Job Roles of Health Workers

It is always confusing for the OET candidates to identify what points to be included and not to be included while writing an OET letter. Let’s know to understand the job roles of some commonly asked healthcare workers in the OET exam.

General practitioners and family physicians (GP)

Description

General practitioners and family physicians who generally work in private practice, including group or team practices, hospitals, and clinics provide primary contact and continuous care for the management of patient’s health. GPs diagnose and treat the diseases, physiological disorders, and injuries of patients. 

Job Duties

This group performs some or all of the following duties:

GP takes the patient advocacy role and co-ordinate or manages primary patient care

Provide continuous care to patients and supervise home care services

Examine patients and take their histories, order laboratory tests, X-rays and other diagnostic procedures, and consult with other medical practitioners to evaluate patients’ physical and mental health

Prescribe and administer medications and treatments

Provide emergency care

Provide acute care management

Vaccinate patients to prevent and treat diseases

Perform and assist in routine surgery

Deliver babies and provide prenatal and postnatal care

Provide counseling and support to patients and their families on a wide range of health and lifestyle issues

Advise patients and their families on health care including health promotion, disease, illness, and accident prevention

Report births, deaths, and contagious and other diseases to governmental authorities.

 

Physiotherapists

Description

Physiotherapists assess patients to plan and carry out treatment programs to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning and mobility, alleviate pain, and prevent physical dysfunction in patients. They are employed in hospitals, clinics, industry, sports organizations, rehabilitation centers, and extended care facilities, or they may work in private practice.

Job Duties

This group performs some or all of the following duties:

Assess the patient’s physical abilities through functional ability tests

Establish treatment goals with patients based on physical diagnosis

Plan and implement programs of physiotherapy including therapeutic exercise, manipulations, massage, education, the use of electro-therapeutic and other mechanical equipment, and hydrotherapy

Evaluate the effectiveness of treatment plans and modify them accordingly

Provide advice on exercise and strategies to implement at home to enhance and or maintain treatment

Communicate with referring physicians and other healthcare professionals regarding patients’ problems, needs, and progress

Develop and implement health promotion programs for patients, staff, and the community

May provide consulting or education services.

Maintain clinical and statistical records and confer with other healthcare professionals

Physiotherapists may focus their practice in particular clinical areas such as neurology, oncology, rheumatology, orthopedics, obstetrics, pediatrics, geriatrics, in the treatment of patients with cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary disorders, burns, or sports injuries or in the field of ergonomics. May also conduct research in physiotherapy

 

Nursing Home Manager 

Responsibilities and Duties

Manage overall nursing home facility’s healthcare operations.

Manage administration and financial operations of a nursing home facility.

Ensure compassionate healthcare services to patients.

Provide excellent diagnosis and lab services to patients.

Interact with patients and their families in relation to healthcare aspects.

Organize and schedule specialized nursing care duties.

Manage and handle patient care issues and activities.

Instruct and counsel patients and their families on insurance benefits.

Provide counsel to patients and their families on the financial options available.

Ensure compliance with all state regulations, policies, and laws.

Admission Supervisory

Job Summary:

The Admissions Representative interviews patients on admission, records information, and secures signatures, and prepares and supplies patient data to appropriate hospital departments.

Duties/Responsibilities:

Performs pre-admitting activities. 

Receives bookings from physicians and interviews patients before admission to obtain required information and to explain hospital policies. 

Screens insurance information to identify patients needing preadmission approval from third-party payors. 

Assembles admission folders containing paperwork for scheduled patients.

Performs admitting activities. 

Greets patients and conducts patient interviews to obtain required information and signatures. 

Notifies the nursing unit of patient arrival and assigns a volunteer if needed. 

Prepares receipts for telephone rental, bill payment, etc. Accepts patient valuables and provides patient information literature.

Prepares and distributes various admission forms.

Serves as a liaison with insurance companies regarding the admission of their subscribers and logs notifications made.

On designated shifts calculates daily census and verifies accuracy of nursing-unit census listings.

Monitors physician’s overdue chart list to ensure that booking restrictions are applied.

Prepares death certificates for physicians’ signatures.

Answers daily inquiries regarding admitting procedures, hospital regulations, and services; refers inquiries to the appropriate person or department elsewhere in the hospital when necessary.

In case of the absence of a supervisor, take emergency bookings; assign beds to new admissions; arrange transfers; maintain a list of available beds and bed board index of patients; enter discharges and transfers into the computer.

Under the direction of the supervisor, conducts on-the-job training of new employees.

Provides backup relief coverage for telephone operator

 

Registered Nurse

Job Description

Conduct physical exams to assess patient health needs and problems

Implement physicians’ orders, perform treatments, start IVs, administer medications, and interpret special tests.

