home health aide

Home Health Aide

Duties and Responsibilities:  Provides health care tasks, personal hygiene services, housekeeping tasks and other related support services essential to the consumer’s health.  Observes, records and reports all changes to supervisor.  All HHA’s must demonstrate competence in performing the necessary skills and only perform those skills on the plan of care.  Performs home management tasks including housekeeping, laundry, shopping and errands. Prepares and serves simple modified diets according to instruction and assists with feeding as necessary.

Salary: $22,050 per year

Education: HHAs are taught by other HHAs, healthcare professionals, or family members, and learn their skills on the job. Each client has unique needs, so HHAs may have to train for a few hours or several days, depending on the complexity of the case. Some employers, such as government-certified home care agencies, provide training classes and require employees to pass a test before starting their first assignment. HHAs do not hold licenses but many employers prefer them to be certified. The certification process requires passing an exam after 75 hours of training and skills testing; more about the certification process can be found at the National Association for Home Care and Hospice.

Reflection: I think I would like to be a Home Health Aide because I like to help elders. I think this is a really nice thing to do and they get paid well.