Home Health Aide
If you’ve always loved taking care of people and feel a pull towards the healthcare industry, then a home health aide may be the perfect job for you. This job is super flexible, very rewarding and requires little to no formal training. A home health aide is a caregiver that works in patient homes, residential nursing homes, hospitals or clinics and helps patients with personal tasks such as meal preparation, cleaning, laundry, personal hygiene and running errands. A home health aide may also provide companionship to a patient and help them get better from an illness or injury.
Home health aides do not require any formal training, but can take formal courses to further their career and job outlook. If they do take formal courses, the home health aide classes commonly include meal preparation, nutrition, physical therapy, health sciences, and medical terminology. They may also have to take a lab course to learn practical nursing skills such as taking a patient’s vitals. If you would like to take a few formal training courses, then Met Council and the University of the District of Columbia both offer prominent programs in the field of home health, or you could take online or hybrid courses. Once you complete your formal training, you can easily step into the role of a home health aide for any patient.
To become a home health aide, students must only have a high school diploma or a GED certificate. However, students who wish to learn more about their job in order to succeed in a variety of jobs, can take formal home health aide classes. Most states do not require home health aides to take formal training courses, but others may. Thus, it may be beneficial to both the student and the student’s future patients, if he or she takes formal training courses at a community college, a private health care training center or at a vocational school.
Home Health Aide Training
Home health aides perform a variety of tasks that can change on a daily basis. Depending on the patients that a home health aide cares for, the tasks may be very simple or may be complex. To learn more about each task, and to succeed in all of the possible scenarios home health aides may face, formal training is available. Most states throughout the United States do not necessitate any type of formal training for home health aides, but training can help improve a student’s job outlook, salary and their skills.
When taking care of another person, it’s always a great idea to have a bit of training in order to be able to make sound and healthy decisions for themselves and their patients. The following list of programs offer home health aide training for students interested in the field of work.
Isabella Training Center in New York
Isabella is an independent company in New York City, New York that offers home health aide training for interested students. Their course includes over 100 hours of training in both the classroom and in the lab. Training focuses on teaching students about common health concerns, physical therapy, nutrition, mental health and traumatic brain injuries. After completion of the course, students are eligible to work as a Certified Home Health Aide in New York.
Home Health Aide Training at Rochester Regional Health System
The home health aide training course at Rochester Regional Health System is designed for students who are right out of high school, who love to work with people and hope to enter the field of healthcare. This training course is only three weeks long and guarantees that its students graduate with jobs. The training qualifies students to take a certification exam issued by Unity Healthcare and to obtain a job from Unity Healthcare as well. It focuses on common health concerns and issues that cause people to need home health aides and teaches students how to interact and care for patients.
Home Health Aide Training at Met Council
Met Council offers a free home health aide training course and certification for interested students. This 85 hour course takes approximately one month to complete. It focuses on teaching students about the importance of home health aides. It teaches them how to care for patients. After graduation, students are eligible to take the Met Council certification exam and can get help from Met Council looking for a job.
Home Health Aide Course at the University of the District of Columbia
The home health aide course at the University of the District of Columbia is a 120 hour course that teaches students how to perform a variety of tasks that may assist their future patients. It also teaches students how to interact with patients and how to assist patients in their everyday needs and implement care plans. After graduation students are eligible to work in residential homes, nursing homes or any other type of health care facility.
Online Home Health Training at Ashworth College
The online home health training course at Ashworth College is an innovative course that allows students to learn on their own time schedule. This course typically takes only four months to complete, but may take longer if students are unable to devote a lot of time to the course. After graduation, students are able to work in a professional setting as a home health aide.
Home Health Aide Course at Nursing Unlimited
Nursing Unlimited offers a home health aide training course that is 75 hours in length. It teaches students the importance of home healthcare through a series of videos, demonstrations, textbook readings, quizzes and exams. This course teaches students basic medical skills and prepares them to work in the field of home healthcare after they graduate.
If you are unable to take an on-campus class due to your time schedule, or because they aren’t available in your area, then you may be able to take an online or hybrid course. Online courses are 100% online and can give you the skills you need to work as a home health aide. However, they may not include a lab or practicum portion of the course, so you may not get to practice any of your skills before you have your first patients.
Hybrid courses are partially online and partially on-campus. They allow students to obtain the necessary skills they need in on-campus lab courses, but also allow them to stay flexible in their schedule by taking lecture courses online. Typically, online courses and hybrid courses offer students a great way to learn the skills they need to become a home health aide.
Online courses without a lab or practicum section are best for students who are assertive and will take initiative to practice the necessary skills on their own, while hybrid courses are best for students who want structured lab courses to teach them necessary skills. Some online courses do require students to have a clinical rotation in order to finish their course, while others do not.
The following schools offer online courses for home health aide training.
Home Health Aide Online Course
This home health aide online course is a 75 hour course that teaches students all of the necessary nursing, CPR, patient care and patient hygiene skills. This course covers all of the 17 necessary clinical skills that home health aides must have before they begin working in the field. It uses textbooks, photographs, illustrations, practice tests, demonstration videos and clinical skills objectives to teach students all about their future career as a home health aide. This course also provides students with 24/7 access to their online course and allows them to ask a variety of questions and obtain answers from the course teachers.
Florida Home Health Aide Online Course
The Florida Home Health Aide online course is a comprehensive online course that teaches future home health aides about patient care, CPR, emergency procedures, nursing skills and fire safety. The course also teaches students how to care for patients with terminal disease, with Alzheimer’s disease or with dementia. Plus, it offers them a variety of course materials to help them learn the necessary clinical skills they will use as a home health aide.
