HOC Course/Job Descriptions/Certified Nurse Assistant/Home Health Aide

Annual Salary Range in San Diego County: $22,000 - $30,000

Job Description:
With their caring, compassion and expertise, Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) are a vital key to their patients’ health and well-being. CNAs employed in nursing care facilities often are the principal caregivers. Because some residents may stay in a nursing care facility for months or even years, aides develop ongoing relationships and interact with them in a positive, caring manner, providing important social and emotional support.

CNAs may perform any combination of the following tasks:
answer patients’ call lights; deliver messages; serve meals; make beds; help patients to eat, dress, and bathe; provide skin care; take temperatures, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure; help patients get into and out of bed and walk. They may keep patients’ rooms neat, set up equipment, store and move supplies, and assist with some procedures. CNAs observe patients’ physical, mental, and emotional conditions and report any changes to the nursing or medical staff. Being a CNA is often a stepping stone to becoming a Licensed Vocational Nurse or a Registered Nurse.

Home Health Aides help elderly, convalescent, or disabled persons live in their own homes instead of in a healthcare facility. Under the direction of nursing or medical staff, they provide health-related services, such as administering oral medications, checking vital signs, helping with simple prescribed exercises, keeping patients’ rooms neat, and helping patients to move from bed, bathe, dress, and groom. Home Health Aides may also change nonsterile dressings, give massages and alcohol rubs, or assist with braces, ventilators and artificial limbs.

Health Occupations Center offers Nurse Assistant/Home Health Aide classes in the Fall, Spring and Summer sessions. Please click on the Class Schedule for dates and times of the next classes or call 619-596-3690 for more information.

• Prerequisite: Healthcare Essentials

Health Occupations Center – Setting the Standard in Healthcare Excellence