Job Requirements

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I was wondering what exactly is expected of a nursing assistant. Exactly how much hands-on medical care is required and are the requirements different in hospitals vs. long term care etc. To be more specific, do all nursing assistants insert catheters? Are they required to start I.V.s?

It would seem to me that more advanced training would be required to perform either of the above procedures - at least more advanced than a student would receive over a two-week course offered in a long-term care facility (which is what I'm considering).

Thanks for any response.

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Specializes in LTC, Assisted Living, Surgical Clinic.

The care that nursing assistants provide is more in the realm of assisting with ADL's (activities of daily living) - things like bathing, dressing, feeding and toileting. We also learn to position and turn patients in bed, make an occupied or unoccupied bed, and transfer people (use a gait belt, bed to walker or wheelchair, etc.) In addition, you will learn to take and chart the vital signs of temperature, pulse and respiration, although your charting will vary with your workplace.

No catheter insertions or IV starts - those skills are out of our scope of practice and done by nurses.

I work in LTC and can't tell so much about the hospital side of things....maybe love_being_an_aide or one of the other hospital aides can help with this?

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Thanks a lot! I was actually nervous about what might be required. I don't mind assisting in the "activities of daily living". What happened is that I was reading on the internet of various duties required by nursing assistants and they discussed catheter and i.v. insertion. I thought that seemed too advanced for the limited training that I could find in my area.

You've put my mind at ease. :o)

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Thanks a lot! I was actually nervous about what might be required. I don't mind assisting in the "activities of daily living". What happened is that I was reading on the internet of various duties required by nursing assistants and they discussed catheter and i.v. insertion. I thought that seemed too advanced for the limited training that I could find in my area.

You've put my mind at ease. :o)

You won't (as a CNA) insert a catheter, but in class we are taught how to properly clean one and measure the output. IF you take some time to watch some of the videos (on this forum's sticky) https://allnurses.com/forums/f265/free-full-cna-video-course-191189.html it gives you a pretty good idea of what you'd be trained for as a CNA. Every facility might have their own idea of what your job description is. In some places they may allow you to test someone's glucose and others may not. All within your "Scope of Practice" though. Hope this helps :wink2:

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Specializes in LTC.

The bulk of what I do is ADLs. I've heard that in some hospitals in the area CNAs are trained to put in catheters or draw blood. CNAs putting in caths makes me a little uncomfortable.

At my hospital I'm trained to remove catheters and IVs which is really a simple task. Otherwise the only other training I've recieved that is different from LTC is giving fleets enemas.

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The bulk of what I do is ADLs. I've heard that in some hospitals in the area CNAs are trained to put in catheters or draw blood. CNAs putting in caths makes me a little uncomfortable.

At my hospital I'm trained to remove catheters and IVs which is really a simple task. Otherwise the only other training I've recieved that is different from LTC is giving fleets enemas.

CNA's putting in catheters makes me uncomfortable also.

In Ohio, CNA's are called STNA's which I'm guessing is basically the same thing. I've talked to a hospital employee and she said at her hospital, the hospital provides the training which is not necessarily state-certified and that they do not do catheter and i.v. insertion. However, if an STNA is hired by this same hospital, more may be required of them. I think the scope of responsibility and hands-on care does vary from institution to institution and can depend upon the amount of training one receives.

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Specializes in ALF, Medical, ER.

I work in a hospital currently on the Medical unit (getting ready to move to ER tho) and most of my time consist of ADL's (eating, toileting, bathing etc etc) also vital signs and assiting nurses when needed (hold this leg while she does a dressing change) transfer patients to different areas of hospital (this one needs to go to x-ray, this one to CT). I also keep the hallways clear of equipment, stock supplies (gloves, masks, gowns) and answer whatever call lights I can.

Inserting foleys, IVs and such are not permitted and are done by the nurses.

Now done in the ER I will be able to do blood draws and EKGs. So I guess it also depends on what area of the hospital you are working in.

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