Home Healthcare Career Allied Health Jobs Chiropractic Care Nursing Dentistry Informatics Physical Therapy Pharmacy Health Administration

Home Health Aides: Noble but Prospering career

What is a Home Health Aide?

Home health aides offer personal services to old disabled recovering patients. The services are done in patients’ residence. Home health aides normally include checking pulses and heart rates, maintaining up to date and exact info of the patient. Personal and home health aides involve assistance to elderly and disabled persons who need more than just friends and families. You may need to change dresses, give proper medication and exercises, give mental and physical support, taking in and out of bed and making and giving meals, all other chores you would do to your own close ones. Often aides are provided to persons for year, but most home health aides are accomplished on part time basis for a specific period of day.

Work environment, Education & Training:

Home health aides work freely in the patients’ own residence under supervision of a licensed nurse, social worker, or a doctor employed by a home health agency. Home health aide jobs can be either 40-hour full time workweek or part-time at different working time as many patients need all time care and monitoring. So, this job is also available part time including weekend, late night. Students interested in home health aides need to study biology, algebra, family living, English, computer skills, child care, health livings or medical education, physical education, home economics and nurse aide training. After that they should have a high school diploma or the equivalent to be licensed as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). In many states like Mississippi, home health aides need to pass an annual physical exam and checked for negative tuberculin (TB) contamination. In addition home health aides needs to have a valid driver’s license and own transport.

Career Opportunities & Job prospect

Home health aides have a faster growing career prospect than the average. It is predicted that job openings will increase by 20% - 35% over next decade. Demand for home health personnel will burst as the baby-boom generation gets gradually old. Moreover, hospitals and nursing homes are transferring these types of patients to their own homes to lessen their costs. Having care at own home is another cause of preference of home health aides.

Salary

Home health aides get paid $19,300 on average. The salary range varies between $16,100 and $24,400. Average hourly rate in 2008 was $9.33 which has a highest rate of $12.33. Average personal and home health aides made between $8.52 and $11.69 an hour according to the bureau of labor statistics. Whatever the payment is you need to always consider that with home health aides you are doing always something noble which can never be exchanged with money.