Saskatchewan JobFutures

Nature of Work

Assistants, aides and orderlies in this occupational group provide services and assistance to nurses, pathologists, surgeons, pharmacists, optometrists and other health care professionals. They are employed in a variety of areas, including government, educational institutions, commercial dental laboratories, hospitals and other health care institutions, medical pathology laboratories and pharmacies.

Nature of Work

Assistants, aides and orderlies in this occupational group provide services and assistance to nurses, pathologists, surgeons, pharmacists, optometrists and other health care professionals. They are employed in a variety of areas, including government, educational institutions, commercial dental laboratories, hospitals and other health care institutions, medical pathology laboratories and pharmacies.

Duties

Dental laboratory bench workers assist dental technicians in the preparation and fabrication of dentures and other dental devices. These devices include orthodontic appliances, crowns, bridges, clasps and bands. Dental laboratory bench workers are employed in commercial dental laboratories.

Workers in this field are responsible for preparing plaster models and moulds from dental impressions and for preparing wax bite-blocks and impression trays. Their duties may also include casting gold or metal alloys for bridges and denture bases, packing plastic material in moulds to form full or partial dentures, and moulding wax over denture set-up to form the full contours of artificial gums. Dental laboratory bench workers also finish the metal framework of dentures; polish and buff dentures to obtain natural finish; and make orthodontic bands from gold, silver, stainless steel or other metals.

Nursing aides and orderlies assist nurses, hospital staff and physicians in the basic care of patients. Their regular work duties include answering call signals; supplying and emptying bed pans; bathing, dressing and grooming patients; and serving meal trays and feeding patients. They also lift, turn or massage patients; shave patients prior to operations; supervise patients' exercise routines; and perform other duties related to patient care.

Other duties in this field include taking patients' blood pressure, temperature and pulse; collecting urine, faeces, sputum or other specimens; administering suppositories, colonic irrigations and enemas; and performing other procedures as directed by nursing and hospital staff. Nursing aides and orderlies also transport patients in wheelchairs or stretchers for treatment or surgery and carry messages, reports, requisitions and specimens from one department to another. Their regular activities include making beds, maintaining patients' rooms, and maintaining inventory of supplies.

Nursing aides and orderlies are employed in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care institutions.

Orthopaedic technologists assist orthopaedic surgeons in the treatment of orthopaedic diseases and injuries by applying and adjusting casts, splints and bandages. They also assist in the application, maintenance and adjustment of traction equipment, clean and dress wounds, and removing casts, sutures and pins.

Pharmacy assistants assist pharmacists by compounding, packaging and labelling pharmaceutical products and by maintaining prescription records and inventories of medications and pharmaceutical products.

Morgue attendants assist pathologists at autopsies by laying out surgical instruments; preparing solutions for the preservation of specimens; and transferring bodies from the morgue to an examining table. Attended by pathologists, morgue attendants remove and preserve organs and tissue specimens and clean and sew up bodies for release to a funeral home.

Example Titles

Dental laboratory benchworkers:

• denture packer
• denture finisher
• denture waxer
• orthodontic band maker
• dental laboratory bench worker
• ceramic dental caster
• ceramic dental moulder

Nurse aides and orderlies:

• personal care attendant
• nursing attendant
• patient care aide
• nurse aide
• orderly
• health care aide
• psychiatric aide
• hospital porter
• long-term care aide
• ward aide

Other aides and assistants in support of health services:

• morgue technician
• cast room technician
• acupuncture assistant
• morgue attendant
• orthopaedic technologist
• pharmacy assistant
• autopsy assistant
• laboratory maintenance supervisor
• ophthalmic lab technician, retail
• surgical assistant

Training Paths

There are usually no post-secondary educational requirements for dental laboratory bench workers and nurse aides and orderlies. Training for work in these fields usually takes place on the job. However, there are programs in Saskatchewan that may be beneficial for individuals interested in these occupations. Nursing and other aides and orderlies may take the Continuing Care Assistant certificate program from SIAST. These courses are often available at some regional colleges. The Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT) also offers the Home Health Aide/Long-term Care Aide certificate program. A private vocational school offers a program providing training as a Personal Care Aid. SIAST also offers a Pharmacy Technician certificate program and a Dental Assistant certificate program. Training programs for orthopaedic technologists are offered outside Saskatchewan.

Trends and Outlooks

The employment prospects for this occupation are: good

This is a huge occupational group in Saskatchewan, and it has been growing steadily for several years. In 1995, just under 8,000 Saskatchewan residents worked in assisting occupations in support of health services. Ten years later, the number had risen to nearly 11,000, according to Statistics Canada. Over 75% of these workers were nurses aides and orderlies in 2006.

Not surprisingly, demand for assisting occupations in support of health services is driven in part by Saskatchewan's aging population. In 2006, Saskatchewan's population had the highest proportion of seniors in Canada (15%). In the years ahead, this age group will place increasing demand on the health-care sector, creating more employment opportunities for health service workers. Even in times of limited job creation, employment opportunities will continue in the years ahead as existing jobs are left open by retirement or other turnover. In 2006, 45% of all Saskatchewan workers in this group were 45 years of age or older.

Professionals in this occupational group are not very well paid in Saskatchewan. In 2005, the average full-time income in this occupational group was $29,800, a slight increase from 2000 but fell below the full-time provincial average for all occupations in 2005 ($42,300 per year) .

The range of incomes in these fields is quite wide. Other aides and assistants in support of health care--on average the highest paid professionals in this occupational group--earned as much as $48,200 in 2005. Annual incomes for nurses aides and orderlies--on average, the lowest paid professionals in this group--were as high as $40,400 that same year. Incomes in these fields of work are typically higher in and around Regina and Saskatoon than elsewhere in the province.

Just over 50% of all health care technicians in the province worked full time in 2005, a slight increase from 2000. Ninety-three percent of all workers in these groups were female in 2006. Self-employment, while not unheard of, is rare in these fields. As well, employment is rarely seasonal and not very sensitive to overall economic conditions.

Employment for most assisting occupations in support of health services is distributed fairly evenly throughout Saskatchewan. Just under 40% of the professionals in these fields worked in or around Regina and Saskatoon in 2006.

An aging Saskatchewan population and a widespread shift to home care may increase opportunities in these occupations in the future. Due to rapid changes in diagnostic and treatment technology, professionals in these fields of work must continually upgrade their skills. Those who stay abreast of new technologies may have an advantage over others seeking employment in these fields.

Professional Associations

Related Occupations

Dental laboratory bench workers:

• Dental Technicians (3223)
• Denturists (3221)

Nurse aides and orderlies:

• Registered Nursing Assistants (3233)
• Visiting Homemakers, Housekeepers and Related Occupations (6471)

Other aides and assistants in support of health services:

• Medical technologists and technicians (in 321 Medical Technologists and Technicians (except Dental Health)
• Operating room technicians (in 3233 Registered Nursing Assistants)
• Pathologists' assistants (in 3211 Medical Laboratory Technologists and Pathologists' Assistants)