Program Description

Nurse Technicians perform a variety of duties involving the care of people in home-care situations, hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities. They assist patients with walking, bathing, eating, dressing, and getting in and out of bed, wheelchairs and stretchers. Other duties may include taking and recording temperature, pulse, and respiration rate as directed by the nursing and/or medical staff.

Nurse technicians clean, store, prepare and issue supplies, change bed linens, run errands, direct visitors, and answer the telephone. Some nurse technicians may be assigned to work in operating rooms, delivery rooms, and nurseries, or to help professional nurses in specialized hospital services.

The program is designed to prepare students to perform the duties and tasks assigned to Nurse Technicians and to develop the physical, social, and emotional characteristics necessary for the successful completion of those tasks and duties. Students will be expected to demonstrate knowledge of basic daily patient care, patient rights, care for the terminally ill, disease prevention, emergency procedures and how to meet the psychosocial needs of terminally ill patients and their families.

Students will also learn the function and interrelationships of body systems. The high demand for people in this field, plus the satisfaction that comes from helping others, make this a rewarding career choice.