What are Personal Support Workers and what do they do?
Personal Support Workers (or, PSWs) are professionals who care for people that are in poor health, suffering from an injury, elderly or need assistance with their daily tasks. They may work for long-term care facilities such as old age homes, or in a client’s home while being employed by a home care agency.
A personal support worker can be referred to as a health care aide, elderly caregiver, resident care aide, patient care aide, nursing attendant, or hospital attendant. The labels may differ across the services they support worker’s agency offers.
The demand for home care services and personalized care is rapidly growing given the overpopulation of hospitals with patients, which has led to a decline in the space available to accommodate all of the seniors that require long-term care.
According to the American Health Care Association (AHCA), two-thirds of nurses in America have little to no training in gerontology (which is the study of the physical aspects of aging, as well as the mental, social and societal implications of the same), and only 1 percent of the approximately 2.2 million registered nurses specialize in caring for older adults.
This raises plenty of concerns regarding the already massive population of seniors that is only expected to steadily expand in the coming years.
This is yet another reason why it is increasingly important to have more personal support workers in the approaching years. With great compassion, responsibilities, and respect, they provide care and the necessities of life for those who need it most.
These professionals are also trained in providing companionship to the elders and patients they are caring for, which is an essential part of making a positive influence in their lives and preventing loneliness that can sometimes lead to depression.
Personal support workers play a crucial role in the healthcare industry; not only are they fully trained and able to provide the long-term care seniors require but also are they able to commute to deliver this much-needed care to their patients.
The essentials of a personal support worker’s job description are the same universally. The scope of practice is however dominated by many aspects such as:
- Type of setting (private home, long-term care home, retirement home, nursing homes, hospitals, and so on)
- Specifications and requirements of the family or patient when working in a private setting
- Guidelines and procedures of the clinical care setting
- Mode of personal support worker training
- Type and amount of experience
- Legislation of the location of the personal support worker and patient
General Responsibilities of a Personal Support Worker
- Caring for people as well as families throughout illness or recovery.
- Offering bedside and personal care to their patients by helping them move, as well as personal hygiene activities such as bathing, grooming and dressing, and undressing.
- Planning and preparing nutritious meals that accommodate specific dietary needs for the patient.
- Going shopping for groceries and supplies needed for the well-being of the patient.
- Helping with light housekeeping, for example, doing laundry, making beds, and so on, to keep the environment around the patient sanitary and neat.
- Changing non-sterile dressings and administering oral medications as instructed by their home care agency or supervisor.
- Providing emotional support and companionship to the senior patient, to keep their spirits high and provide the most comfort possible.
- Assisting with ambulation and transferring using mechanical lifts such as Hoyer lifts.
- Continually observing the patient and their environments and reporting any unsafe conditions and/or behavioral, physical, or cognitive changes to their home care agency or supervisor.
- Routine turning and positioning of the patient.
- Being in charge of the patient’s exercises and physiotherapy to ensure they maintain their strength and actively work towards their recovery.
- Monitoring the patient closely, provided the patient is on some type of restraints.
- Closely monitoring confused patients with dementia, delirium, or those that depict aggressive behavior.
- Complying with all the hospice policies and procedures, infection control protocols, and occupational health and safety policies.
- Ensuring medical equipment is operational and intact and following protocol whilst advising appropriate staff in event of concerns or need of necessary repairs.
- Educating new parents on how to look after an infant.
