Home health aide

Home health aide

Duties and responsibilities: Home care assistants serve an honorable and crucial role in our society by helping the disabled, elderly and chronically ill maintain high quality of life. These caretakers understand the dignity and happiness that come from proper hygiene, cleanliness and nutrition, as well as everyday activities and recreations that we often take for granted. Home care assistants can be divided into two broad branches: personal care aides and home health aides. Personal care aides tend to tasks such as bathing, dressing, grooming, cooking and light housekeeping. Additional responsibilities include organizing a client's schedule, grocery shopping, helping a client enjoy recreational opportunities, and providing valuable companionship for someone who may live alone and have no formal caregiver. Home health aides share all of these important aforementioned duties and, additionally, take care of basic health needs, including: Taking vital signs giving medications performing dressing changes as needed

Salary: in this scenario, a week of care costs $3,328.80.

Education: Most people who work as home care assistants have a high school diploma/GED, although no formal education is required in some states to begin a job. Other states require some formal classes as a prerequisite for working. These classes may be taken at community colleges, vocational/technical schools, or at private health training academies. Because the nature of the job differs from client to client, home care assistants receive the bulk of training at work. Under the supervision of another home care assistant, a certified home health aide or a nurse, the aspiring caregivers learn to perform specific tasks and acquire skills necessary for each client’s needs. Some employers also offer training classes in topics such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and may also require that students pass a competency test before beginning work.