A home health aide1 helps people to cope with health issues and to assist patients with personal care at the individual’s home. Most patients are the ones who live alone or the older adults who cannot take care of themselves. People require a home health aide when there is no one to take care of the person as they might be living alone or when the patient’s condition is so severe that they need someone to monitor them every 24×7.
Let us delve further to understand more about home health aides.
Why do people hire home health aides?
Generally, people who cannot care for their family members due to a busy schedule or lack of proper knowledge in the respective field hire a home health aide or registered nurse to ensure their family members aren’t deprived of facility, attention, or care. These experienced home health aides assist the patients in their daily living and help improve their condition. Hence, it is also guaranteed that their dear ones get personal attention.
As per the labor statistics estimates, the job growth for personal care aides will increase beyond expectations in the upcoming years.
What are the home health aide’s responsibilities?
It is not easy to assist someone for a long period. It requires a lot of dedication and patience. Hence, one should always know the roles and responsibilities of home health aides.
The following are the main responsibilities and everyday tasks of the health aide:
1) Assisting the patients with their health issues and helping them to improve their health
This includes taking proper care of the patients, giving them their medicines regularly, feeding them the proper diet, and ensuring they do the required workouts regularly. For example, suppose a person requires physiotherapy2 or exercises to recover physical stamina. In that case, the health aide must ensure that all such activities are carried out regularly or set medication reminders so patients don’t skip medicines.
2) Providing basic care to the parents, especially the elderly patients
Since elderly patients require more care and assistance than anyone else, the home health aide must take care of them and provide them with assisted living facilities for a hassle-free life.
3) Scheduling the medical appointments of the patient
A home health care aide should fix all the appointments for the patient, take him to the doctor, and stay updated about the client’s vital signs. This is how the patient will recover faster. He should also check the patient’s vital signs3, such as blood pressure, sugar level, and temperature.
4) Taking care of the proper nutrition, personal hygiene, and the client’s needs
This includes giving the patient a proper diet that includes all the necessary minerals and vitamins so that the patient doesn’t have a deficiency of any minerals or vitamins. They are also the patient’s personal care aide. They should, therefore, ensure that the patient’s hygiene is maintained since cleanliness is a very important element to be taken care of.
5) Light housekeeping tasks
These tasks include washing dishes and helping the client with personal activities such as bathing, grooming, dressing, or preparing meals. When the patient is completely reliant on the home health aide, the home health aide is also supposed to take care of the patient personally.
However, there is no such compulsion that you have to do all such things as it is intimated before joining, only that a home health aide has to do such activities. If someone does not agree to do all such tasks, he can refrain in the starting only.
The USA Tales team talked to Armen Gazaryan, Chairman, CalltheCare, about strategies for employee satisfaction in the healthcare sector. Here is what he said:
“Recognizing and valuing employees in healthcare is crucial for morale and service quality. Healthcare organizations can balance recognition programs by integrating them into existing workflows and processes, ensuring minimal disruption to patient care.
Implementing flexible recognition mechanisms, such as peer-to-peer recognition or small gestures of appreciation, can foster a culture of appreciation without overwhelming operational demands.
Regular feedback loops and communication channels also allow for adjustments to recognition strategies, ensuring they align with patient care priorities while still honoring the contributions of healthcare professionals.”
Challenges in the life of a home health aide
The life of a home health aide might look very easy, but it isn’t. Before you form any opinion about home health aides, you should be aware of what home health aides have to face while at work.
1) Lack of personal space
This is the major problem most home health aides face. This job outlook requires a lot of sacrifices from the personal care aide’s end. They must overlook their homes and other responsibilities and focus on improving the client’s condition.
2) Sudden emergencies
If sometimes an emergency condition arises, this may lead to uninformed over time.
3) Unhealthy work environment
This is another problem many personal care aides face. If the workplace environment isn’t healthy, it will be hard for them to work with full concentration and dedication.
4) Unexpected challenges
Since this job involves dealing with sick patients, sometimes the personal care aides have to face situations where they have to act very carefully.
