Employment Outlook
Nursing Assistant
Average wage for
Employment Levels
Around 89,800 people are currently employed as Nursing Assistants in Australia. This is set to increase slightly to 103,300 people by 2019, according to the Department of Employment.
Employment by State
34.6% of all Nursing Assistants are employed in NSW. The area with the lowest number of Nursing Assistants is NT, with only 0.9%.
Gender Split
This is a very female dominated industry with 23% of Nursing Assistants being male and 77% female.
Age Brackets
The most popular age for people working as Nursing Assistants is 45-54 years old, with 24.6%. A small percentage (7.8%) of people get into this career path older, aged 60-64. There is also a number of people who enjoy a career as Nursing Assistants, with 12% aged 55-59.
Hours Worked
Nursing Assistants work an average of 35.7 hours a week which is 5.2 hours lower than the average for all occupations.
Education Level
The majority of Nursing Assistants have a Certificate III/IV qualification (40.9%) or are at a Year 12 level (15.2%). 69.7% of people have a Cert III or higher, whilst 30.3% have a qualification which is Year 12 or lower.
Nursing Assistant Duties & Tasks
- Adhere to specialised care for patients with special needs
- Assist nurses, doctors, and other healthcare practitioners in administering treatments
- Assist patients with personal requests to ensure they are comfortable and to minimise pain or discomfort
- Collaborate with nurses to understand individual patient circumstances and recovery plan
- Help patients perform basic activities such as eating, showering and changing in hospitals as well as residential care
- Notify nurses and doctors of patients’ developments and reaction to treatments and medications
- Provide routine sterilisation and cleaning of patient rooms, linens and garments as well as maintain personal cleanliness to prevent infections from spreading
Professional Associations & Groups
*The information provided on this page is from the Department of Employment’s Job Outlook website. All salary ranges are from Payscale. Where jobs are not exact matches, job areas have been used. This information is to be used as a guide only.
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