Reading Skills for Healthcare Workers

Sarah is a certified nurse assistant at a long-term care facility. She helps elderly residents with their daily health care needs. She is proud to be a nurse assistant.

Sarah pays careful attention to her appearance at work. A neat and clean appearance helps to communicate to the people in her care and to their family members that she is professional and cares about her job and the safety of her residents. She follows the dress code of her workplace. Sarah wears a clean, pressed uniform every day. Her uniform is a shirt and pants of the same color. She wears comfortable tennis shoes because she walks a lot all day. Sarah has long hair, but she wears her hair back in a ponytail. She wears a name tag so the residents can call her by name. Besides a simple wedding band, she doesn’t wear other jewelry that might get in the way as she does her job. She only wears a little makeup. Sarah keeps her nails cut short, and she doesn’t wear nail polish. She doesn’t wear perfume either.

Sarah knows a professional appearance is important at her job. She represents her employer at work when she interacts with residents and their families. When Sarah maintains a clean and neat appearance, the residents trust that she will take good care of them.