What is the primary role of a nursing assistant?

The primary role of a nursing assistant is to perform delegated tasks. This position involves working under the supervision of nurses and other healthcare professionals, providing essential support in patient care. Nursing assistants typically assist with activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, grooming, and feeding patients, as well as taking vital signs and helping with mobility.

This role is crucial because it allows nursing assistants to contribute significantly to the overall care of patients while ensuring that the more complex medical tasks and diagnoses are left to licensed nurses and physicians. In this context, nursing assistants are trained to perform specific tasks that are within their scope of practice, which are assigned to them by their supervising healthcare professionals.

Other options do not appropriately define the primary role of nursing assistants. For example, performing independent medical diagnoses and administering medications fall outside their scope of practice and require specialized training and licensure. Training nursing staff is typically a responsibility of more experienced nurses or educators, not nursing assistants.