Soft Skills and Hard Skills that Personal Support Workers Need to Have

When considering a career in the healthcare field you need not just your basic qualifications but you need another set of skills.  You will need what we call soft skills and hard skills.  In this article we are going to focus on the soft and hard skills needed to become an effective personal support worker.

Soft Skills

These are skills that allow a personal support worker to do their job effectively.  Without soft skills a nursing assistant is not able to convey the impression of compassion to their clients/patients.   Simply put, a personal support worker without soft skills will not be very effective.  Here are some of the soft skills required:

Empathy/Compassion.  Every personal support worker gets frustrated with their patients; however it is important to remember that your patients are just as frustrated as you are.  Remember, your patients are feeling vulnerable and frustrated due to their conditions and the fact that they are relying on you.  Put yourself in their shoes and your frustration, while not going away completely, will recede a bit.

Time Management Skills.  Typically a personal support worker does an 8 hour shift and handles 8-10 patients.  Each patient typically has their4 own unique needs and as a result you cannot simply divide your time equally among them.  As you get to know your patients and their needs you develop a natural timeline for your shift, and you will include your breaks and lunches in this timeline.

Patience.  Personal support workers must have patience to do their jobs.  As we said earlier in the empathy section, sometimes you need to put yourself in your patient’s shoes and then you will have the patience to deal with their resistance to what must be done. 

Ability to Work in a Team.  Personal support workers typically work in teams.  This means teamwork and communication about patient needs and issues is a must.

Hard Skills.

These are the skills needed for a personal support worker to be able to do their jobs.  Specifically we are talking about the physical requirements needed in moving patients with little or no mobility.  A personal support worker needs to know how to pivot or spin a patient with little mobility to move them from a bed to a chair.  Also, a personal support worker needs to know how to use the Hoyer Lift, to move a patient from a bed to a chair, and the Sit-to-Stand Lift to help patients move from sitting to standing.

These soft and hard skills are essential for anyone who wants to become a personal support worker.