Healthcare Workers’ Duties

Healthcare workers are the backbone of the healthcare industry. They diagnose patients, deliver care to the sick, and provide services to the ailing. Healthcare workers can specialise in a number of fields depending on their preferences including doctors, nurses, surgeons, and psychotherapists. If you wish to pursue a career as a healthcare worker, it is important to know what will be your role in the healthcare industry. Understanding your responsibilities will also help you figure out whether you are ready to take on this challenging job or not. 

Here are the primary duties of a healthcare worker:

Diagnosis & Treatment

Registered nurses are tasked with taking the vitals of a patient upon arrival. Nurses also record the medical history of patients to make the process of diagnosis easier for the doctors. Almost all nurses are qualified to request diagnostic tests. Healthcare workers take blood samples and send them for analysis. Once the reports are in, doctors make diagnoses based on them. 

After diagnosing the patient, the doctor devises a treatment plan. The treatment plant is shared with the nurses who are then tasked with administering medicine and monitoring the condition of a patient. If there’s any change in the patient’s condition, positive or negative, nurses have to inform the doctor. 

The Most Important Healthcare Workers

Without nurses, it will be impossible for doctors to make proper diagnoses or help patients with treatment procedures. Due to these reasons, nurses are often hailed as the backbone of the healthcare industry. 

Work with Healthcare Workers

In hospitals, patient care is mostly a team effort. Multiple healthcare workers come together to diagnose and treat a patient. It is up to the nurses to collect important information from the patients and share it with their team. It is essential for nurses to have excellent written and verbal communication skills. Effective communication skills of nurses can make patients feel at ease and enable them to open up about their healthcare issues. 

Nurses have to share important information with patients and their families all the time, however, they can only do so effectively with good communication skills. 

Provide Support & Advice 

Patients feel lonely and depressed when they have to get treated away from their homes. In such difficult times, it is up to the nurses to provide support to the patients. Nurses should make sure that patients feel listened to and understood. The role of nurses becomes more important when delivering challenging news. 

In such difficult times, healthcare workers, including doctors, provide guidance to the patients and their families. They also share inpatient and outpatient resources to help the patients with their journey of recovery. 

Maintain Detailed Records

One of the most important duties of a nurse is to maintain detailed records about patients. These records and charts help doctors figure out which treatment options are successful and which must be changed. The records also help healthcare workers every time there’s a shift change. 

A simple error in the records of a patient can be life-threatening, which goes to show how important the role of a nurse is. However, doctors also review the charts and make additions, whenever necessary, to help the team take care of patients. 

Operate Medical Equipment

Healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, also operate medical equipment when taking care of patients. These medical equipment can range from simple diagnostic tools (pulse oximeters, glucometers, etc) to more specialised machinery (intravenous infusion pumps, ventilation equipment, etc). 

Due to the advancements in medical technology, medical equipment is also becoming more complex. In order to keep up with the times, nurses and doctors must regularly attend training classes. 

Train & Educate Staff

One of the most important roles of healthcare workers is to train future doctors and nurses. Qualified nurses and doctors with multiple years of experience are often tasked with training the younger staff. Doctors and nurses train and supervise their juniors for the betterment of the healthcare industry’s future. 

Sometimes, doctors and nurses also deliver lectures to medical students to guide them about the healthcare industry. With the guidance of healthcare workers, the future generation of doctors and nurses can understand the challenges of the medical field and prepare for them accordingly. 

If you wish to work as a nurse or a career but are worried about finding the right job, reach out to ESGO. With ESGO, you will be able to find the best employment opportunities in no time.