The following schools offer hybrid courses for home health aide training.
Urban League of Kansas PCA Training
The Patient Care Assistant Training program at the Urban Kansas League prepares students for employment as a home health aide. This program offers students both online courses and face-to-face courses with an instructor. It takes approximately two months to complete and includes 30 hours of clinical experience. Students who successfully graduate the program are eligible to take a home health aide certification test offered by the state of Kansas.
Hybrid Programs in North Carolina
Online Hybrid courses in North Carolina allow students to pursue a career as a home health aide. These courses have both online portions and individualized on-campus portions that allow students to learn and practice clinical skills on patients while they are being supervised. These courses are flexible and prepare students for a fast-paced career as a home health aide.
core & Elective Courses
Each home health aide training course will offer a variety of courses that will help prepare students to become a home health aide in their local community. Some courses offer classes on specific certification exams that students must take in order to obtain a license to work. However, other courses in states or communities that do not require any type of certification will not offer classes of this nature.
Common courses that are offered in each home health aide program include introductory classes on patient care, nutrition and meal preparation classes, assisting with medication classes, safety and accident prevention classes, budgeting classes, and classes that teach students how to assist patients during exercise routines or therapy routines. Other courses that are common in home health aide training programs include basic life support, CPR, medical terminology, and health science courses. Home health aide training programs may also offer lab or practicum classes that teach students necessary nursing skills such as taking blood pressure, taking pulses, and recording vitals.
Accreditation
When choosing a program, students must determine if the program is accredited. If so, then it will be easier for the student to find a job once they have completed the course. Programs that have been accredited have met certain standards set forth by an accrediting body and are reputable programs. Home health aide training programs may be accredited by multiple accreditation bodies, including both regional and subject-specific or state-specific accreditation bodies.
One of the most popular accreditation bodies is the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP). This company sets strict standards for home health training courses to meet in order to obtain accreditation. Their standards are based on the Home Health Care Standards that Medicare deemed appropriate for home health care workers. Organizations and programs can apply for accreditation from CHAP if they provide home health aide training courses to students that include clinical classes. If accredited by CHAP, then programs are visited often by CHAP staff members to ensure that their offices, clinical sites, classrooms and facility members are all meeting the standards set forth by Medicare. For more information, visit the CHAP website: http://www.chapinc.org/Accreditation/Accredited%20Service%20Lines/Home%20Health.
Many programs may have subject-specific accreditation. The ACHC provides home health accreditation in a variety of subject-specific programs including home health nursing, home health aide, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. This organization sets strict standards for each specific subject or specialty and provides individualized accreditation to programs that teach these specialties to students. For more information visit their official webpage: http://www.achc.org/programs/home-healths.
CARF also provides subject-specific accreditation programs for home health aide training courses and programs. They also provide accreditation for many behavioral health and medical rehabilitation programs. For more information, visit their website: http://www.carf.org/Programs/.
Any program that obtains any form of an accreditation has made it through a rigorous accreditation process. Each accrediting body has their own set of standards that programs must meet in order to obtain accreditation. However, most accrediting bodies look at a program’s overall success, their curriculum, their textbooks and literature studies, their faculty members, resources, facilities, and their certification requirements. Many accrediting agencies also go by Medicare’s strict standards for Home Health Care to determine if programs meet the criteria for accreditation.
Career Outlook
Demand, Growth and Analysis
When choosing a career, it’s a good idea to look at the job growth outlook to ensure that you will always be able to have a job. Fortunately, home health aide jobs are expected to grow by 70% between 2010 and 2020, which is leaps and bounds above the national average growth rate of 14%.
This extreme growth period is due to the large number of baby boomers entering their older years. As the baby boomer community ages and begins needing caregivers, home health aides can find numerous jobs. Unfortunately, turnover is very high in the home health aide job force. In some states, turnover rates are as high as 66-100%. High turnover rates negatively impact the care of the patient and negatively impact the career of the home health aide. The highest turnover rates were discovered in nursing homes and care facilities, while home health aides in private homes tend to have low turnover rates.
Even with a high turnover rate in certain areas, home health aides are still highly sought after in many settings. As the baby boomer population grows, many of them are opting to stay in their own homes, and many of them do require home health aides. For this reason, many home health aide jobs are in residential homes of patients. Other job settings include nursing homes, hospitals and clinics.
Who’s Hiring
Many people find it easy to find work as a home health aide due to the massive amount of jobs that are open. Home health aides have the ability to get hired by home healthcare agencies and work under them, get hired privately by patients, work for hospitals or work for clinics.
People who strive to have flexibility in their schedules, often like working in the private sector. These home health aides can find a few patients to care for and visit their house on a daily or weekly basis to help them with their needs. For a more structured and steady job, home health aides could work under a home healthcare agency or work in a hospital or clinic.
Licensing & Certification
There are no required formal education paths that a student must take before becoming a home health aide. The majority of the states in the United States do not require home health aides to be licensed or to take any form of formal training. However, students who decide to get certified by independent companies or through their state may have better job outlooks and have higher salaries.
Official Certification Bodies and Types
While certification isn’t a requirement to work as a home health aide, it can help you increase your career outlook and your salary. To become certified, many programs offer their own certification exams, and many agencies may also hire students if they can pass the agency’s certification exam. Another option for students is to become a member of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, which gives students job offers and opportunities to advance. Students may also need to be certified in CPR and Basic Life Support in order to obtain any type of job.