Soni Group of Hospitals

General Duty Assistant (Healthcare) introduces you to the role of a General Duty Assistant and what it involves. General Duty Assistant – Healthcare (GDA) are also known as ‘Nursing Care Assistants’, ‘Nursing Assistant’, ‘Nursing Aides’, ‘Bedside Assistants’ or ‘Orderlies’ when working in a hospital environment.

As a General Duty Assistant, your role involves assistance to nurses and doctors delivering medical care to patients being treated in the hospital. In addition to the assistance to the doctors, you also play a crucial role in ‘Patient Care’. You will be supporting patients in the management of their day to day activities during their stay in the hospital.

This course gives you all the information you need in order to perform effectively as a General Duty Assistant. You will be introduced to the hospital system with a focus on the structure and services that are delivered in the hospital. You will learn the necessary precautions you will need to follow while delivering patient care.

You will be introduced to the different areas of the role of General Duty Assistant including:

• Transportation of the patient into the hospital and from one ward to the other as needed
• Aid and support the patient in managing personal hygiene
• Support the nurses while administering drugs and drawing samples
• Handling and management of hospital equipments including medical and surgical equipments
• Help the patient while feeding and eliminating wastes excreted
• Note and report clinical observations such as body temperature, breathing rate, etc.
• Ensure that patients are kept as comfortable as possible
• Assist nurses in bathing and grooming the patient
• Assist patients in dressing-up
• Support individuals to eat and drink
• Assist patients in maintaining normal elimination
• Communicating appropriately with co-workers
• Prevent and control infection
• Assist nurses in performing procedures as instructed in the care plan
• Assist nurses in observing and reporting change in patient’s condition
• Assist nurses in measuring patient’s parameters accurately
• Respond to patient’s call
• Clean medical equipment under supervision of nurses
• Transport patient samples, drugs, patient documents and manage changing and transporting
• Laundry / linen on the floor
• Carry out last office (Death Care)
• Act within the limits of competence and authority and work effectively with others
• Maintain a safe, healthy and secure environment
• Practice Code of Conduct while performing duties
• Follow biomedical waste disposal protocols

This course will be of great interest to you if you would like to learn more about the role of a General Duty Assistant. It is also beneficial to you if you would like to learn more about how a hospital operates and serves patients.

General Duty Assistants has a plethora of career options to choose from and can progress by taking more responsibilities. Certified students start their careers as General Duty Assistants after which they can take up the profession of Nursing Assistants. After gaining some experience as Nursing Assistants, they can take up the job role of Supervisors, Floor Supervisors, and finally Managers, which are deemed as more independent job roles.

This clearly shows that there is sufficient scope of growth in the career of a General Duty Assistant. When we talk about the career oriented nursing programs, General Duty Assistant is one career you cannot resist.