Healthcare Assistant Nurse: Roles, Responsibilities & Career Paths

Many health care assistant nurses usually find their work rewarding. For others, it's a stepping stone in the path to becoming a support worker, midwife, social worker or nurse.

Patient Comfort

• Making sure the patient is comfortable is the main goal of a health care assistant nurse.

Supervision

• The health care assistant nurse works under the supervision of a physician, registered nurse (RN) or licensed practical nurse (LPN).

Working Conditions

• Because a health care assistant nurse works in a patient's home or alongside nurses and doctors in a hospital, traveling between locations may be time consuming. Depending on patients' needs, the job may be physically demanding and emotionally stressful.

Emotional Well-Being of Patient

• A health care assistant nurse listens to the patient and acts on needs as appropriate, including just talking to a patient to ward off feelings of isolation or loneliness.

Housekeeping Duties

• A health care assistant nurse improves mobility by helping a patient move around and feel comfortable in his home or in hospital. Keeping living areas clean is vital to this aspect of the job.

Patient Monitoring Duties

• A health care assistant nurse takes and records the temperature, pulse, respiration rate, weight and blood glucose levels of the patient and contacts a supervisor with any abnormalities.