Personal Support Worker

The Personal Support Workers - Waterloo Wellington program enhance the quality of life of SJHC clients by providing quality and compassionate care in the form of personal care assistance, medication reminders, physical and cognitive support and home keeping assistance. PSW significantly assists in enabling individuals to live in a safe and healthy manner after being discharged from hospital and provides support with the Daily Activities of Living.

The PSW works cooperatively with the program Director, Managers, Clinical Educators, Program Assistants, and other care givers in providing quality client-centered care. PSW adheres to daily care schedules and overall care plans.

Clients have recently been discharged from hospital and require more support in the daily management of their own care needs, as well as with the daily living activities, for a short period of time. In some instances, the PSW may have enhanced learning and Skills Transfer opportunities in order to provide care to a certain client population.

CORE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Assisting clients with daily personal care activities, in keeping with their individual care plan
- Bathing
- Dressing/undressing
- Personal hair care
- Shaving/grooming
- Mouth care
- Preventative skin care
- Bathroom activities
- Feeding
- Other personal hygiene tasks

Assisting clients with daily housekeeping activities, in keeping with their individual care plan
- Light apartment housekeeping (sweeping, tidying, dishes etc.)
- Laundry services
- Light meal preparation / safe food handling

Assisting clients in daily activities which maintain adequate levels of mental / physical health and safety, in keeping with their individual care plan
- Performing safety wellness checks
- Medication reminders / medication administration
- Assisting in the client’s use of medical devices
- Living area visual scans
- Engaging clients in positive/social conversations
- Encouraging clients to direct and/or participate in their own care
- Assisting clients with general mobility needs (walking, movement, positioning, fine motor movements etc.) in and around their home
- Encouraging participation in social and/or recreational activities
- Encouraging positive life skills
- Assisting with basic range of motion exercises where required by the care plan
- May be trained for additional work tasks within scope of practice (e.g. peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis)
- Demonstrating sensitivity and respect to clients who may be experiencing cognitive, physical, and/or mental health challenges
- Providing emotional and social support to both clients and their family members
- Demonstrating a positive attitude and approach towards clients as unique individuals

Performs daily work in keeping with the established program procedures, processes, and expectations
- Responds to client’s needs in a safe and timely manner
- Observes and records client information/comments/issues/behaviours/changes in the client’s chart
- Follows daily client care schedules as determined by the program Director
- Maintains a clean and organized work environment
- Reports critical client care information/issues to program Director right away
- Understands and follows individual client care plans, seeks clarification from Director where care plan is unclear
- Participating in team/group meetings
- Other duties as requested or required

CORE COMPENTENCIES
- Regularly demonstrates our mission, vision, and values:
Support compassionate care, faith, and diversity
Deliver quality care, pursue, and share knowledge, respect diversity, remain faithful

Commit to working everyday with dignity, respect, service, justice, responsibility, and enquiry
- Ability to work cooperatively with others; sharing expertise and drawing on the expertise of others
- Actively promotes a healthy, supportive, and inclusive work environment
- Proactively contributes to initiatives, supporting and encouraging positive change
- Ability to demonstrate effective decision making
- Skilled at thinking about creative solutions to everyday problems
- Solid team-based approach to everyday work activities
- Effective communication skills both verbal and written, with an excellent customer service mind set
- Positive and professional, with a “can do” attitude
- Willingness to regularly go the extra mile and actively support co-workers
- Ability to follow direction and listen to instruction
- Proven ability to be detailed oriented
- Maintaining on-going compliance to corporate policies and procedures, health and safety regulations, and relevant external standards
- Participating in both internal and external training requirements
- Participating in quality improvement initiatives
- Maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of all personal health records (including both client and personal), and following all the privacy and confidentiality requirements of any and all electronic medical record systems used (including but not limited to Procura and HPG)

KEY E