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Aides provide the very personal kinds of health care required
by patients. Aides’ work is vital to the promotion of
health and healing. Certified nursing assistants take a class
approved by the Washington State Nursing Care Quality Assurance
Commission. They must pass an exam and become licensed by the
state to perform certain patient care tasks such as taking vital
signs. Certified nursing assistants are heavily used by hospitals
to perform patient hygiene tasks, take routine vital signs,
and deliver patient meals. In nursing homes, they assist residents
in their activities of daily living and perform much of the
patient care. Another type of aide, registered nursing assistant,
receives registration from the state after several hours of
basic instruction; they also perform patient care tasks.
 Numbers
There were 7,260 home health aides and 22,440 nursing aides,
orderlies, and attendants working in Washington state in
1998. Washington had 128 home health aides and 394 nursing
aides, orderlies and attendants per 100,000 population in
1998, which ranked 29th and 42nd respectively among the
50 states. Between 1996 and 2006, demand for home health
aide employment is expected to increase by 22 percent.
Pipeline
Most aides, particularly certified nursing assistants,
receive their training in a class sponsored by the institution
where they plan to work. Hospitals and nursing homes use
the education programs as a way to recruit new workers to
their facility. A recent survey indicates the educational
benefit is no longer enough to ease the difficulty of finding
new workers. Nearly 62 percent of Washington state hospitals
responding to the survey reported that it was “somewhat
or very difficult” to recruit aides. The number was
66 percent for rural hospitals.
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