A geriatric aide is a person who assists elderly people with personal care. The term geriatric refers to the elderly and the process of aging. Elderly people who require geriatric aide care may reside in their own homes, nursing homes, adult daycare centers, or hospitals. They may have illnesses or simply require assistance due to a lack of strength or resources. Geriatric aides primarily help with personal care such as feeding, grooming, toileting, bathing, and dressing, but they may also help with cleaning.
A geriatric aide, for example, who provides personal assistance in an older person’s home, may also provide light housekeeping services such as meal preparation and laundry. In addition to administering medications and checking blood pressure, geriatric in-home care aides may converse with patients and assist them in attending social events. Geriatric aides are sometimes referred to as geriatric nursing assistants in community care settings because they usually report to nurses.
A typical work day for a geriatric aide in a nursing home or hospital begins with a nurse giving the aide his or her day’s tasks. Each elderly patient may require unique care. One patient may require weighing, while another may require blood pressure monitoring or assistance in walking in the garden for exercise. A geriatric aide’s day can be difficult because, in addition to the specific duties assigned the nurse in charge, the aide must regularly assist a group of patients with personal care maintenance, which isn’t always easy.
Some elderly patients, for example, may be disoriented and uncooperative when the aide tries to groom them or get them to use the restroom. Other patients may be unintentionally difficult due to disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. A geriatric aide could have spent a lot of time grooming and dressing a patient, right down to carefully buttoning the patient’s shirt and tying his or her shoes, only to return to find that the first patient had forgotten about going for a walk and had taken everything off and climbed back into bed after only a few minutes away to speak with a nurse or another patient. Some senior health care facilities may be understaffed, which can add to a geriatric care aide’s workload.