Prerequisite Skills and Qualifications needed for being a Personal Support Worker
Given how critical this job is, a successful personal support worker candidate must possess various fundamental skills and qualifications. Some of these may include:
- Dedicated organizational skills while being able to maintain high standards under pressure
- Ability to adapt to change according to the exact needs and requirements of the patient and to remain flexible
- Accustomed to working with and comprehending the needs of different types of patients
- Excellent oral as well as written communication skills
- Ability to work well as an independent collaborator and as a team
- Ability to comply with standard policies and procedures to ensure a safe work environment
- Ability to use computer programs to help maintain accurate records and documentation of the patient’s progress
- Excellent listening and interpersonal skill
- Empathetic disposition to aid with the emotional support of the patient
- Ability to assist with personal hygiene, household management, and providing caregiver relief
- Being aware of how to deal with patients with cognitive impairment and mental health issues
- Being suitably well-versed in medical conditions to be able to recognize any abnormalities in the health of the patient
Of course, not all patients are alike. To ensure the most thorough care of each patient, personal support workers may have more specific qualifications to deal with them.
Usually, it is not necessary to search for someone with prior experience. Although, if an applying support worker is required to work with a patient with a particular illness or need, it is recommended to have a candidate with prior experience with tending to patients having that particular illness.
When assessing resumes for a personal support worker, make sure your candidate has at least a high school diploma. A personal support worker who has obtained a PSW certificate from a recognized college should be preferred, although this is not mandatory at all times.
Some applicants may also have a certificate that specializes in the care of the elderly, people with disabilities, or someone recovering from surgery.
Frequently Asked Questions About Working As A PSW
Question 1: What is the average salary of the PSW job position?
In the United States, the average PSW salary amounts to $39,761 per year or $20.39 per hour. Entry-level positions start at $36,075 per year while most experienced workers make up to $62,612 per year.
The average salary earned by a personal support worker in Canada is about $37,050 per year or $19 per hour. Entry-level positions start at $33,555 per year, while most experienced workers make up to $47,570 per year.
Question 2: Are personal support workers considered nurses?
PSWs are unregulated workers. There is no way of checking their credentials or concluding if they have been disciplined, or whether they have been educated in various specialties.
Their knowledge, skills, and abilities vary with the individual, determined largely by their employer or hiring agency. This is unlike nurses who are administered by a higher medical authority that keeps statistics of its working members.
You must have a more extensive and different set of qualifications to practice as a nurse. The scope of practice of nurses is often regulated by the presiding medical laws and is very strict. You may require additional years of education as well as training to attain a certificate that allows you to practice as a nurse.
Hospitals employ registered practicing nurses in emergency rooms, surgical rooms, post-operative surgical floors, medical floors, dialysis, monitor IV therapy, and blood transfusions, read ECGs and collaborate with patients’ primary physicians. These duties distinguish PSWs and nurses since only registered personnel are granted permission to be allowed in such sensitive locations.
Lastly, while registered nurses may have knowledge about various fields of interest within medicine, personal support workers have expertise in physiotherapy, gerontology and/or first aid, or any such specific medical study.
Question 3: What is the difference between caregivers and personal support workers?
A caregiver provides care to service users (patients) in their own home who often require palliative supervision. A personal support worker provides administration to individuals of poor health or of old age who live in supported living accommodation.
Question 4: What is a PSW NOT allowed to do?
A personal support worker is forbidden to perform beyond the legal limits they were assigned when hired by a health care agency or a hospice. Other than legal boundaries, a support worker is not allowed to perform certain duties, namely, administration of narcotics, insulin injections, and wound care. These actions may only be performed by registered nurses. Additionally, a support worker should never perform any duties that they had not been trained for.
Question 5: What is the duration of the personal support worker training course?
Generally, you can opt for either full-time accelerated and standard programs or part-time programs that you can take whenever you have free time or according to your convenience.
The former can be completed in anywhere from six months to one year, while the latter programs in up to two years. That means there are several ways to learn and train at a pace that works for you.
Question 6: Is a PSW school difficult?
With the correct skills and personality traits, almost anybody can become a personal support worker. Although, when it comes to being a professional personal support worker, you require a lot more extensive training and examinations to pass before attaining the title.
Being a professional personal support worker is a critical job that comes with a ton of responsibilities for which you are expected to be extremely proficient in your field.
Question 7: What is the duration of PSW school?
