Psychiatric Aide Job Description

The Psychiatric Aide assists mentally impaired or emotionally disturbed patients, working under the direction of nursing and medical staff.

Duties

The Psychiatric Aide monitors patients in order to detect unusual behavior, and report observations to professional staff. The Psychiatric Aide provides mentally impaired or emotionally disturbed patients with routine physical, emotional, psychological or rehabilitation care under the direction of nursing and medical staff. The Psychiatric Aide records and maintains records of patient condition and activity, including vital signs, eating habits, and behavior. The Psychiatric Aide works as part of a team that may include psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses and social workers. The Psychiatric Aide job function is to aid patients in becoming accustomed to hospital routines. The Psychiatric Aide organizes, supervises, and encourages patient participation in social, educational, and recreational activities. The Psychiatric Aide performs nursing duties such as administering medications, measuring vital signs, collecting specimens and drawing blood samples. The Psychiatric Aide serves meals, and feeds patients needing assistance or persuasion. The Psychiatric Aide restrains or aids patients as necessary to prevent injury. The Psychiatric Aide interviews patients upon admission and records information.

Knowledge Requirements

• The Psychiatric Aide needs knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• The Psychiatric Aide needs knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
• The Psychiatric Aide needs knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• The Psychiatric Aide needs knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• The Psychiatric Aide needs knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• The Psychiatric Aide needs knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.

Skill Requirements

The Psychiatric Aide must be aware of others’ reactions and understand why they react as they do. This is very helpful in doing their job function both for the patient and the physician in charge. The Psychiatric Aide must give full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. The Psychiatric Aide must actively look for ways to help people. They apply their skills to make things better for the patients and the family members of the patients. The Psychiatric Aide communicates effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience. The Psychiatric Aide persuades others to change their minds or behavior. The Psychiatric Aide must have the skill to understand written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents. The Psychiatric Aide talks to others to convey information effectively. The Psychiatric Aide adjusts actions in relation to others’ actions. The Psychiatric Aide uses logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. The Psychiatric Aide is responsible for teaching others how to do something. Since they work with the patients it is often their task to teach the patient how to do certain tasks or functions that will help them with their situation.

Abilities

The Psychiatric Aide needs the ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. The Psychiatric Aide needs the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem. The Psychiatric Aide needs the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. The Psychiatric Aide needs the ability to speak clearly so others can understand you. The Psychiatric Aide needs the ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. The Psychiatric Aide needs the ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions this includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events.

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