If the home health aide isn’t good at making the correct decision at the correct time, it can be problematic; hence, the home health aides should be smart enough to make the right decisions.
We interviewed Matthew Casavant, Physician and Owner at South Lake OB/GYN, on employees to feel appreciated and valued without compromising the quality of healthcare services. Here is what he had to say:
“In my role as a healthcare leader at South Lake OB/GYN, we’ve successfully balanced employee recognition with outstanding patient care by incorporating structured, modest yet impactful recognition programs that nurture both employee satisfaction and patient outcomes.
A prime example is the implementation of our “Peer-to-Peer Recognition Program.” This initiative allows employees at all levels to acknowledge their colleagues’ accomplishments and hard work openly.
It operates on a simple platform where any staff member can post a thank you or commendation for a peer-based on specific interactions or achievements.
We’ve observed that these recognitions, often highlighted during staff meetings, significantly boost morale and motivate teams, without detracting from the primary focus of patient care.
In fact, since implementing this program, we’ve seen measurable improvements in staff retention rates and patient satisfaction scores.
An internal review showed a 20% increase in staff satisfaction related to feeling valued, and patient satisfaction rose by 15%, as team members felt more appreciated and engaged in their roles.
Moreover, integrating these recognition programs with operational goals ensures no compromise to healthcare service quality. We set clear, quantifiable links between recognition activities and healthcare outcomes.
For instance, employees recognized for exemplary patient care are given opportunities for professional development, aligning personal growth with broader organizational objectives.
This synergy between recognition and operational efficiency helps maintain high standards of care while fostering a supportive and motivated workplace environment.
Thus, even time-sensitive and critical operational demands are met with expertise and enthusiasm, enhancing overall service delivery.”
What is a home health aide’s qualification?
Home health aides should fulfill some minimum requirements to be considered for a job. The job of a home health aide isn’t effortless. Many things are to be taken care of; hence, they need proper training and knowledge.
For the same purpose, there are various vocational schools, community colleges, nursing homes, or doctors’ offices set up where the personal care aides are provided formal training, which includes educating about first aid, grooming their interpersonal skills, how to use particular medical equipment and many other things.
They also offer courses such as certified nursing assistants for home health aides interested in learning more clinical procedures. These home health aides have a higher chance of getting hired as they are familiar with the clinical aspects and can handle the situation alone if any emergency arises. Certain hospitals and training institutes also provide a high school diploma to the personal care aide.
These institutions develop and sharpen all the skills required to become proficient home health aides. Here, the home health aides learn various skills and deal with different kinds of patients so that they learn all the skills.
Once the home health aide training is complete, they are all set to take care of the patients and provide them with the necessary assistance.
What is a Home health aide’s salary?
We all are aware of what a home health aide’s responsibilities are. Taking care of someone requires a lot of dedication and patience when even their family members cannot do so. Sometimes, you have to compromise with your own needs and family time due to the sudden problems that might occur at the workplace.
As per the records, the average salary of these personal care aides depends upon the type of work and the number of hours they work. The minimum salary is approximately $ 3,621.48 per annum.
Conclusion
People who want to become home health aides should explore all aspects of this job profile. They should be aware of the roles, responsibilities, and challenges as this job involves a lot of unexpected situations due to unforeseen circumstances.
If you consider it a very easy job, then to be clear, it isn’t so. Just like any other job, there are many ups and downs associated with this job.
But in the end, what makes it interesting is the satisfaction that a person earns after caring for someone else, without thinking of himself/ herself and focusing on the betterment of the other person. The hard work of the personal care aides is repaid in the form of a healthy and better individual who was once not well. The happiness a person gets on seeing this sight of a person and his family laughing and smiling because of the care and attention provided.
Guest Author: Saket Kumar
Sources:
- Hewko, Sarah J., et al. “Invisible no more: a scoping review of the health care aide workforce literature.” BMC nursing 14 (2015): 1-17. ↩︎
- Fransen, Marlene. “When is physiotherapy appropriate?.” Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology 18.4 (2004): 477-489. ↩︎
- Lopez, Adriana, et al. “Vital Signs.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 68.27 (2019): 608-614. ↩︎
