Everything You Need To Know About a Career As A General Duty Assistant

Everything You Need To Know About a Career As A General Duty Assistant The healthcare industry strives on numerous professionals performing their individual roles towards a collective goal of offering better healthcare. While doctors are an important part of the ecosystem, they are not the only part and there are numerous other responsibilities that are performed by other trained professionals. One of these professionals is the GDA or the general duty assistant. This is an important position in a healthcare setup. A general duty assistant is also called a nursing assistant or a medical assistant and is committed to offering care and assistance to patients admitted to hospitals or nursing homes.

A general duty assistant trains to work as an aide in hospitals and home care setups. Their job is to offer nursing care and handle sick patients. As a nursing assistant, a person is required to be empathetic towards patients.

Training aspects of a Nursing Assistant: Below are some areas that a nursing assistant is trained in:  Basic of human anatomy  Human physiology  Basic health & hygiene  Basic hospital operations  Special skin care for radiotherapy  Skin care for pressure sores  Blind care  Everyday chores of patients  Drug administration  General nursing skills  Biomedical waste management  Handling, lifting, and transferring sick patients

Fall prevention care  Emergency first aid and CPR Job opportunities for a general nursing assistant The profile of a general duty assistant is skill based and hence has a wide job scope. A nursing assistant usually finds a job in any of the following setups:  Hospitals or nursing homes  Old age homes  Patient care camps  Community centres  Medical charity organizations Post beginning their career as general duty assistants, students can also take up the duties of supervisors and managers. With the rapid growth of the healthcare sector, the demand for human resources as medical assistants is always on a surge. With growing life expectancy and also the scope of support in the medical sector, the demand grows further. 

Roles and responsibilities of a general duty assistant Below are the basic roles and responsibilities of a nursing assistant:  Basic patient care  Monitoring for critical signs or change in vitals  Administering medicines and injections  Putting up drips  Dressing and feeding patients  Assisting in patient exercise at the direction of the physiotherapist  Helping to get in and out of bed and assisting in going to the toilet  Patient hygiene  Extra duties in patient care setup including housekeeping tasks

Ensuring that a healthy diet is offered to patients The job dynamics for a general duty assistant are pretty demanding as the role may require long hours of standing and there is no option to work from home or a desk. It is also vested with numerous responsibilities such as being alert to patients need and change in health conditions. A thorough of for detail is hence important. The role may also involve working in shifts and on weekends.

However, the joy of serving patients is incomparable.

Traits requisite for a good nursing assistant: Below are some traits that are essential for you to be employed as a successful general duty assistant:  Team playing skills in order to work effectively in a team at the healthcare establishment  Care and compassion  Sincerity and eye for detail in order to offer effective care  Effective communication and empathy  Critical thinking skills  Strength to move patients or change their positions Remember, you must not be put off by odours or chores such as dressing wounds or changing diapers as these are part and parcel of the nursing job. It is also very important to psychologically support the patients in order to keep their motivation for the treatment high. Empathy is an important skill that will help you connect better with the patients. 

Growth Prospects as a nursing assistant: While in the beginning, you may feel the wages to be low as compared with working hours and duties involved, it is, in general, a decent paying profession.

If one is to see the growth ladder, the career as a GDA grows well through promotions, years of service, training and education. It can grow through the positions of clinical nurse supervisor, until the head nurse

How to become a general duty assistant: If you also want to make your career in the healthcare sector as a medical assistant, you can take a 2-month long course from Smart Academy. The welldesigned course curriculum is delivered through the state-of-the-art infrastructure on campus. With well-equipped labs and simulation training, theory and practical skills are imparted in a perfect balance. Our trained and experienced faculty offers you the perfect employability skills sufficient to help you secure a good job in the field. The smart academy also offers job assistance for you to kick-start your career as a nursing assistant in India.

You can additionally take up a course to brush up your communication skills so as to interact better with the patients.

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