Order and evaluate diagnostic tests to assess patients’ conditions and needs

Administer direct care to injured, disabled, ill, or convalescent patients

Review and maintain medical records

Implement and develop nursing care plans

Maintain a safe, hygienic working environment

Prepare rooms and medical equipment and decontaminate instruments

Provide emotional and psychological support

Counsel patients and family members on disease prevention and health maintenance

Supervise the work of licensed practical nurses, nursing aides, and assistants

Educate patients about their medical conditions and treatment plans

 

Community nurse

Working in a variety of environments, from clinics and health centers to residential accommodations and patients’ own homes, community nurses help to meet the needs of elderly, disabled, or vulnerable patients who may not be able to easily visit the hospital. Community nurses also provide an important educational and advisory service for patients and families, offering information on various aspects of healthcare. In some situations, community nurses may be expected to provide emergency care – where patients have had accidents or suffered complications, such as cardiac. Providing in-home treatment and support services to individuals and families who need them. 

Community nurses are trained to perform a variety of nursing procedures which may include:

basic care – such as checking temperature, blood pressure, and breathing

administering injections

assisting doctors with examinations and medical procedures

cleaning and dressing wounds

setting up intravenous drips and monitoring ongoing care

Educating communities about healthy lifestyles and disease prevention. This includes teaching people how to

Performing free health screenings for common diseases, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol

Conducting health assessments to identify risk factors for chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease

Counseling people who are at increased risk of illness or injury about how to take precautions to prevent illness, including performing screenings that lead to early detection of disease

Describing how insurance works and helping uninsured or underinsured people gain access to healthcare services

Participating in community outreach by distributing public health information at schools, churches, workplaces, and other community settings.

Social worker 

What does a social worker do? 

Social workers work with specific groups of clients, including children, the elderly, and families in crisis, and help them to solve the problems they’re facing. Clients may be vulnerable or in difficult situations, so social workers need to be able to work under pressure and understand other people’s viewpoints.

Typical duties include:

• Visiting clients and assessing their needs
• Arranging appropriate care, resources, or benefits
• Liaising with relatives, colleagues, and other professionals
• Writing reports
• Attending or contributing to court cases.

 

Occupational therapist 

What is an Occupational Therapist?

An occupational therapist (OT) is a practitioner who uses therapeutic techniques to improve, rehabilitate, or maintain a patient’s ability to perform everyday activities.

An occupational therapist’s job is to help people

• be more independent, 
• have a better quality of life, 
• and live with as few restrictions as possible.

Common responsibilities of the job include:

In general, Depending on the setting in which they work, the roles of an OT often include:

• Evaluating a patient’s condition and needs
• Developing treatment plans to address a patient’s needs and help them meet specific goals
• Assessing a patient’s home and/or work environment and recommending adaptations to fit the patient’s needs and improve independence
• Training patients and their caregivers to use special equipment
• undertaking patient assessments of physical, communication, interaction and cognitive skills
• undertaking general administrative tasks, for example, writing reports, making telephone calls, maintaining records and case notes
• liaising with doctors, family members, carers and other professionals and keeping them updated
• planning further treatment and reviewing progress
• assessing treatment success at multi-professional case conferences/meetings
• advising people on how they can approach everyday tasks differently

Key Roles and Responsibilities

As discussed above, occupational therapists work with their patients by taking a therapeutic approach to everyday activities. Broadly, this means that occupational therapists are responsible for helping patients develop, recover, and improve in regard to a condition or injury, as well as maintain the skills needed to execute daily activities. But, what does this actually entail?

The day-to-day activities that occupational therapists take part in will also likely be influenced by the settings in which they work. Many occupational therapists work in a hospital or private practice setting, however, there are many opportunities to work in other environments. For example, some practitioners work in educational settings to assist in child development or with the elderly to lessen the struggles that come along with aging. Those with an entrepreneurial spirit may even choose to open and manage their own private practice.

 

Music Therapist 

To be effective in this role you need to multitask by playing music, interacting with clients, making assessments, and taking notes simultaneously. 

Music Therapist Responsibilities:

• Collaborating with an interdisciplinary team to ascertain whether individuals qualify for music therapy.
• Designing musical interventions based on therapeutic goals to improve clients’ psychological, physical, and social health.
• Providing music therapy sessions.
• Inviting clients to interact by encouraging them to sing and dance.
• Monitoring clients during musical interventions and measuring the effectiveness of sessions.
• Recording and videotaping clients on a periodic basis to measure effectiveness and progress.
• Keeping records of client progress.
• Conducting biannual assessments to re-evaluate clients.