ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES

Diploma In Health Care Aide

In 1860, Florence Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St. Thomas Hospital in London. But, even before Florence Nightingale, nursing has been a cherished and widely celebrated field known by different names and titles from time immemorial. In fact, before deliveries became widely institutional in the 20 th century, historically babies have been delivered only at homes by midwives and in India, by traditional dais.

With India’s population crossing the 1.2 billion mark and rapid advances in health care. Nurses are relied upon heavily for delivery of health care. According to a McKinsey-CII study, India needs to triple the number of nurses in the next decade to meet the rising demands in healthcare and the demand is anticipated to increase by leaps and bounds over times.

The nursing profession has different tiers & hierarchies and the Nursing Assistant or Nursing Aide plays a very important role in hospital wards & clinics by assisting doctors and senior nurses.

The Diploma in Health Aide was originally called Diploma in Nursing Aide before it was re- designated with its new name by the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University in 2016.

A Health Aide provides hands-on care to patients in a variety of settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, and mental health facilities. Health Aides perform routine tasks under the supervision of registered nurses. Some of the duties performed by Health Aides include:

• Measure & monitor patient's temperate, pulse, respiration rate & blood pressure.
• Report abnormal changes or patterns in patient’s vital parameters to nursing staff.
• Provide skin care.
• Observe fluid intake and output.
• Give intramuscular injections and assist in establishing intravenous access.
• Wound care in diabetic & non-diabetic patients.
• Administration of oral and intravenous medications to patients.
• Basic Life Support / CPR & first-aid emergency response.
• The 2 year curriculum consists of theory, practical & clinical instruction that trains & equips the student to handle the above-mentioned nursing duties with ease.

Not just in India, but worldwide, there is an acute shortage of nurses with hospitals struggling to fill in their nursing vacancies. So, the nursing profession has one of the highest rates of employability.

Not all nursing duties can be accomplished by senior nurses and nursing assistants are indispensable for patient care and delivery of clinical services in any health care setting.

Graduates of Diploma in Health Aide can find employment in hospitals / nursing homes, clinics, non-governmental health care organizations, school / college, corporate & industrial nursing stations and emergency medical services.

The curriculum covers instruction in: Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Nutrition, Psychology, Sociology, Introduction to Midwifery, Medical Surgical Nursing, Pediatric Nursing, Mental Health Nursing, Obstetrics & Gynecological Nursing, Management in Nursing.

2 years

Pass in + 2 with 50 % minimum marks in Physics, Chemistry & Biology.

Applicants will be short-listed and successful candidates invited for a personal interview. Selection of candidates will be based on +2 marks and performance in the personal interview.