Psychiatric Aides
On the Job
Psychiatric Aides work with patients who have mental or emotional problems. They work directly with patients, helping them to do daily activities. They may go with patients to activities. They sometimes need to restrain violent patients.
Typical Work Tasks
People who work in this career often:
- Assist patients with daily activities.
- Care for patients with mental illnesses.
- Feed patients.
- Give medications or immunizations.
- Hold patients to ensure proper positioning or safety.
- Interview patients to gather medical information.
- Confer with other professionals to plan patient care.
- Maintain medical records.
- Record vital statistics or other health information.
- Accompany patients or clients on outings to provide assistance.
Typical Working Conditions
- Having face-to-face discussions.
- Exposure to disease or infections.
- Close physical proximity with other people.
- Responsibility for others' health and safety.
- Working with a group or team.
- Being in situations in which conflicts arise.
- Dealing with physically aggressive people.
- Frequent decision-making.
- Exposure to sounds or noise levels that are distracting or uncomfortable.
- Meeting strict deadlines.
- The importance of being accurate or exact.
- Wearing common protective or safety equipment such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, hard hats, or life jackets.
- Standing.
This page includes information from the O*NET 24.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Source: You can learn about our data sources in the About Us section.
