Overview of Vocational Nurse Job Duties

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Vocational nurses are people with many responsibilities. They are found in many different facilities from nursing homes to operating rooms. They are usually wonderful team players, but may act as a charge nurse in extremely difficult arenas. Many vocational nurses chose to go into the operating room as a surgical technologist and may double as an instrument technician.

Vocational nurse duties vary, depending on their work setting. For example, they may teach family members how to care for a relative; help deliver, care for, and feed infants; collect samples for testing and do routine lab tests; or feed patients who need help eating.

First Things First

The nurse’s day may start out simply taking vital signs. Assessment of these baselines and proper documentation of all will be in the morning duties. Blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, respiration and weight are all important aspects of treatment. For diabetic patients, blood sugar will be recorded. For patients with congestive heart failure, I&O (in and out) will be carefully charted and supervised. This charting gives the physician an idea of how the patient is doing physiologically from day-to-day.

During the Shift

A good vocational nurse will stay apprised of what is happening with each patient assigned to him or her. Studying physician’s orders is also important to see if any particular tests are ordered to glean information. If there is an order to ambulate the patient, they must be up and walking, with the help of the nurse. There may be an order to do a urinalysis on someone with a possible kidney or bladder infection. There may be a need to do sputum testing or nasal swabbing for various upper respiratory diseases.

As a patient progresses or declines, care plan modifications should be made by the nurse. For bedridden patients, turning and repositioning in the bed will make a difference in whether or not they get bed sores, which are pressure sores from being in one position for too long. These moves should be noted and documented on the chart.

Preparing patients for procedures like shaving, or using antiseptic liquids may be part of daily planning. Explaining these procedures and making sure the family is aware of plans is also an important role of the vocational nurse.

Patients with oxygen should have their suppliers checked along with the right settings and to make sure the oxygen is being administered properly. Catheters bags should be emptied and amounts emptied are documented. Tracheotomy tubes may need to be suctioned or checked for security.

In the End

At the end of the shift, it is a normal to have a staff meeting of both crews: the crew going home and the one coming on. A good nurse will cover all patient events with the oncoming nurse so that continuity of care may be maintained. Charting must be completed and follow-up of care is imperative. If there are any issues, which should be addressed by a physician, phone calls must be made to insure the best communication. All medication sheets should be reviewed to make sure that all was administered in a proper time frame and it should be noted and complete on the chart.