Patient Care Assistant
What the work is
Provides general assistance, emotional support and personal care services to patients in a health care facility.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Assists with personal care needs such as showering, dressing, eating, mobility and communication
- Negotiates with individuals and families regarding the acceptance of care provided
- Participates in care planning
- Supports a multidisciplinary team to adhere to health plans as directed by health care professionals
- Observes and reports changes in patients' conditions
- Reports complaints about care
- Assists with rehabilitation exercises, basic treatment and delivery of medications
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a general ward and the corridors of a fictional city hospital. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A patient who was afraid of the shower is clean, warm and cracking jokes by the end
- You get a long-stay patient outside into the sunshine for the first time in weeks
- A shift where the ward looks tidy and every patient has had what they needed
Hard days
- Moving and lifting people all day while the ward phone keeps ringing
- A patient or family member who is angry and takes it out on whoever is nearest
- Being asked to do three things at once by three different people
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 442531, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.