Nursing Assistants
Working Conditions and Employment
Most full-time aides work about 40 hours a week, but because patients
need care 24 hours a day, some aides work evenings, nights, weekends,
and holidays. Many work part-time. Aides spend many hours standing
and walking, and they often face heavy workloads. Because they may
have to move patients in and out of bed or help them stand or walk,
aides must guard against back injury. Nursing aides may also face
hazards from minor infections and major diseases such as hepatitis,
but
can avoid infections by following proper procedures.
Nursing aides often have unpleasant duties; they
empty bed pans and change soiled bed linens. The patients they
care for may be disoriented, irritable, or uncooperative.
Psychiatric aides must be prepared to care
for patients whose illness may cause violent behavior. While
their work can be emotionally demanding, many aides gain
satisfaction from
assisting those in need. |
 |
Home health aides may go to the same patient's home for months or
even years.
However, most aides work with a number of different patients, each job
lasting
a few hours, days, or weeks. Home health aides often visit multiple
patients on
the same day.
Home health aides generally work alone, with periodic visits by
their supervisor.
They receive detailed instructions explaining when to visit patients
and what
services to perform. Aides are individually responsible for getting to
patients'
homes, and they may spend a good portion of the working day traveling
from
one patient to another. Because mechanical lifting devices available
in institutional
settings are seldom available in patients' homes, home health aides
are particularly susceptible to injuries resulting from overexertion
when assisting patients.
Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides held about 2.1 million
jobs in 2000.
Nursing aides held about 1.4 million jobs, home health aides held
roughly 615,000
jobs, and psychiatric aides held about 65,000 jobs. About one-half of
nursing
aides worked in nursing homes, and about one-fourth worked in
hospitals. Most
home health aides were employed by home health agencies, visiting
nurse
associations, social services agencies, residential care facilities,
and
temporary-help firms. Others worked for home health departments of
hospitals
and nursing facilities, public health agencies, and community
volunteer agencies.
Most psychiatric aides worked in psychiatric units of general
hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, State and county mental
institutions, homes for mentally retarded and
psychiatric patients, and community mental health centers.
PLEASE NOTE: The material in this
publication is within the public domain and has been reprinted here
from the Occupational Outlook Handbook (Division of Occupational
Outlook, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor,
Washington, DC 20212. Phone: (202) 691-5700. Fax: (202) 691-5745.
E-mail: oohinfo@bls.gov. To view other articles from the Occupational
Outlook Handbook, please visit the BLS.
