PATIENT CARE ASSISTANT

Overview

 

Patient Care Assistant, Critical Care 

PRN/OCC, Variable shifts, Day shifts

 

Parkwest Overview:

Headquartered in Knoxville, Covenant Health is a community-owned integrated healthcare delivery system and the area’s largest employer.

 

Parkwest is Covenant Health’s and West Knoxville’s premier medical facility and a top-performing heart hospital, offering our patients world-class treatment with all the convenience and warmth of home.

 

In addition to providing the area’s leading cardiac services, Parkwest has been nationally recognized for award-winning care throughout our facility. For 2020-21, Parkwest received recognition from U.S. News & World Report as one of the “Top 10” hospitals in Tennessee.

 

Knoxville located in East Tennessee is the third largest in the state, well-known for its proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and is the home of the University of Tennessee. Go Vols!  Living in Knoxville means experiencing all four seasons.  Best of all, each of them is pretty mild!

 

Combine all that with the abundant natural beauty of the surrounding mountains, and you have a city that truly offers something for everyone. Knoxville has a vibrant arts culture, seasonal festivals, top-notch foodie and incredible outdoor recreation. It’s a perfect blend of big-city amenities and Southern charm.

 

2 Riverstone, Critical Care Unit:

Parkwest Critical Care Unit (CCU) is located on the second floor of Parkwest Medical Center’s main hospital. As one of the area’s top-performing heart hospitals, we take great pride in providing exceptional care and timely treatment to our patients.

 

The CCU is a 30-bed department comprised of 20 medical, surgical, neurological, and renal beds and 10 dedicated Cardiovascular Intensive Care (CVICU) beds. The department is a locked unit for the safety and privacy of our critically ill patients. We specialize in high-level care to critically ill patients with life-threatening conditions, including Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT). Our CVICU specializes in the care of patients requiring Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) procedures, Impellas, and Intra-aortic Balloon Pumps (IABP).

 

We follow a 12- hour shift, weekends/holidays on a six-week schedule. Team members utilize a self-scheduling model, and employee requests are then used during the scheduling process to balance and coordinate with the department’s needs.

 

We pride ourselves in fostering a culture of positivity, teamwork, and always putting our patient’s needs first.

 

Position Summary:  

Functions as a direct patient caregiver performing tasks to assist registered nurses. Performs hands-on care, assistance with ADL’s and specified technical tasks for a group of patients under the supervision of the Team Leader.

 

 

Responsibilities

• Take and record temperature, pulse, respiration rates, blood pressures, weights, heights, and intake-output measurements.
• Encourage patients to turn, cough, and take deep breaths and to use incentive spirometry as specified by Plan of Care.
• Ambulate, and assist patients in and out of bed, into wheelchairs and transport when necessary.
• Attends to nutritional needs of patient which may include distributing meal trays, feeding, filling and passing out water pitchers,
• Provides morning or evening care, which may include bed bath, oral hygiene, combing hair, back care, dressing patient, changing bed linen, cleaning over-bed table and bedside stand, straightening room, and other supportive care as needed.
• Empty drains, canisters, urine bags, bedpans and emesis basins and record intake and output.
• Assists in maintaining a safe environment, which may include reporting equipment that is out of order, appropriate handling of linen and storing of supplies.
• Provides general care such as positioning, lifting or turning patients; assisting in use of bedpan, urinal or commode; preoperative supportive care; and application/removal of abdominal binders or anti-embolism stockings and sequential compression devices.
• Empty & clean ostomy bag, per procedure.
• Collect urine, stool and sputum specimen as ordered.
• Perform tasks such as ROM, assist with ambulatory devices as specified by the patients' plan of care.
• Perform phlebotomy (requires additional training). To include correct labeling using two patient identifiers, maintenance of lab-draw supplies, rotating and restocking.
• Perform EKG (requires special training).
• Promptly answe