Reading Skills for Healthcare Workers

You want to be the best nurse assistant that you can be. There are five principles of care that you need to remember. They are safety, dignity, independence, privacy, and communication.

​

Safety means keeping patients away from danger and harm.  As a nurse assistant, you do not want your patients getting hurt. You want to protect them from falls, cuts, and burns. All health care workers should also follow best practices for controlling infections. This means doing things like wearing clean gloves. Soiled gloves spread germs.

​

You can help your patients have dignity by showing them respect. There are many ways to show patients that you respect them. Helping your patients to stay clean and neat helps them to feel respected. Not yelling at patients or talking down to them also shows respect.

​

As adults get older or become sick, they often can’t do as much for themselves. This means that they lose some independence, or freedom. Nurse assistants can help patients to get back some independence. They do this by encouraging their patients to do some things by themselves. For example, patients can dress themselves and choose what to wear or watch on TV.

​

Most people value their privacy. You can help to protect your patients’ privacy by allowing them to be alone when they want to be. You can also protect privacy by not telling other people the personal things that patients might share with you.

​

Nurse assistants must have good communication skills. You must show the people in your care that you are actively listening to them. You can do this through your words and your body language.

​

Remember these five principles to provide “star-quality” care.