Unit Assistant - General Surgical
About the job
- A high school diploma, GED, or high school transcript showing completion of at least the sophomore level of high school is required.
- No previous experience is required.
- Candidates who have not completed the Foundations of Nursing course (RN students only), have less than six months of PCT experience within the past two years, or do not hold a current and active CNA certification will be enrolled in the PCT Academy, the in-house training program.
- Ability to work effectively with other departments and the general public.
- Ability to accept direction from nursing staff and perform the basic skills and procedures designated for unit assistants.
- Typing skills are preferred but not required; ability to operate the electronic medical record is required.
- Ability to concentrate during multiple interactions and interruptions.
- Must be able to lift up to 50 pounds frequently and carry up to 20 pounds frequently.
- The job requires reading, writing, reasoning, talking, and keyboarding.
- Obtain and report basic patient physiological data, including vital signs, weight, skin condition, and the color and character of urine and stool.
- Use proper body mechanics and provide positioning, mobility, hygiene, activities of daily living, and comfort needs according to procedure and direction.
- Monitor and document fluid intake and output.
- Promptly identify and report patients’ physical and mental status changes to the assigned licensed staff.
- Organize patient care, set appropriate priorities, and implement physician and nursing orders within prescribed time frames.
- Perform therapeutic procedures within the parameters of the job description and report the patient’s response to the supervising nurse.
- Make frequent rounds to patient rooms, respond to call lights without prompting, and take appropriate action.
- Explain procedures or care to patients before beginning, such as mobilizing a patient.
- Record patient data accurately and promptly and forward it to supervisory staff within established time frames.
- Answer patient intercoms, direct requests to appropriate staff, fulfill requests as defined by unit routine, and follow up with patients or families to ensure requests are completed.
- Make necessary diet requests or notify the Dietary Department of changes.
- Perform emergency procedures, including code, fire, or disaster procedures, according to policy.
- Print transport tickets to ride.
- Enter patient discharge times in the electronic medical record and ensure discharged patients’ charts are complete before sending them to Medical Records.
- Contribute to patient safety by using universal precautions, adhering to hand hygiene policy, maintaining a safe patient environment, obtaining and restocking isolation supplies, cleaning equipment, maintaining properly functioning equipment, and promptly reporting equipment issues to the Charge Nurse.
- Place supplies from the storeroom in designated areas as appropriate.
- Notify appropriate departments of needed repairs and follow through on requests.
- Distribute linen and ice, offer refreshments as permitted by patients’ diets, and perform patient transport as needed by the unit.
- Prepare rooms for new admissions, including ensuring personal protective equipment is available on the door, the bed is turned down, and appropriate supplies and equipment are ready.
- Orient patients, families, and significant others to the unit and room, and greet them pleasantly at each encounter.
- Answer telephone calls politely, screen and refer calls appropriately, and ensure accurate communication.
- Place reports, such as X-ray reports, in patient charts or ensure they are sent to appropriate units.
- Maintain patient charts by thinning them as needed, replenishing forms, and placing reports in the appropriate chart location.
- Make recommendations to the unit Director about purchasing equipment or supplies.
- Complete daily and weekly requisitions to reflect the unit’s needs accurately.
- Record refrigerator temperatures daily on the appropriate sheet.
- Maintain printers by changing ribbons, replenishing paper, and reporting problems to Information Systems.
- Replace telemetry batteries according to unit procedure and replace glove boxes and wipes in patient rooms when supplies are low.
- Participate in staff meetings with no more than two absences.
- Read and respond to emails in a timely manner.
- Exhibit scheduling flexibility to meet department staffing needs.
- Complete unit-specific and annual competency assessments within required timelines.
- Good interpersonal skills and adaptability to changing situations and work assignments.
- Typing skills.
About the company
Northeast Georgia Health System provides medical care to over 1 million people through a network of five hospitals, a large multi-specialty physician group, and a dedicated heart and vascular institute. The system operates by coordinating more than 1,500 medical staff members across 50 locations to offer services ranging from routine outpatient visits to complex surgeries and national research trials. Unlike many regional providers, this organization integrates a massive employed physician network with a specialized heart institute to ensure patients can access advanced specialty care without leaving their local area. The organization's primary goal is to improve the health of the community by providing accessible, high-quality medical treatment across more than 60 different specialties.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
Gainesville, Florida
Founded
1980
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- NGHS hired two heart surgeons on September 24, 2026 after cardiac departures.
