What does a Nursing Assistant do?
Nursing Assistants help care for physically or mentally ill, injured, disabled, or infirm individuals in hospitals and nursing care facilities. They provide hands-on care and perform routine tasks under the supervision of nursing and medical staff. Specific tasks vary, with nursing assistants handling many aspects of a patient’s care. They often help patients to eat, dress, and bathe. They also answer calls for help, deliver messages, serve meals, make beds, and tidy up rooms. Nursing assistants are also sometimes responsible for taking a patient’s temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, or blood pressure.
Home health aides have duties that are similar, but they work primarily in patients’ homes or residential care facilities.
Are Nursing Assistants in demand?
Excellent job opportunities abound for nursing assistants and home health aides. And they will continue to rise because of rapid employment growth.
The overall employment of nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides is projected to grow 28% between now and 2016, a much faster rise than the average growth for all other occupations.
Nursing assistants are expected to gain jobs faster than other aides as a result of growing demand for home services from an aging population and efforts to contain costs by moving patients out of hospitals and nursing care facilities as quickly as possible. Consumer preference for care in the home and improvements in medical technologies for in-home treatment will also contribute to a much-faster-than-average employment growth for nursing assistants.
Nursing aide employment will not grow as fast as home health aide employment, largely because nursing aides are concentrated in relatively slower-growing industries. Employment of nursing aides is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2016, in response to the long-term care needs of an increasing elderly population.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Nursing and Psychiatric Aides, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos327.htm
Where can I expect to work?
About 52% of nursing aides work in nursing and residential care facilities and another 29% work in hospitals. Home health aides are mainly employed by home health care services, nursing and residential care facilities and social assistance agencies. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor).
How soon can I complete this training?
You can complete this program in 2 short months or in 10 weeks, and the program consists of:
| Lecture | 80 |
| Lab | 40 |
| Total Clock Hours | 120 |
Class Hours
| MORNING | EVENING |
M –W - F 8 am to 2pm |
M –W - F 6:00pm to 11pm |
| MID-DAY | |
| 1:30pm to 5:30pm | |
Which skills will I learn?
The Azure College Nursing Assistant courses cover body mechanics, nutrition, anatomy and physiology, infection control, communication skills, and resident rights. Personal care skills, such as how to help patients to bathe, eat, and groom themselves, are also taught.
How much will this program cost me?
We know the answer to this question is very important to most of you. However, our program costs may change slightly with each new session. Because of this, we are unable to provide cost information through this medium. We prefer to discuss our current program costs with you personally. Please call us at your convenience and ask to speak to an admission advisor.
Will I receive any special certificates of my qualifications?
Upon completion of our program, students receive certificates in Nursing Assistant, Home Health Aid, and American Heart CPR.
Licensing and Certification
Upon completion of our program, students are eligible to sit for the state of Florida Certified Nursing Assistant Certification Exam.
Important Link: http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-1111.00
IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING REGISTRATION:
The registration process for individual Health Science classes vary by program. For information specific to Nursing Assistant program, please call 305-751-0001.
Information Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011 Edition
Florida Commission for independent Education
Florida Workforce system
Florida Board of Nursing
