Overview of this occupation
Nursing Support and Personal Care Workers provide assistance, support and direct care to patients in a variety of health, welfare and community settings.
What they do:
- Accompany individuals or groups to activities
- Assist patients with hygiene or daily living activities
- Care for patients recovering from injury and illness
- Feed patients
- Move patients to or from treatment areas
- Position patients for treatment, procedures, or examination
- Provide emotional support, comfort or encouragement to individuals, groups, or families
- Sort, wash, dry, or fold fabric, linen or garments
- Teach or promote the development of living skills, behaviours, or strategies
- Visit individuals in their homes to provide support or information
What technology tools they use:
- Patient management systems and electronic health records
What their interests are:
- Corporate – they enjoy organising, working indoors, understanding numbers and data.
- Social – they enjoy focusing on social welfare and working with people.
Source: Australian Skills Classification, job and Skills Australia, Commonwealth of Australia. Used under Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence and Jobs and Skills Australia, ABS Census 2016, Customised Report.
Quick facts
Nursing Support and Personal Care Workers
All employees nationwide 1
The number of people employed in an occupations as their main job across all Australian states.
Working in NSW 3
The distribution of people employed in an occupation in NSW.
Median weekly earnings before tax 4
Earnings are before tax and include amounts salary sacrificed.
Median age of all workers 5
This shows the median age of all workers in this occupation.
Part-time workers 6
Those who usually work less than 35 hours per week.
See footnotes for source details and additional information.
Skills and knowledge
What are they good at?
This table lists skills and knowledge categories according to how relevant they are for this occupation.
High expertise | Intermediate | Basic familiarity |
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Source: Australian Skills Classification, Jobs and Skills Australia, Commonwealth of Australia. Used under Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence.
Education and qualifications
Nursing Support and Personal Care Workers – Skill level 4
Occupations at Skill Level 4 have a level of skill commensurate with one of the following:
- AQF Certificate II or III
At least one year of relevant experience many substitute for the formal qualifications listed above.
Source: Conceptual basis of ANZSCO, ABS Survey, Release Nov 2021.
Qualifications in this workforce
This table shows the distribution of employment by highest qualification completed (in any field of study).7
Year 12 and below
Certificate III or IV
Diploma or Advanced Diploma
Bachelor`s degree
Post-graduate
Source: ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on place of usual residence.
Use this as a guide for understanding what qualifications are the most common in this field. For personalised support on your education journey, talk to a Careers NSW specialist.
Talk to one of our specialists
At any career stage you can talk with a specialist from Careers NSW about your goals and how you can achieve them.