Training for assistant nurses

> Access

• age of not less than 17 years
• physical fitness
• good character
• successful completion of compulsory schooling
• admission test or interview
• a board decides on admission

> Programme

Theoretical instruction/subjects: ethics and nature of the profession; nursing; care of elderly people; palliative care; home nursing; hygiene and infectiology; nutrition, diets for patients with specific diseases or special needs; basic somatology and pathology; gerontology, geriatrics and gerontopsychiatry; basic pharmacology; first aid; organising leisure activities and motivating patients to participate in them; basic rehabilitation and mobilisation; professions and institutions in health care and social services, including operational management; introduction to psychology, sociology and socio-cultural aspects; communication and conflict resolution; legislation relevant for nursing.

Practical training: acute care in the fields of surgery and conservative treatment; long-term care / rehabilitative care; extramural nursing, care and counselling.

> Job description / field of activities

Nursing of persons needing care in order to support members of the professional level of the care service and doctors:

• performing nursing measures ordered and supervised by nurses: applying basic nursing techniques; applying basic mobilisation techniques; personal hygiene and nutrition; patient observation; measures of preventive care; documentation of nursing measures taken; care, cleaning and disinfection of tools

• co-operation in therapeutic and diagnostic tasks ordered in writing by a doctor and supervised by nurses or doctors: administering medicines; applying bandages and dressings; administering subcutaneous injections of anti-coagulants and insulin, including taking blood from capillaries for measuring the blood sugar level by means of test strips; tube feeding through an existing gastric tube; patient observation tasks required for medical reasons, e.g. measuring blood pressure, pulse rate, temperature, weight and excrements, and monitoring the patient’s consciousness level and breathing; simple measures of thermotherapy and light therapy
including social care of patients and clients and performing houshold tasks.

> Career

Assistant nurses may be employed by hospitals, other establishments under medical or nursing management or supervision that specialise in the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of diseases or in follow-up care, care of disabled persons, nursing of persons needing care or in collecting blood or blood components or that offer other health and social services; they may also be employed by medical practitioners, self-employed nurses ( gehobener Dienst für Gesundheits- und Krankenpflege) or by institutions or authorities offering home nursing. Eine Berufsausübung in der Pflegehilfe ist unter bestimmten Bedingungen auch im Wege der Arbeitskräfteüberlassung zulässig.

> Further opportunities for education and training

Furthermore, there are the following opportunities for assistant nurses:

• short programme in nursing
• short programme for emergency medical technicians