Description
Care for individuals with mental or emotional conditions or disabilities, following the instructions of physicians or other health practitioners. Monitor patients' physical and emotional well-being and report to medical staff. May participate in rehabilitation and treatment programs, help with personal hygiene, and administer oral or injectable medications.
- • Monitor patients' physical and emotional well-being and report unusual behavior or physical ailments to medical staff.
- • Provide nursing, psychiatric, or personal care to patients with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities.
- • Observe and influence patients' behavior, communicating and interacting with them and teaching, counseling, or befriending them.
- • Take and record measures of patients' physical condition, using devices such as thermometers or blood pressure gauges.
- • Encourage patients to develop work skills and to participate in social, recreational, or other therapeutic activities that enhance interpersonal skills or develop social relationships.
- • Collaborate with or assist doctors, psychologists, or rehabilitation therapists in working with patients with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities to treat, rehabilitate, and return patients to the community.
- • Develop or teach strategies to promote client wellness and independence.
- • Restrain violent, potentially violent, or suicidal patients by verbal or physical means as required.
- • Aid patients in performing tasks, such as bathing or keeping beds, clothing, or living areas clean.
- • Administer oral medications or hypodermic injections, following physician's prescriptions and hospital procedures.
- • Issue medications from dispensary and maintain records in accordance with specified procedures.
- • Interview new patients to complete admission forms, to assess their mental health status, or to obtain their mental health and treatment history.
- • Lead prescribed individual or group therapy sessions as part of specific therapeutic procedures.
- • Contact patients' relatives to arrange family conferences.
- • Train or instruct new employees on procedures to follow with psychiatric patients.
- • Escort patients to medical appointments.
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Healthcare & Human Services
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