Programs offered by personal support worker training schools greatly vary upon the type of course required by the candidate and can take anywhere from a few months to a year. PSW schools are generally flexible and accelerated, and part-time courses are also readily available.
Question 8: What are some effective books on PSW study?
Books are a valuable resource when it comes to learning and factually understanding a given topic deeply. Some of the bestselling books on PSW training are:
- A Practical Guide for Personal Support Workers from A PSW: Volume One – Andy Elliott, DSW CYW CYC PSW
- Integrating a Palliative Approach: Essentials for Personal Support Workers Workbook – Katherine Murray
- Providing Good Care at Night for Older People: Practical Approaches for Use in Nursing and Care Homes – Heather Wilkinson
Question 9: What are the benefits of working as a PSW?
Being a personal support worker is a demanding job. Below are some of the benefits of working as a PSW in your community.
- Accomplishment in knowing that you make a difference: Compared to doctors, paramedics and nurses, personal support workers provide real companionship to their clients since they spend a lot of time with them.
- Flexible Career Options: After their training course, personal support workers can enter the workforce immediately and have several options as per their preferences. If they desire a fast-paced environment, they could find work in a hospital, while those who prefer home calls could choose to be hired by healthcare agencies that assign them patients that are homebound. Other than these, you have the option to choose additional workplaces like nursing homes, retirement homes, and palliative care facilities.
- Choice in Creating a Work Schedule: Considering the various work environments, personal support workers have the ability to choose their own working hours. For example, you may work with patients that only require supervision during the day, weekdays or weekends when their loved ones are not present. This allows you to spend time with your own family or pursue further education.
Question 10: Are PSW jobs in demand?
Presently, there are more personal support workers retiring than those who are just beginning their careers in the United States and Canada, and a shortage in support workers is expected in the near future.
As a result, those in a support worker course can anticipate a career that is in high demand. These statistics were further amplified in concern due to the pandemic, which caused a massive demand for personal support workers all over.
Question 11: What impact did the pandemic have on the PSW job community?
Chronic understaffing in long-term care facilities remains to be one of the crucial issues identified by the government during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. By the middle of 2020, more than 840 outbreaks were reported in long-term care homes reporting more than 80% of all COVID-19 deaths in the region.
On top of the elderly population being immunocompromised, chronic understaffing subjected elderly residents to additional stress and unsatisfactory care.
By becoming a personal support worker in these trying times, you can truly make a difference by directly impacting the lives of your patients. You will be in the best place to display the empathy they need and foster positivity in their lives by giving them a reason to smile amidst the uncertainty of these times.
Due to the shortage of personal support workers, there’s a high demand for job opportunities in long-term care homes and health care agencies alike. By considering working as a PSW in these challenging times, you can find jobs with competitive salaries providing higher job security.
Being in the later stages of the pandemic, facilities and hospitals have revised enhanced safety protocols to protect the residents as well as workers.
As the vaccines continue to roll out, those at higher risk, healthcare workers, and Indigenous communities are first in line for dosages. Hence, working as a personal support worker during these times provides you great perks.
In fact, in December 2020, the first vaccine in Ontario was administered to a personal support worker who worked in an LTC facility.
Question 12: Are there online courses for PSW training?
The good news is that personal support worker programs are available online as well! Contact your nearest college or university that mentions PSW training courses in their profile.
Question 13: What hard skills am I required to have in order to be employed as a personal support worker?
Along with the above-mentioned soft skills, the following are some technical qualifications you could have in your resume that drastically increase your chances to be hired as a PSW.
- A foundational understanding of human anatomy
- Knowledge about the common health conditions of ill, elderly, or disabled individuals
- Familiarity with common cognitive problems and mental health issues
- Proper techniques in assisting with personal hygiene
- Competent practices in nutrition and assisting with medication
- Ability to safely operate mobility machinery/devices
- Proper documentation skills
Question 14: What sort of questions are usually asked in the personal support worker certification final examination?
