3.1 Personal Care Overview
Key Takeaways
- Personal Care (Activities of Daily Living) is one of the most heavily tested areas on the Ohio STNA written test of 79 questions, and several skills station tasks come straight from it.
- Every personal care task starts with handwashing, privacy, identifying the resident, and explaining what you will do — these are the critical steps the skills evaluator scores.
- Personal care exists to promote independence and dignity, not to get the task done fastest; let the resident do everything they safely can.
- Report any abnormal skin, output, or behavior change you observe during care to the nurse and document it.
3.1 Personal Care Overview
Personal care means helping residents with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) — bathing, grooming, dressing, oral hygiene, nail and foot care, perineal care, and toileting. On the Ohio State Tested Nurse Aide (STNA) exam, administered by D&S Diversified Technologies (D&SDT-Headmaster), personal care is one of the largest written-test categories and supplies several of the hands-on skills you may be asked to demonstrate. The written test has 79 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, and you must score 70% to pass.
The skills test requires you to perform 3 or 4 tasks (handwashing is always embedded in the mandatory first task) scored at every key step plus 80% of non-key steps per task with no skipped critical steps.
Why personal care matters on the exam
Personal care questions reward resident-centered judgment, not speed. The recurring correct answer is the one that promotes the resident's independence, dignity, privacy, and safety. Watch for distractors that have you do the whole task "to save time" — they almost always lose because they create dependence and strip dignity.
The universal opening for every personal care skill
Every hands-on personal care skill at the Ohio station follows the same opening sequence, and the evaluator scores each step:
| Step | What you do | Why it is tested |
|---|---|---|
| Knock / greet | Knock, greet resident by name, identify yourself | Respect and identification |
| Wash hands | Wash hands or use the skill's hand hygiene step | Infection control (critical) |
| Explain | Tell the resident what you will do | Informed consent, cooperation |
| Privacy | Close door, pull privacy curtain | Resident rights, dignity |
| Gloves / supplies | Gather supplies, apply gloves as needed | Standard precautions |
Promote independence and dignity
The guiding rule of restorative care is: do FOR the resident only what they cannot do for themselves. If a resident can wash their own face or button half a shirt, let them — then assist with the rest. Never rush a resident, never expose more of the body than needed, and always keep a bath blanket or towel over areas you are not actively washing.
Skin care and pressure-injury prevention
Personal care is your best chance to inspect the skin. Older residents have thin, fragile skin that tears and breaks down easily, so every bath is a head-to-toe skin check. Focus on bony prominences — the sacrum (tailbone), heels, hips, elbows, shoulder blades, and back of the head — where prolonged pressure cuts off blood flow and causes pressure injuries (also called pressure ulcers or bedsores). Keep skin clean and dry, change wet or soiled clothing and linens promptly, apply lotion to dry areas but never between the toes, and avoid friction or shearing when you move the resident.
Reposition residents who cannot move themselves at least every two hours and use pillows to keep bony areas from pressing together. The earliest sign of trouble is non-blanchable redness — redness that does not turn white when you press it — over a bony area, and it must be reported, not rubbed.
Observe and report
While giving care you are the eyes of the care team. Report and document anything abnormal: reddened or broken skin over bony areas, rashes, swelling, unusual drainage, changes in urine or stool, pain, or a change in the resident's ability to do a task. Reporting is within your scope; diagnosing or treating is not.
Privacy and dignity in detail
Dignity questions appear constantly. The exam expects you to knock and wait before entering, address the resident by their preferred name and title, keep conversation respectful, and never discuss the resident's care where others can hear. During a bath or perineal care you expose only the area you are washing and keep the rest covered with a bath blanket. You drape the resident, close the privacy curtain even in a private room, and avoid leaving a partially dressed resident exposed while you fetch supplies. Knocking, draping, and curtain-pulling are not optional courtesies on this exam — they are scored elements of resident rights.
Body mechanics and safety during care
Many personal care items quietly test safety. Raise the bed to a comfortable working height to protect your back, then lower it before you leave. Lock the bed and wheelchair wheels before any transfer. Keep the resident in good body alignment, support joints, and never pull on a weak or paralyzed limb. If a resident starts to fall, do not try to hold them upright — ease them to the floor while protecting their head. The exam rewards the option that keeps both the resident and the aide safe over the one that simply finishes faster.
Common traps in this domain
- Choosing the fastest answer over the one that promotes independence
- Forgetting privacy or handwashing because the question "seems" to be about something else
- Acting on an abnormal finding (e.g., applying a treatment) instead of reporting it to the nurse
- Overexposing the resident during a bath or perineal care
- Pulling on or moving a weak limb without support
Keep the opening sequence, the dignity steps, and the "promote independence" rule front of mind, and the majority of personal care items become predictable. Pair this with the skills-station expectation: the evaluator is checking the same habits — hand hygiene, privacy, safety, and resident-centered help — on every single task you demonstrate.
Before beginning any personal care task such as a bed bath, the FIRST action the nurse aide should take after washing hands is to:
A resident can wash their own face and arms but cannot reach their back or feet. To promote independence during a bath, the nurse aide should: