Clinical Skills Performance Checklists

Clinical skills performance checklists will help you to learn each CNA skill in detail. In order to pass your CST successfully you need to follow these steps carefully until you master them. Once you have done these procedures enough times, they will come naturally to you, which is really the end goal of these checklists.

There are 2 types of care procedures every CNA must know- indirect care and direct care. First one is the type of procedures that you will have to keep in mind throughout your daily tasks, second one is more specific to each patient.

Clinical Skills Performance Checklists

Indirect Care Procedures For CNAs

Indirect care are the kind of procedures you do before every direct care procedure. This will include washing hands, making sure the resident is feeling comfortable, protecting the rights of residents. It will also include things like safety procedures and standardized precautions like infection control. You will obtain a separate score for these requirements. Your evaluator will take observation of your performance, based on the following critical steps:

  • You need to wash hands before and after each and every direct care procedure for the patient.
  • Perform greetings for the patient, including name and address.
  • Explain each procedure thoroughly to the patient to optimize performance.
  • Keep track of the privacy of the patient, and make sure you close the door, or curtain before beginning work.
  • Keep the resident safe: Proper identification; proper positioning for protection; use of the right assistive devices; make sure that the equipment is fully functional; bed, wheelchair, stretcher and other wheeled equipment should be locked while transferring the patient; keep by the side of the patient to protect from possible injuries; always leave a call light nearby when leaving the resident; provide thorough instructions for post-procedure timeframe in order to ensure safety.
  • Maintaining the resident rights: provide information about the purpose and findings of the procedure; maintain the right of the resident to refuse the procedure.
  • Standard precautions are required; removal of gloves is obligatory unless it is stated otherwise for the procedure.
  • All supplies must be assembled by the bedside.
  • Maintain comfort for the patient: Positioning, room temperature maintenance, removing unpleasant odors and others.
  • Everything surrounding the procedure should be recorded in the resident’s form.
  • Need to report each and every change in the resident’s condition to the nurse as soon as it is noticed.
  • Complete maintenance of all working equipment, ensuring that it is functional.
  • Replenishment of the bedroom supplies, and maintaining proper hygiene at all times.

Direct Care Procedures For CNAs

Direct care procedures are the “main” tasks you will be asked to perform on the patient. These skills will be observed with more scrutiny than indirect skills, as they are really the main job tasks that CNAs are hired for. Make sure you practice each of these skills until you memorize them and they will come naturally to you. Even though some of these steps during direct care procedures may seem irrelevant to you, they are required in order to standardize overall quality of nursing care.