Nursing Assistant is a comprehensive textbook designed to prepare students for state-approved nursing assistant education programs and help them pass their state competency exams to become certified nursing assistants (CNAs). The book covers essential skills and knowledge, including basic nursing assistant tasks, personal care skills, and client rights, all performed under the supervision of a licensed nurse. With a focus on compassionate, patient-centered care, this resource provides clear explanations, step-by-step instructions, and practical examples to ensure students are well-prepared for their roles in healthcare settings. Ideal for aspiring CNAs, this textbook is a valuable guide for mastering the skills and responsibilities required to provide safe and effective care to clients.
Communicate professionally within a healthcare setting
- Interact with clients, families, and co-workers
- Display appropriate verbal and nonverbal skills in the work setting
- Establish a therapeutic relationship with clients, families, and co-workers
- Respond to clients that exhibit problematic behavior
- Respond to aggressive behavior
- Establish working relationship with supervisors and peers
- Demonstrate reporting and documentation
- Assist client to meet spiritual needs
- Adapt care/communication to meet the psychological needs of the aging client
- Demonstrate sensitivity to emotional needs, social diversity, and mental health of clients, families, and co-workers
- Apply strategies to cope with client and family stress
Demonstrate professionalism in the workplace
- Function within and uphold the ethical and legal responsibilities of the Nursing Assistant
- Carry out assignments
- Develop job seeking and keeping skills
- Protect rights of clients
- Treat client respectfully regardless of social, ethnic, or religious background
- Apply strategies to cope with caregiver stress
- Differentiate the nursing assistant role in a variety of health care settings
Maintain a safe healthcare environment
- Maintain a safe, clean, comfortable, therapeutic environment
- Respond appropriately in emergency situations
- Perform airway clearance maneuver
- Apply principles of body mechanics
- Demonstrate safe use and maintenance of equipment and supplies
Adhere to principles of infection control
- Demonstrate principles of medical asepsis for client and personal safety
- Demonstrate principles of standard and transmission-based precautions and infection prevention
- Demonstrate prevention of blood borne pathogen transmission
Provide for personal care needs of clients
- Provide for personal grooming and hygiene
- Assist with nutrition and fluid needs
- Assist client with bowel and bladder elimination
- Maintain a urinary catheter
- Assist client with bowel and bladder retraining
- Make an occupied and unoccupied bed
Provide for basic nursing care needs
- Carry out the basic nursing skills required for the nursing assistant
- Adapt care to meet the physical needs of the aging client
- Apply heat and cold applications
- Apply nonprescription (OTC) medications
- Define the principles of nutrition and fluid needs
- Provide client comfort measures
- Assist with end-of-life care for the dying client
- Assist with post-mortem care
- Recognize the general effects of prescribed routine medications
Demonstrate reporting and documentation of client data
- Measure intake and output
- Measure temperature, pulse, and respiration
- Measure weight and height
- Recognize normal and abnormal blood pressure readings
- Identify normal and abnormal vital signs
- Document client data
- Prioritize the reporting of data
- Recognize signs of client discomfort
Utilize principles of mobility to assist clients
- Examine types and uses of restraining devices
- Use of restraining alternatives
- Assist with moving or positioning a client
- Promote joint mobility, body alignment, and activity
- Assist with ambulation
- Use client transfer techniques
- Apply prosthetic and orthotic devices
Promote independence through rehabilitation/restorative care
- Assist client with range of motion exercises
- Promote client independence during activities of daily living (ADL)
- Assist clients with hearing or vision impairment with activities of daily living
- Assist clients with speech impairment with activities of daily living
- Assist with restorative therapies
Provide care for clients experiencing acute and chronic health conditions
- Care for client with developmental disabilities
- Care for clients with long-term, disabling conditions including dementia
- Assist clients with dementia through environment and activities
- Manage stressful situations with clients with dementia
- Provide food and fluid intake monitoring and interventions for clients with dementia
- Manage behavioral challenges of clients with dementia
- Demonstrate sensitivity to emotional needs, social diversity, and mental health of clients
- Respond to psycho-social needs of clients
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License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
First edition funded by U.S. Department of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) Second edition funded by State of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Technical College System funding for Open Educational Resources
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