Certified Nursing Assistants

About the job Certified Nursing Assistants

This is a PRN position that involves direct contact with psychiatric patients participating in clinical trials. Each employee will be educated in their responsibilities as a psychiatric technician as these responsibilities may vary from protocol to protocol.

Responsibilities Include:

• The Psychiatric technician reports to the charge person and works under their guidance. The charged person will be responsible for ensuring that tasks are appropriately delegated to the psychiatric technician and will be the first point of contact for all those on the shift if a question/concern arises. All research staff will follow the direction of the charge person.
• Each psych tech must be capable of proficiently completing any of the following responsibilities as delegated by the CRU director, or charge person for the shift.
• Interact closely with clients to assist them in problem-solving and to de-escalate subjects who become upset or belligerent.
• Conduct groups as needed per CRU schedule and the needs of the milieu and study participants.
• Assists clients in identifying barriers to completing the study and problem-solving how to overcomethese barriers.
• Perform orthostatic vital signs collection (if properly trained) and report abnormal results to the appropriate clinical staff research nurse on duty, on-call MD.
• Admit and discharge study participants per policy.
• Complete other study procedures such as weight/height, and waist/hip circumference as specified on the appropriate flow sheets.
• Communicate appropriately with subjects while assisting them with ADLs, supplying them with cigarette breaks as allowed in the protocol.
• Provide the subjects with meals and snacks as alallowed in the study.
• Ensure subjects adhere to the protocol-specific dietary and smoking restrictions.
• Assist with nightly room and equipment checks.
• Gather past/present medical and psychiatric history from the subject's current psychiatrist and last hospitalization by interviewing the subject.
• Assist with the collection of study data as required by the study protocol, specifically the screening form, admission forms, and release of information.

Qualifications:

• Experience working with persons with major mental illnesses (schizophrenia, bipolardisorder, depression) as a psych tech in inpatient/acute care settings is preferred.