Caring for the elderly and old age home jobs in SA

If you are interested in old age home jobs and working with the elderly, you might want to consider a career in geriatric care. Offering a wide variety of medical jobs, working in an old age home allows you to help those in the later stages of their lives and give back to older generations.

A geriatric care encompasses a wide field of careers that include everything from caregiver and nursing jobs to physician and physiotherapy jobs.

So just what are these jobs? They range from nursing, physiotherapy, a specialist physician and many more. All of which are careers that allow you expand and grow, within geriatric care and beyond.

Nursing jobs

Nursing jobs will see you providing specialised care to a range of elderly people across communities. You will find opportunities to work in and around health care facilities, aged care homes and retirement villages.

You will provide this care in a range of ways, from co-ordinating various care schedules, working with others in health care and teams to provide the best assistance possible.

These types of old age home jobs will see you involved in the development and implementation of plans that deal with a range of aspects, from social, psychological and much more, all that ties in with current treatment. You’ll also provide on hand care, from monitoring treatment reactions, administering medication and more.

You’ll also be a vital conduit to the families, sharing and helping them understand sensitive information.

Over and above all this, you will find yourself supervising and handling certain administration tasks related to other nursing, care and health workers.

There are a number of avenues to choose when getting started as a nurse, you can choose to be a staff nurse, auxiliary nurse, professional or community service practitioner and more. All of which are regulated through the South African Nursing Council, of which you will need to be a member.

In order to qualify for nursing jobs, you’ll generally need to have a National Senior Certificate with a Degree Entrance, and you can complete a Bachelor of Nursing, which means you can work as a professional, a diploma in Nursing, which ensures you can be a staff nurse, as well as a higher certificate which means you can be an auxiliary nurse. With all these you can choose to specialise in family health, critical care, community health and aged care.

You can study and train at various educational institutes, from private institutions including Netcare Education, Monash South Africa and Nelspruit Medi-Clinic to public institutions from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, the University of Free State to Durban University of Technology.

Once you have completed your qualification, a one year period of community service is required, and once this is done you can register with the South African Nursing Council.

As a nurse, your salary can range from around R120,000 to R400,00 per year depending on your qualifications, experience and specialisation.

Working as Physiotherapist

Physiotherapy jobs will see you tasked with assessing, treating and preventing a range of disorders linked, and caused, by disease or injury.

You’ll find yourself administering a range of tests to understand nerve and joint functionality to comprehend the nature of the problem. Once this has been established, you will develop and monitor goals, treatments and programmes to help alleviate the pain and discomfort.

These can include hydrotherapy, exercise and massage and all aim to help improve and restore mobility, balance and muscle strength.

A physiotherapist also works with family to ensure treatment is followed up and continued outside of the facility. Careful monitoring of patients is done with reports, assessments and working with other health care professionals to provide the best treatment.

To begin a career in physiotherapy, you’ll need a National Senior Certificate, with Degree Entrance, as well as English, Physical Science and Maths. Through your studies you’ll need to complete an internship, as well as community service after your studies have been completed.

You can study at a range of universities from the University of Cape Town, The University of Pretoria and more. As a physiotherapist, the average salary is R205,140 each year but can change depending on experience level.

Being a Psychiatrist

Old age home jobs also includes the need for a Psychiatrist. This medical position will see you in various roles including assessing, diagnosing and treating a range of behavioural, emotional and mental disorders.

As such your job would include understanding a patient’s history as well as their developmental, emotional and mental information, along the way. Using this, and a range of other methods, you will determine the degree and nature of the disorder and decide on a course of treatment.

Your other tasks would include administering or directing the treatment medication and care, on a case-by-case basis.

Before you make a start in these types of medical jobs, you will need to have a qualification as a General Medical Practitioner and have practised for two years, or longer.

This can be done at Stellenbosch University, WITS and the University of Cape Town, among others.

After this you would take on a Master in Medicine, which is a postgraduate qualification over four years. With this you’ll need to complete a dissertation and pass a specified final assessment.

As soon as you start studying you’ll need to register with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. As a psychiatrist, the average salary is R600,000 every year ad can vary depending on specialisation and experience.

Specialist Physician jobs

As a specialist physician your job is to investigate, diagnose and treat a range of diseases and disorders. In South Africa these professionals are experts who have specialised in internal medicine.

As such, your tasks would range from taking on referral cases from General Practitioners and examining and determining the problem, and extent of it. This would include completing a host of diagnostic procedures and laboratory tests, after which you would prescribe and treat various ailments with specific medication.

To begin a career in this medical field you will need to have a qualification as a General Medical Practitioner and have practised for no less than two years. After which you can complete a specialist degree in a Master in Medicine, which is a four-year postgraduate qualification. Once you have written your dissertation and passed one last assessment, you can begin practising.

You’ll also need to be registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, as soon as you start studying.

You can choose to study at WITS, the University of Cape Town or Stellenbosch.

As a specialist physician, the average salary is R441,116 but can vary depending on your experience.

Caregiver jobs

Probably one of the most sought after career choices when thinking for old age home jobs is that of the caregiver. The job of a caregiver is a vital one. You will be present and helping with everything from emotional care, companionship and family support, all within their homes.

Caregiver jobs will see you assisting and helping clients with a range of care needs from hygiene, dressing, mobility and exercise to handling medication. You will also help clients get around and assist them in every aspect of their daily life.

You’ll also be responsible for keeping records of health, changes and track trends and responses to treatments. With this you will also handle appointments with other health care professionals including doctors.

Through all this you will provide companionship and support both to your client, and their family.

To get your start in care giving, you will need to complete various certificates as either an aged or disabled carer. You will need a grade 11 as well as mathematical literacy and from there can choose to complete a Certificate in Health Care at NQF Level 4 or can choose to do a Certificate in Health Care and then proceed to the Certificate in Health Care.

Among the institutions you can study at include Regent Business School and Cape Town University of Technology.

As a caregiver, the average salary per year is R48,543 depending on your qualification, experience and specialisation.

Interested in medical jobs within geriatric care? Register your CV on www.JobMail.co.za and find old age home jobs in an area that best suits your passion and qualifications. Create a job alert and download our FREE Android Job Mail App from the Google Play store now!