What is a Caregiver, What Does It Do? How to Become a Caregiver? Nursing Salaries 2022

A caregiver is a person who accompanies patients who need care after an operation or surgery, who are bedridden, elderly or unable to take care of themselves. Persons who follow the medication, personal care, needs and cleanliness of the room where the patient stays according to the directions of the doctors and nurses are called caregivers.

What Does a Nurse Do?

As they accompany patients in need of care, caregivers have many tasks that they must perform with care and patience. Among these tasks are:

• To follow the medicines that the patient should use; drugs are right zamto ensure that it is taken at the right time and in the right dose,
• Changing the dressing of the patient, if any,
• Helping the patient to go to the toilet, eat, change and personal cleaning,
• To ensure that the patient lies in the correct position; adjusting the patient's bed according to the doctor's instructions,
• To keep the patient's room clean and airy,
• Applying first aid when necessary.

What are the Duties of Nurses?

Nursing caregivers are people who serve patients or the elderly in the hospital/home. The duties of caregivers are many and varied. It varies according to the age of the patient, the disease of the patient or the care demands of an elderly individual.

The longer the caregivers are assigned for home care services, the longer they provide care support to patients. The patient care periods of the caregivers vary hourly, ½-day (12-hour), daily (24-hour), weekly or monthly, depending on the condition of the patients and the demands of their relatives.

• Among the duties of the caregiver are taking the blood pressure, fever and respiratory values ​​of the patient, which should be followed daily, noting and following up.
• If the patients have blood pressure or diabetes, the caregivers follow the blood pressure measurements or insulin applications, if any, at specified intervals.
• Patient caregivers learn the medications that patients should take daily, notify them when they need to take the medication, and ensure that the patient takes their medication.
• One of the duties of patient caregivers is to make the patient's toilet lower care needs done. If the patient has a catheter, he/she empties the urine bag daily, if the patient has a diaper, changes his/her diaper at regular intervals and ensures that the patient is cleaned hygienically.
• Another duty of caregivers is to take care of the bathing needs of sick or elderly individuals. If the patient is not bedridden or in a wheelchair, he takes the patient to the bathroom and helps them to take a bath. If the patient is bedridden, he wipes and cleans his head and body with the method called wiping bath.
• Caregivers comb the patients' hair after the bath, do oral care, help male patients to shave, and cut their nails. He helps them dress.
• One of the important duties of caregivers is to position patients. Bed sores, called pressure sores, are seen in patients who stay in bed for a long time due to illness. Bed sores can usually be seen on the coccyx, elbows, shoulders and back, knees and heels of the patients. In order to prevent bedsores in the patient during the treatment, the caregivers ensure that the patients change their direction in their beds every 2 hours, thereby reducing the pressure.
• If the patients are able to stand up or walk, they allow them to move by taking short walks in the house.
• If the patient is bedridden or in a wheelchair, the caregivers make the patient do certain passive exercises given by the physiotherapist every day.
• The greatest psychological support of the caregivers to the patient is that they give morale and motivate the patients to progress in the treatment.
• Since the caregivers are with the patients or elderly individuals 24 hours a day, they inform the patient's general condition or the changes during the day to the family relatives and nurses.

How to Become a Caregiver?

Persons who have graduated from the Patient and Elderly Services of Vocational High Schools, Anatolian Vocational High Schools or Anatolian Technical High Schools or from the Nursing and Elderly Services associate degree programs of universities can work as a nurse. If you are not graduated from these departments; You can also obtain a nursing certificate by participating in various trainings and courses in the field of Patient and Elderly Care.

• anatomy and physiology
• Basic drug information
• Elderly and sick personal care
• Elderly and sick nutrition
• First aid and dressing applications
• Chronic illnesses
• Elderly communication and rehabilitation

included in these trainings.

Persons who want to be a Nurse need to have certain skills;

1. Must have knowledge of serum insertion.
2. Must know how to aspirate well.
3. Must have mastery of needle punching techniques.
4. The patient should take regular medication.
5. Bedridden people should do the bottom cleaning.
6. It should help patients with their personal care such as bathing and changing clothes.
7. If necessary, walk the patient.
8. It should ensure that the meals are prepared in accordance with the food list.
9. Should be able to use blood pressure and sugar device.
10. The dressing should do it.
11. Must have first aid knowledge.
12. It should inform in advance about the missing materials.

Nursing Salaries

Caregiver Salary 2022 According to the salary data shared by 190 people, the lowest Caregiver salary in 2022 was determined as 5.600 TL, the average Caregiver salary was 6.100 TL, and the highest Caregiver salary was 13.200 TL.