Orderlies transport patients to areas such as operating rooms or x-ray rooms using wheelchairs, stretchers, or moveable beds. May maintain stocks of supplies or clean and transport equipment. Psychiatric orderlies are included in Psychiatric Aides.

  • Lift or assist others to lift patients to move them on or off beds, examination tables, surgical tables, or stretchers.
  • Transport patients to treatment units, testing units, operating rooms, or other areas, using wheelchairs, stretchers, or moveable beds.
  • Disinfect or sterilize equipment or supplies, using germicides or sterilizing equipment.
  • Clean equipment, such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, or portable medical equipment, documenting needed repairs or maintenance.
  • Respond to emergency situations, such as emergency medical calls, security calls, or fire alarms.
  • Change soiled linens, such as bed linens, drapes, or cubicle curtains.
  • Carry messages or documents between departments.
  • Transport portable medical equipment or medical supplies between rooms or departments.
  • Clean and sanitize patient rooms, bathrooms, examination rooms, or other patient areas.
  • Collect and transport infectious or hazardous waste in closed containers for sterilization or disposal, in accordance with applicable law, standards, or policies.
  • Transport specimens, laboratory items, or pharmacy items, ensuring proper documentation and delivery to authorized personnel.
  • Collect soiled linen or trash.
  • Provide physical support to patients to assist them to perform daily living activities, such as getting out of bed, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, standing, walking, or exercising.
  • Separate collected materials for disposal, recycling, or reuse, in accordance with environmental policies.
  • Restrain patients to prevent violence or injury or to assist physicians or nurses to administer treatments.
  • Turn or reposition bedridden patients, alone or with assistance, to prevent bedsores.
  • Take and record vital signs, such as temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, or respiration rate, as directed by medical or nursing staff.
  • Position or hold patients in position for surgical preparation.
  • Stock utility rooms, nonmedical storage rooms, or cleaning carts with supplies.
  • Answer patient call signals, signal lights, bells, or intercom systems to determine patients' needs.
  • Stock or issue medical supplies, such as dressing packs or treatment trays.
  • Transport bodies to the morgue.
  • Supply, collect, or empty bedpans.
  • Serve or collect food trays.
Work Context
  • Contact With Others — 95% responded "Constant contact with others".
  • Exposed to Disease or Infections — 90% responded "Every day".
  • Physical Proximity — 87% responded "Very close (near touching)".
  • Telephone — 91% responded "Every day".
  • Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets — 84% responded "Every day".
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled — 91% responded "Every day".
  • Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls — 74% responded "Continually or almost continually".
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Work Activities
  • Assisting and Caring for Others — Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
  • Performing General Physical Activities — Performing physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.
  • Handling and Moving Objects — Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
  • Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Material — Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
  • Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
  • Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events — Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
  • Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates — Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
  • Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards — Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
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Detailed Work Activities
  • Clean patient rooms or patient treatment rooms.
  • Clean patient rooms or patient treatment rooms.
  • Clean medical equipment.
  • Dispose of biomedical waste in accordance with standards.
  • Transport biological or other medical materials.
  • Dispose of biomedical waste in accordance with standards.
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Knowledge

Customer and Personal Service
  • Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Public Safety and Security
  • Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Skills

Social Perceptiveness
  • Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Service Orientation
  • Actively looking for ways to help people.
Active Listening
  • Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Speaking
  • Talking to others to convey information effectively.

Abilities

Oral Comprehension
  • The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Trunk Strength
  • The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without 'giving out' or fatiguing.
Problem Sensitivity
  • The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
Speech Recognition
  • The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
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Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Achievement/Effort
  • Persistence
  • Initiative
  • Leadership
  • Cooperation
  • Concern for Others
  • Social Orientation
  • Self Control
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Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Operating system software
  • Microsoft Windows Hot Technology
Medical software
  • Electronic medical record EMR software
  • GE Healthcare Centricity EMR
  • Medical record charting software

Education

Get started on your career:

Job Outlook

New job opportunities are very likely in the future.
Salary
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