Home Health Aide Training – The Basics You Need to Know
Did you know that the home healthcare field is projected to increase in demand by over 50% in just the next 10 years alone?
Did you also know that a job as a home caregiver is a great stepping stone on your way to more prestigious jobs in the medical / healthcare field?
If you want to prepare yourself for a lucrative career in a field that’s only getting bigger, then you’ve come to the right spot! There is no better place to learn more about home health aide training than right here on HomeHealthAideTrainingSource.com.
Whether you know nothing about caregiving or you’re certified and looking for work as a home health care worker, we’ve got you covered!
Let’s start with the home health aide training basics…
What is a Home Health Aide?
Home health aides, otherwise known as home healthcare support, home caregivers, or simply health aides, are people who are charged with taking care of either physically or mentally challenged (or both) individuals in lieu of full time hospitalization.
Especially for elderly patients, hiring a health aide is an economical, and most would say more dignified, alternative to a nursing home. Health aide agencies offer a cheap way to get personal medical support that you can trust and count on.
Most importantly, as a home health aide you will be making a monumental difference in your patients’ lives.
The one on one attention and support offered by a personal health aide far surpasses that offered in the crowded environment of a nursing home or hospital. That means more peace and happiness for the patients, and less stress and worry for the patients’ children (who are often the ones otherwise responsible).
What Does a Home Healthcare Aide Do?
Throughout your home health aide training you will learn to carry out a wide array of duties, from basic medical tasks to assisting in household chores. Sometimes you may be working with a licensed nurse or other healthcare professional, sometimes you will be working with other health aides from your agency, and sometimes you may be working alone with your patient.
Here are a few of the more common home health aide duties:
- Give the proper dosage of medicine to a patient
- Help a patient to change their dressings or clothes
- Assist with nutrition and meal preparation, depending on their condition and your hours
- Go out to run errands either with or for the patient (such as grocery shopping or to a doctor’s appointment)
- Keep a log of the patient’s daily progress, ranging from meals to bathroom frequency
- Assist in bathing, cleaning, and other hygienically-related tasks
- Basic housekeeping duties, such as cleaning, organizing and any other chores the patient is incapable of completing alone
Your specific duties will vary widely from patient to patient. However, as you can see, despite the wide variety in responsibilities, most of the tasks are actually quite simple to carry out. This is why home health aid training is both cheaper and faster than most other healthcare professions.
Which actually brings us nicely to our next question…
What Do You Need to Be a Home Caregiver?
What draws many people to be a home health care aide in the first place is the speed and simplicity of training. Working as a health aide is a great way to start a long-term career in the healthcare field. It’s a great way to test the waters, so to speak, and see if caring for others could really be your lifelong passion (more on this later!).
However, while you don’t need nearly the education of a MD there is still a clinical training requirement, so don’t think you can go out and start working tomorrow.
Luckily, home health aide training is both straightforward and cheap. Here are a few of the things you’ll be required to do:
- Complete a Physical Examination, Possibly Including a Drug Test (depending on your State)
- Pass a Government Background Check
- Demonstrate a Loving, Nurturing and Patient Personality (Important!)
- Demonstrate a Willingness to Carry Out Mundane Tasks and Handle Bodily Fluid
- Demonstrate Strong Communication Skills
- Complete Clinical Home Health Aide Training that Meets the Requirements of Your State’s Regulations (For most, there is a minimum requirement of 75 hours)
- Pass a Healthcare License Exam
But despite all of these requirements ‘on paper’, there is one requirement that is more important than them all…
What’s the Most Important Requirement of a Home Health Aide?
The one requirement that you absolutely must have in order to not drive yourself to insanity in this career path is simple…
You MUST Have a PASSION for Helping People!
Without a passion for others’ happiness you will soon burnout as a home health aide, of that I can assure you. The home health aide training itself will require more than one long night spent studying, and the job itself can often be tedious.
If you’re not fulfilling yourself in some way then this job, and really any in the healthcare field, is probably not for you.
What Should You Do Now?
If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a home health aide, then here is my suggestion for you right now:
- 1. Read around on HomeHealthAideTrainingSource.com to answer anymore of your questions or concerns.
- 2. Either blow the dust off your phone book or head over to Google and start looking for home health aide agencies in your city or region.
- 3. Give each one a call and find out whether or not they’re currently offering discounted or free home health aide training to people interested in a job with their agency.
a) If any of them do offer free training, then congratulations! You know where to go next!
b) Otherwise, you’ll need to find a licensed home health aide training program. You might start by looking around your local community colleges for more information.
If you go out and start your home health aide training now, then in six months to a year you can have a secure and well-paying job helping the people who need it most. There’s no reason not to look into it if you’re even remotely interested; many people discover that helping people as a home health aide is one of the most fulfilling things you’ll ever do in your life.
Either way, from the team at Home Health Aide Training Source, thanks for reading!
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