The health care sector is one of the most sensitive areas in any government as a healthy nation leads to the growth of its economy. Hence, a final exam is required to make sure of the admission of competent applicants in this critical field. The most common questions include
- Common principles of health care
- Important laws and acts relevant to the medical field
- Basic knowledge of the law
- Foundations of PSW
- Health conditions
- Human anatomy, and so on
Question 15: What kind of questions should I expect when being interviewed for the position of personal support worker?
A lot of the questions asked during a personal support worker interview are scenario-based. You will be given a scenario and asked one or a few questions based on that scenario.
For example, you may be asked something along the lines of “if you see a resident on the ground or if you see them fall, what actions will you take?”
By answering this question, ensure you convey to your interviewer that you recognize the possible severity of a patient on the ground and the importance of taking the right steps to ensure the patient receives the proper treatment.
Talking about your actions post-treatment, such as investigating the cause of the fall and identifying ways to rectify and prevent the problem, displays that you are a problem solver and are concerned for the wellbeing of the resident in preventing further falls.
You may also be asked to describe your abilities and traits that are directly involved in working as a personal support worker. You may be required to demonstrate your proficiency in first aid and CPR skills if required.
Question 16: What does a day in the life of a personal support worker look like?
This vastly depends upon the physical setting of your workplace, as well as the personal needs of each patient. A day in the life of a personal support worker working in a nursing home differs majorly from that of a PSW working on behalf of a health care agency. The fundamentals of each job are similar though. For this question, however, we are going to focus on the specifics of a health care agency that assigns a personal support worker to several homes in a day.
The morning of a personal support worker starts off the same, beginning their workday with their first client appointment. In the early morning, personal support workers are responsible for the morning routine of their clients, such as taking them to the bathroom, assisting with teeth/denture cleaning, etc., helping them get dressed, and providing any other support their client might require, such as administering meals or medication.
Often the support workers are required to travel to and from their clients’ homes all day, which makes the support workers travel all over the city, their workdays full of compassion and diverse, meaningful interactions.
PSW training not only prepares you to help individual clients, but their families as well. A personal support worker visiting a client not only improves the day of the client but also provides their friends and family much-needed peace of mind.
With the correct guidance, skills, and an empathetic attitude, you could make this fulfilling work a gratifying career – extending health, safety, wellbeing, and positivity throughout your own community.
Question 17: What are some tips one should keep in mind while working as a personal service worker?
Here we have a few tips for a fruitful experience while working as a personal support worker (PSW), that will be most useful to you while working in the field.
- Your health is as important as your patients’. It is true what they say, you must help yourself before you proceed to help others, and it couldn’t be more true while working as a personal support worker. This is a job where you are required to work tirelessly for hours, sometimes even working through your shift without any breaks. With this, it is very important for you to take occasional rests to help recharge your body in order to perform at its most optimal.
- While on break and during shifts, drink lots of water. It helps lower stress levels and takes care of your body. It also is a wonderful remedy for headaches, which are often caused as a result of dehydration. Also, take restroom breaks when needed.
- Correct time management will be the answer to all your miseries. Things can happen during a personal support worker’s shift that they have no control over. Untoward incidents such as a resident falling over, a fellow personal support worker not showing up to work, and so forth can be very time-consuming, but they are rather unavoidable. But still, try to maintain a calm disposition and do the best you possibly can.
- Go with the flow. Dealing with the elderly can have its fair share of tricky moments, especially if the patient has mental illnesses such as dementia or Alzheimer’s, but going with the flow might just be the key to help avoid verbal mishaps and a rather hostile environment. Do not, under any circumstances, try to argue with them. It will not get you anywhere and end up frustrating both you, as well as the patient. You cannot deal logically with an illogical illness.
- Never stop learning. Keep your mind open at all times to opportunities and lessons that are scattered around you – you just require a keen eye to identify them. The life of a personal support worker is something more people should respect and know about; working as one might just help provide a lot of insight into your own life.