Article  How Direct Care Worker Training Can Benefit Your Career If you are looking for a job where you will literally make a difference in someone's life every day, then you need to look into direct care worker training. Direct care workers, sometimes also referred to as personal care attendants, are the front line of care and support for those who receive their treatment at home. Training for this work covers all the major responsibilities associated with the position and also offers a balance between classroom learning and on the job training. It is a truly worthwhile field that is an integral part of helping people thrive and maintain their dignity. Instead of working in a hospital, direct care workers visit patients in their homes on a set schedule and provide a range of caretaking tasks for them. Some of the most common tasks include moving or repositioning someone on a bed, prevent bed sores, apply medication or dole out medication, treat infections or minor illnesses like colds, adjust oxygen levels, take blood pressure, and monitor vital signs. Direct care workers who received caregiver training are skilled medical professionals who also have a broad range of knowledge regarding disease like Alzheimer's, arthritis, stroke, and ALS. Yet in addition to these important medical tasks, direct care worker training also teaches people how to perform the more personal side of this work while maintaining the patient's dignity. Other, non-medical responsibilities of a direct care worker includes bathing, dressing, tidying up the living space, changing bed linens, preparing food, ensuring proper nutrition and hydration, and even making phone calls, paying bills or answering letters. The idea is to do as much as possible to make the patient comfortable and able to maintain their life at home in spite of their infirmities. The point of direct care giving is also to have respect for the patients as individuals and humans, and treat them with dignity. Direct care is about empowering the individual by picking up some of the slack in their life, not diminishing their power by treating them like they are children. This work is so incredibly important to people who are invalids or elderly yet still want to remain in their homes and maintain a certain amount of independence and is also key to allowing chronically incapacitated people be allowed to be close to their loved ones all the time. Many families cannot handle taking care of themselves and also fulltime caring for a family member of restricted mobility or capacity. Having someone that received direct care worker training helping out in that home is a great burden off of the family and allows them to focus on providing love and emotional support to the patient, which is many ways, is just as healing and vital as the medical care. There is no doubt that while it can be a stressful job, working as a direct care giver is rewarding and allows you to truly get involved in your work. It is true that the work can be emotionally draining at times, as you are interacting with people of ill or declined health on a daily basis and become close to them and involved in their lives. But direct care worker training will adequately prepare you for the emotional rigor and trials of being close to someone who is failing in health, as well as how to care for them with respect and expertise. So if you are ready to really make a difference in the life of another person on a fundamental and real level, look into this field. The rewards outweigh the stress by miles and miles. Category Health and Medical Author Admin Add To Favorites Print This Article Email Article To A Friend Post Comments   Rate This Article (0) 1 - Poor2345 - Good678910 - Excellent Added On 2009-08-21