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What is a Home Health Aide?

Browse available Home Health Aide Jobs. Home Health Aides cater to personalized care and aid to those who have disabilities, chronic illnesses or other severe impairments. These are individuals who provide the healthcare and other facilities straight at the patient’s home providing comfort, compassion and not to mention medical care. Home Health Aides are the best alternatives to nursing homes and other healthcare institutions by providing the best possible healthcare solutions right where the patient will find the most comfort.

Home Health Aide Jobs Overview

A home health aide is the person who is supposed to take care of every aspect of a patient from every angle possible. These trained professionals are no different from nurses in a hospital except for the fact that a nurse provides much more specialized nursing and healthcare against an aide's compassion. And it is not that a home health aide is only employed to patients or those who are suffering from an illness. They can also provide non-medical care such as care for the terminally ill and hospice maintenance. They are also of help to individuals who are still in a rehabilitation mode after some form of hospital care or other.

Minimum Age to Be a Home Health Aide:

The minimum age required to be a home health aide or to be registered at private-care agencies providing for home health aides is 16. You can apply for these jobs once you’ve past the 16th birthday.

Home Health Aide Education Requirements:

There are no educational requirements to become a home health aide. If you’re looking to build a career in this sector, all you need to do is to make sure you have an empathetic and warm heart.

Home Health Aide Job Description

A 2013 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that there are more than 800,000 individuals working as health home aides throughout the country. And that this job sector is expected to witness a 45% plus growth in the upcoming years. That means, a nearly 400,000 vacancies are to come up in this field. One of the major factors which you need to know if you’re interested in this field is that, unlike other job sectors, the projected growth is a more or less guaranteed figure. This progression is primarily driven by a growing amount of retirees which is expected to increase over the years taking development with it.

Home Health Aide Job Duties and Responsibilities

Home health aides are expected to do multi-tasking and perform on multiple fields ranging from health care to private or personal care. If you are thinking about becoming a home health aide, these are among the most important duties you will need to do:

  • Assistance in Activities of Daily Living or ADL care where a home health aide is supposed to assist the patient in self-care activities such as bathing, dressing, eating etc. among other functions. This depends on the patients’ physical and mental ability for basic self-care in the first place.
  • Assistance and support in Instrumental Activities of Daily Living or IADL. An aide is expected to be that working hand to provide a patient with the residential accommodations and entertainments. An aide may have to prepare meals, shop, manage money and help in doing other activities to keep the patient in touch with the world outside.

Home Health Aide Job Requirements

If you are looking forward to becoming a home health aide, these are a few things which you might come up against:

  • Long hours of duties including a full ADL care to individuals who are increasingly impaired.
  • Non-medical functions such relating to private and personal care.
  • Patience and compassion while executing duties.
  • Accounting for household duties such as cooking, laundry, shopping etc. among a few.
  • Sound organizational and communication skills.

How to Become a Home Health Aide

Although there is no educational criterion attached to becoming a home health aide, you need to go through vocational courses to certify yourself as an aide. Although accreditation bodies differ from states, but it is commonly provided by Health Care Administration bodies. Licensure or certification process consists of:

  • A written test on details and duties to be performed by a Home Health Aide.
  • A hands-on demo on associated skills and functions which will come up in the line of duty.
  • 75 to 120 or more hours of on-job-training and experience.

Home Health Aide Salary

The median or average compensation for a home health aide on a nation-wide basis is around $20,000 per year amounting to $10 per hour. If you are interested in becoming a home health aide, you can start up with something around $16,000. The compensation depends on both the states where you’ll be executing your duties and also on experience in time. Experienced home health aides can earn upwards $37,000 per year with the best salaries provided by private health care or private care organizations.

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