Jobs / Healthcare / 31-1131.00
Nursing Assistants
Provide or assist with basic care or support under the direction of onsite licensed nursing staff. Perform duties such as monitoring of health status, feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, or ambulation of patients in a health or nursing facility. May include medication administration and other health-related tasks. Includes nursing care attendants, nursing aides, and nursing attendants.
- US jobs
- 1,448,910
- Median wage
- $42,260 a year
- Job family
- Healthcare
Can agents do the work of nursing assistants?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Healthcare:
- Task levelPartialOne benchmark, from early 2025. On Stanford's MedAgentBench, where agents do clinical tasks in a simulated electronic health record, the best recorded model completes 69.7% of tasks (Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2). It has no maintained leaderboard, so newer models are not measured. No benchmark in our collection tests work with patients.
- Project levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. GDPval includes nurses among its 44 occupations. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all occupations. No benchmark in our collection tests clinical work over days, such as managing a patient's care.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in healthcare, not always this occupation's tasks.
- 1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026Unrated
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Turn or reposition bedridden patients.
- Answer patient call signals, signal lights, bells, or intercom systems to determine patients' needs.
- Feed patients or assist patients to eat or drink.
- Measure and record food and liquid intake or urinary and fecal output, reporting changes to medical or nursing staff.
- Provide physical support to assist patients to perform daily living activities, such as getting out of bed, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, standing, walking, or exercising.
- Document or otherwise report observations of patient behavior, complaints, or physical symptoms to nurses.
- Remind patients to take medications or nutritional supplements.
- Review patients' dietary restrictions, food allergies, and preferences to ensure patient receives appropriate diet.
- Undress, wash, and dress patients who are unable to do so for themselves.
- Observe or examine patients to detect symptoms that may require medical attention, such as bruises, open wounds, or blood in urine.
- Lift or assist others to lift patients to move them on or off beds, examination tables, surgical tables, or stretchers.
- Supply, collect, or empty bedpans.
Other job titles for this occupation (51)
Certified Medication Aide (CMA) · Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) · Certified Nurses Aide (CNA) · Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) · Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA) · Nurses' Aide · Nursing Aide · Nursing Assistant · Patient Care Assistant (PCA) · State Tested Nursing Assistant (STNA) · Birth Attendant · Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) · Certified Nursing Attendant (CNA) · Certified Residential Medication Aide (CRMA) · Clinical Assistant · Competency Evaluated Nurse Aide (CENA) · First Aid Attendant · Geriatric Nursing Assistant (GNA) · Gericare Aide · Health Aide · Health Care Aide · Health Care Assistant · Health Service Worker · Hospice Aide · Hospice CNA (Hospice Certified Nursing Assistant) · Hospital Aide · Hospital Attendant · Hospital Corpsman · Infirmary Attendant · Inpatient Nursing Aide · Institutional Aide · Long Term Care CNA (Long Term Care Certified Nursing Assistant) · Med Surg CNA (Medical Surgical Certified Nursing Assistant) · Med Tech (Medication Technician) · Medication Aide · Nurse Aide · Nurse Assistant · Nurse Sitter · Nurse Technician · Nurse's Assistant · Nursing Attendant · Nursing Care Attendant · Nursing Home Aide · Nursing Technician · Patient Care Associate · Patient Care Technician (PCT) · Patient Sitter · Qualified Medication Aide (QMA) · Ward Aide · Ward Attendant · Ward Helper