Book excerpt: For all shorter nurse assistant courses, especially those covering acute care (hospital) and nursing homes (long term care) environments. The Nursing Assistant, Fifth Edition is a concise, practical, affordable, and up-to-date guide to the skills today's nursing assistants need to master. It is designed both to serve as the basis of any nursing assistant training program, and to prepare students for careers in acute, subacute, or long-term care. It addresses the needs of the whole patient or resident, while promoting independence and self-care. Carefully organized to follow nursing process models, state curricula, and OBRA mandates, it walks through 75 step-by-step procedures reflecting the most common nursing assistant tasks. This edition is fully updated for the newest CDC and OSHA guidance for hand cleaning and infection control, and to reflect other relevant federal laws, including HIPAA.