Find out about the jobs in a nursing home

The lives of residents in retirement homes are punctuated by moments of care, moments of conviviality and moments of calm, all supervised by teams committed to ensuring the well-being of each resident.Here's a brief overview of the deeply human professions that make up the care and support staff of nursing homes.

Care and support

To provide all the attention that patients and residents need, EHPADs are staffed by a multi-disciplinary team who are passionate about what they do and who listen to what they have to say, coordinated by the director of the establishment and his or her deputies. Nurse coordinators, nurses, care assistants, care assistants, coordinating doctors and attending doctors, psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychomotor therapists support the residents. All the expertise is brought together to guarantee optimum care, whether it's defining personalised medical plans, providing daily care, distributing medication or working on motor skills, memory and ensuring residents are comfortable.
 

Entertainment

Entertainment plays a vital role in the well-being of residents, and in each establishment this is reflected in an entertainment project implemented on a daily basis by the entertainers. The various activities have several aims. Firstly, they help to create social links, whether between residents, with care and support staff, or with the outside world and residents' relatives. These moments of conviviality are also an alternative way of stimulating residents' abilities... More generally, entertainment provides residents with a meaningful living environment and is essential to their well-being.
 

Catering

Meals are a special time of life, synonymous with conviviality, sharing and pleasure, and help to maintain good physical and mental health. Food is therefore a fundamental issue for people in retirement homes who are at high risk of malnutrition. This is the task of the chefs, accompanied by their brigade (cook, second cook, commis and waiters) and dieticians, who draw up menus that meet three objectives: nutrition, pleasure and food safety. They take into account the tastes, dietary particularities and specific diets of the residents. This is an important task that is totally linked to the establishment's medical and nursing project.
 

Maintenance

Because retirement homes, like hospitals, provide care for vulnerable people, the issue of maintenance is inherent to their smooth running. Every day, a team consisting of a maintenance officer, a housekeeper and hospital service staff ensures that the establishment and its facilities run smoothly, and that all its occupants, residents and staff alike, are comfortable. As in a hotel, the housekeeper ensures that the premises are kept clean and coordinates the team of staff in charge. He/she also ensures that sanitary protocols are properly applied. As for the maintenance agent, he/she is responsible for the safety of the facilities and premises and monitors the various works carried out in the establishment.
 

Administration

Coordinating all the teams, ensuring that the establishment project runs smoothly, managing staff and welcoming families and new residents: these are just some of the daily tasks of the administrative team. It is made up of the facility manager, his/her deputy, the secretary and the receptionist. This team complements the care team and is essential to the life of a retirement home.