Support workers and allied health prefessionals

Support workers and allied health prefessionals

Support workers
- Divided into many categories:
1) Clinical support worker (healthcare assistants): completed a short course and has
basic qualifications; assists in a variety of roles and departments
2) Nursing auxiliary: usually unqualified and assists nurses and midwives with patient care
3) Ward clerk: updates patients’ notes and information, answers the telephone
Allied health professionals
- In the health community they include:
1) Physiotherapists (physios): help people move through exercises, heat or massages (fisioterapisti)
2) Occupational therapists (OTS): help disabled people perform tasks at home
3) Social workers: help people with social problems or family problems (assistenti sociali)
4) Chiropodists (podiatrists): treat conditions affecting the feet (si occupano dei piedi)
Technicians: people who work with scientific equipment
- Prosthetists: provide prostheses, or artificial limbs (protesi per cambiare arti)
- Orthotists: provide orthoses, or devices to support or control part of the body such as splints or correct deformities (ex. club foot) and relieve pain (non si sostituisce l’arto ma si aiuta)
- Opticians: test eyesight and prescribe glasses and contact lenses; may refer the patient to an ophthalmologist, or a specialist in eye diseases (ottici)