- Braselton's July 25, 2026 expansion added trauma rooms, CT, ORs, and a helipad.
- Epic nursing AI and Sectra imaging cloud should reduce documentation and imaging friction.
What critics are saying
- NGHS is out of network with UnitedHealthcare as of June 8, 2026.
- Nine-month operating income fell 41.9% to $65.3 million by June 30, 2026.
- September 2026 cardiac surgeon departures signal retention risk and referral leakage.
What makes Northeast Georgia Health System unique
- NGHS runs five hospitals and serves 1.5 million people across 19 counties.
- Sept. 2026 made NGHS Epic Chart with Art's fifth nursing pilot site nationally.
- NGHS paired Sectra One Cloud and Flow Therapy with systemwide cardiovascular expansion.
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NGHS adds 3 new family doctors in Gainesville. Ben Anderson The Times Updated: Sep 28, 2026, 12:52 PM Published: Sep 28, 2026, 12:47 PM Northeast Georgia Physicians Group has added three primary care doctors to its family medicine practice in Gainesville as the health system looks to expand access to care in the growing area. Read this subscriber-exclusive story Keep reading this and other subscriber-exclusive stories! Click the button below to choose your plan. If you believe you have reached this message in error, ensure you have logged in and then contact its customer care team.
NGHS adds two heart surgeons to its medical team. Danny McArthur The Times Published: Sep 24, 2026, 11:01 AM Northeast Georgia Health System has hired two experienced heart surgeons following a series of physician departures from its cardiac programs. Read this subscriber-exclusive story Keep reading this and other subscriber-exclusive stories! Click the button below to choose your plan. If you believe you have reached this message in error, ensure you have logged in and then contact its customer care team.
Northeast Georgia Medical Center goes live with Sectra One Cloud to support faster, more coordinated patient care. Sep 24, 2026, 02:58 ET LINKÖPING, Sweden, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) announces that Northeast Georgia Medical Center has gone live with Sectra's enterprise imaging solution as a cloud service, Sectra One Cloud, initially deploying the modules for radiology, breast imaging, and cardiology. By bringing imaging from multiple specialties into a single platform, clinicians can access and share patient studies more easily, enabling faster, better-coordinated care for the patients and communities the hospital serves. "Going live with Sectra One Cloud has really made a difference in our day-to-day work. Having one system that supports the full imaging workflow, from viewing studies to finalizing reports, means fewer steps and less time spent switching between applications. It also means clinicians at different sites and from different specialties can consult on the same case, instead of each working from their own system," says Richard Wright, Executive Director of Imaging Services for Northeast Georgia Medical Center. Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville is the flagship hospital of Northeast Georgia Health System. The nonprofit health system operates five Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) campuses across northeast Georgia. As a regional tertiary referral center, NGMC Gainesville provides emergency, surgical, and specialized care to a population of more than 1.5 million people across 19 counties. With Sectra One Cloud, the hospital benefits from a cloud solution fully managed by Sectra, which means Sectra assumes responsibility for all system operation, maintenance, and support. This includes continuous monitoring, optimization, and upgrades, which helps reduce operational risk and supports high availability, while the solution's modular design allows the health system to scale into additional specialties over time. Following a five-year contract, Northeast Georgia Medical Center went live with Sectra One Cloud in the fourth quarter of Sectra's 2025/2026 fiscal year, with an expected annual imaging volume of around 850,000 exams. The hospital has initially deployed the modules for radiology, breast imaging, and cardiology. "We're proud to support Northeast Georgia Medical Center as they take this step into the cloud," says Isaac Zaworski, President of Sectra Inc. "This is what enterprise imaging as a service should look like: we manage the infrastructure, the monitoring, the upgrades, so their teams can focus on patient care instead of system upkeep. Their trust in our technology and the service behind it reflects a shared commitment to secure, reliable imaging infrastructure. Sectra One Cloud gives Northeast Georgia Medical Center a platform that scales with them, setting a new standard for secure, service-driven imaging that supports better care across the region." Sectra's enterprise imaging solution provides a unified strategy for all imaging needs while lowering operational costs. The scalable and modular solution, with a VNA at its core, allows healthcare providers to grow from ology to ology and from enterprise to enterprise. Visit Sectra's website to read more about Sectra and why it's top-ranked in "Best in KLAS". For further information, please contact: Dr. Torbjörn Kronander, CEO and President Sectra AB, +46 (0)705 23 52 27 Marie Ekström Trägårdh, Executive Vice President Sectra AB and President Sectra Imaging IT Solutions, +46 (0)708 23 56 10 The following files are available for download:
