MAO Manual

MODULE 6 – Assitance Skills

Objectives:

• Identify the key elements of safe patient assistance • Successfully demonstrate each skill under the supervision of an instructor

As an MAVO, you will transport many patients with various levels of ability to get around. Some of your patients will be ambulatory. Ambulatory just means that they are able to walk with little or no assistance. If this is the case and your offer of assistance is refused, you should be standing close enough to your patient to grab them if they get shaky and either keep them from falling or soften the blow if they do fall. We call this an Unassisted Transfer.

Many of your patients will need some type of help but you should never have to lift your patient. Remember you are a Mobility Assistance Vehicle Operator. There are several acceptable techniques for helping your patient to stand up and turn around to sit in your wheelchair. Choose the method based on your patient’s condition.

Assisting with Outer Clothing As an MAVO, you may at some point need to assit a patient in putting on outer clothing such as a jacket. While this will be easy if a patient has good mobility, it may be more difficult in patients who lack mobility in one or both arms, or patients who cannot sit forward to work the coat around their bodies. The goal is to get the patient as covered as possible, so if you must use some creativity to achieve this, you should. Below are examples of how to assist a patient without outer clothing. Make sure none of the coat is dangling down into the working parts of the wheelchair. .