Introduction to Healthcare and the Role of the General Duty Assistant
Where the GDA sits in the health system
India delivers care at three levels: primary (sub-centre, PHC, ASHA and ANM), secondary (CHC, sub-district and district hospital) and tertiary (medical college and super-specialty). The General Duty Assistant is the frontline bedside caregiver at every level - hospital ward, step-down unit, nursing home, old-age home and home care.
Scope of practice
Under the delegation and supervision of a registered nurse or doctor, a GDA performs:
- bed making, oral care, bed bath, back care and pressure-area observation;
- feeding, fluid balance and elimination support (bedpan, urinal, commode);
- positioning, turning, ambulation and transfer;
- recording temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, SpO2 and weight;
- specimen collection assistance, and transport of patients, samples and documents;
- segregation of biomedical waste and cleaning of the patient zone;
- prompt, accurate reporting of any change in condition.
A GDA does not diagnose, prescribe, prepare or give medicines, give injections, catheterise, dress wounds or interpret reports. Doing so is professional misconduct even if a senior asks casually.
Reporting line
GDA to staff nurse to nursing supervisor to ward in-charge or doctor. The rule is: observe, report, do not decide. Document the time, the reading and what the patient said.
Worked example
A patient on the ward says he feels breathless. SpO2 reads 89% on room air. The GDA sits him upright, stays with him, reassures him, calls the staff nurse immediately and records 89% at 10:40 am. He does not adjust the oxygen flow meter or start oxygen himself, because that is a medical decision.
Traps that cost marks
- Choosing an action outside GDA scope when a report-to-nurse option exists.
- Writing a normal reading you did not actually measure.
- Treating cleaning and waste duties as unimportant; they are examinable GDA tasks.