NGHS chief clinical officer named a Top leader nationally. Thursday, September 17th, 2026 Recognized nationally as a leader whose work and influence have continued to grow and make an impact over time, Vik Reddy, MD, Northeast Georgia Health System's (NGHS) chief clinical officer, was recently named one of Promena's Top 100 Elite Trailblazers of Impact for 2026. "Being named to this list is a surprise and an honor," Dr. Reddy said. "My goal every day is to support my team and help them provide excellent patient care, not to chase recognition, so I'm humbled by this award and share it with all of my colleagues at NGHS." The Elite Trailblazers of Impact list is a special recognition, as part of Promena's 30th anniversary, that honors leaders selected from those who made the group's 20 previous annual Top 100 lists. Dr. Reddy was first named a Top 100 leader in 2020 and now joins 99 other recipients whose careers have continued to reflect excellence, influence, innovation, inclusive leadership and measurable impact. The award is given to leaders across myriad business and industry sectors. Other organizations represented on this year's list include Bank of America, U.S. Coast Guard, GE Aerospace, JPMorgan Chase, Harvard University and Apple. "This anniversary recognition allows us to honor leaders who did not simply receive recognition - they continued to lead, build, influence and open pathways for others," said Pamela A. McElvane, CEO of Promena. "As Promena celebrates 30 years of impact and 20 years of Top 100 leadership recognition, we are proud to elevate leaders whose careers represent sustained excellence and whose influence continues to set the standard." The honorees were selected through an editorial and research-based review process from the Top 100 honoree database. In addition to Promena's internal review, the process included external fact checking and publicly available research to confirm current leadership roles, professional progression, enterprise influence, industry visibility and continued impact. Candidates were evaluated based on sustained professional achievement, trailblazing leadership, inclusive leadership impact, enterprise or community influence and legacy relevance.
Gwinnett Chamber honors women in business at annual MOXIE Awards. DULUTH, GA - The Gwinnett Chamber recently hosted its annual Moxie Awards, presented by Northeast Georgia Health System, at the Gas South District. The event drew more than 500 business leaders, community members, and professionals to recognize women in business who are making significant contributions to their organizations and the Gwinnett community. The program featured emcee Audra Cunningham, CEO of ACRE Consultants and recipient of the 2025 Moxie Award. Stephanie Stuckey, Chief Growth Officer of Stuckey's, delivered this year's keynote address, focused on empowering women leaders to say yes, believe in themselves, and to lead with purpose and persistence. "Moxie is grounded in purpose. It has to be rooted in something fundamental that really drives you," Stuckey said. "If you get Moxie right, you're gonna make those gutsy moves and embrace those changes during hard times. And I am truly grateful to be in a room [today] full of Moxie women." More than 100 finalists were recognized across seven categories: Influence, Greater Good, Enlightened Employer, Outstanding Organization, On-the-Rise, Pay-It-Forward, and the Moxie Award. Winners included: Influence Award: Melody Glouton, Andersen Tate & Carr Greater Good Award: Shannon Hervey, Gwinnett Coalition Enlightened Employer Award: City of Lawrenceville Outstanding Organization: Rainbow Village On-the-Rise Award: Jennifer Ho, Junior Achievement of Georgia Pay-It-Forward Award: Mary Kate Chambers, Leadership Gwinnett The Moxie Award: Kelley Balkcom, Georgia Power "The Moxie Awards celebrate the women whose leadership, vision, and drive are making a meaningful difference across our region," said Nick Masino, President & CEO of the Gwinnett Chamber and Partnership Gwinnett. "This year's honorees and finalists are advancing their industries, strengthening our communities, and setting a powerful example for the next generation of leaders." The Moxie Awards are one of five signature Gwinnett Chamber award programs recognizing outstanding business leaders across the region. The Chamber's next signature recognition program is the Business Excellence Awards, presented by Piedmont Eastside, which is now accepting nominations. To nominate a deserving business or leader, visit GwinnettChamber.org/Business-Excellence-Awards.