What all does a nurses aid do?

The hardest job on the planet.

I am a CNA and I do basic care for my patients. Vitals, ADL's, showers, meals and ROM. That is in a nursing home and when I work in the home setting I do a little more. The actual duties vary from state to state and company to company.

Assists with ADLs (Activities of Daily Living). Nurses Aides do:: bathing and dressing, toileting, meal prep (in a person's home), food tray set up (delivering to the patient in a hospital, opening the milk etc), to feeding pts who can't feed themselves, helping with ambulation, bed changes (including when a pt wets or soils the bed), skin care, reporting changes in the patient's condition to the nursing staff....

Aides work in home care, nursing homes, and private duty. Earnings start usually at minimum wage to about 8.50 an hour. Private pay (private duty)may be more.

Aides become very close to patients, who come to rely on their aides. The job requires not only caring, but attention to detail, and a high respect towards every patient - even ones who others do not like caring for. Without nursing aides, nurses, nursing homes, and home care companies could not provide direct patient care.

Many nursing aides are accepted with high school plus 1 year of nursing home experience. Aides can become State Certified.

Lifes

Speaking as someone who has been a nurses aid before, you have to clean up people who have pooped on themselves, put them on the bedpan, help feed them, bathe them,etc. It can be nasty work at times, but it is nice to help those who can't help themselves!

...mostly what nurses don't want to do.