How to Teach New Nursing Assistants How to Provide Basic Care

Equip new nursing assistants with the skills and confidence they need to carry out good basic care of patients. Teach them how to deal with hygiene needs, how to prevent pressure sores and how to communicate effectively with patients. Carry out training in a classroom setting before the new recruits carry out supervised care on real people to ensure that confidence and skill levels are high.

Things You'll Need

• Hospital bed equipped with specialized pressure relieving mattress
• Bowl of warm water
• 2 cloths for washing
• Soap
• 2 towels
• Classroom volunteer

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Instructions

Helping the patient to wash in bed

• 1

  Recruit a volunteer and ask her to sit in a hospital bed in the classroom, dressed in a swimsuit. Teach the new nursing assistant the importance of ensuring privacy and dignity while helping a patient to wash. Cover the undressed patient with a towel and only uncover the part of the body being washed.

• 2

  Demonstrate how to use a separate cloth for washing and rinsing.

• 3

  Change the water two or three times during the wash.

Preventing pressure sores

• 4

  Teach the nursing assistant how a pressure sore is formed. Show pictures of sores at different stages of development to allow him to identify one.

• 5

  Teach the nursing assistant how to help the patient change position every one to two hours, especially if there is any abnormal or absent sensation in any part of the body. Demonstrate each technique on the volunteer. Supervise the nursing assistant to change the volunteer's position.

• 6

  Encourage the reporting of any change in skin color or texture to the registered nurse.

• 7

  Teach the new nursing assistant to assess a patient's skin at every opportunity, when changing clothes, bathing or going to the bathroom.

• 8

  Demonstrate the use of specialized mattresses plus the need to ensure flat, unwrinkled sheets.

Effective communication

• 9

  Demonstrate and discuss aspects of good communication with the new nursing assistant. Make eye contact with a patient to show you are listening to them. Listen to what the patient is saying rather than jumping to conclusions.

• 10

  Demonstrate the use of open questions to encourage the patient to talk; for example, "How are you today?" rather than "Are you OK?".

• 11

  Advise the nursing assistant to always be honest with the patient. Telling the patient you will ask the nurse if unsure about anything is better than making up an answer to avoid looking foolish.