Your Role as a Care Worker
Lesson 2 of 15 in Introduction to Healthcare Work (PSW) · 25 minutes
Understand the PSW scope of practice in Ontario, what tasks you can and cannot do, and the chain of command in healthcare.
What you'll learn
- Understand the PSW scope of practice in Ontario
- Know what tasks you can and cannot do as a care worker
- Understand the chain of command in a healthcare setting
From the lesson
As a Personal Support Worker (PSW) in Ontario, you play an important role in the healthcare team. Your job is to help patients and residents with daily activities like bathing, dressing, eating, and moving around safely. You work under the direction of a nurse or other regulated healthcare professional.
It is very important to understand your scope of practice. This means knowing what tasks you can and cannot do. For example, in an Ontario long-term care home only doctors, dentists and nurses give medications (a nurse may train and supervise a PSW to apply creams), and you cannot give injections. You change a wound dressing only when your employer and the care plan allow it. If someone asks…