Caregiver Job Description

A caregiver is a person who is responsible for attending to the needs of an infant, elderly person or a disabled person. Caregivers play an important role in the health care industry, however, they are not always given their due recognition. Caregivers ensure that infants, disabled or elderly people are well taken care of in their home, food and safety. If you have a maternal instinct and are interested in the health care industry, then a caregiver's job can be a great option for you. Let us find out more about the caregiver job description.

Job Description of a Caregiver

Caregiver Responsibilities: The responsibilities of a caregiver are very vast. Caregivers generally work in patients' homes and help virtually with any task. Caregivers are responsible for helping the seniors, infants or disabled clients in receiving proper nutrition by planning and preparing their meals and performing grocery shopping. Caregivers basically help in cleaning, taking them for errands and any other daily activity they need help with. Besides these, if working for the elderly, the job involves all the necessary duties of senior health care, which including monitoring their vital signs and maintaining a log book. If caring for a child, the job involves meeting the physical and emotional needs of the child by providing social interaction and playing games that encourage skill development and reading.

Qualification: There is no particular qualification needed for becoming a caregiver. There are a lot of caregivers who receive on the job training. However, there are others who receive nurse aid training at a vocational or community college. The nurse aid training generally is for a period of six months and includes learning skills such as taking vital signs, record keeping and patient care skills. Besides that, The National Association For Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), offers a voluntary certification course that needs seventy-five hours of course work. This course is similar to the certified nursing assistant course which is offered by many states.

Salary: Though there is a considerable amount of work involved, the salaries for caregiver's job is not very high. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary of a caregiver is less than USD 18,000 a year. However, infant caregivers sometimes receive health benefits or if they are live-in caregivers, then they usually receive free rooming and boarding.

Shortcomings: Being a caregiver can be exhausting as it involves long hours and hard work. The number of hours of a shift can vary from 4 hours to 12 hours, as per the patients' needs and the caregiver's duties and responsibilities. In some cases, as they are live-in caregivers, their job can be a full-time job. Thus, if you intend to be a caregiver you have to be ready for long shifts and hard work.

Advancement and Scope: Due to the increase in life expectancy, the need for caregivers will never diminish. However, research has shown that most people prefer to hire a certified or licensed caregiver. Caregivers may apply for jobs in nursing homes, as private physical therapists or other health care jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the jobs of caregivers are going to increase by 18% between 2006 and 2016. If you pay attention to job description of caregivers, you will realize that there is not a lot of scope for advancement. It is advisable to continue with their nursing education for about a year and become a licensed practical nurse. If the ultimate goal is to become a registered nurse, then you will need an associate degree of two years or even a bachelor's degree of about four years.

This was a general overview of the job description of caregivers. If you have always been career planning in the health care industry and have a nurturing nature then being a caregiver can be a very rewarding and satisfactory job.