Your Guide to Becoming a Certified Home Health Aide

If you enjoy taking care of patients, but you don’t have the funds needed to train as a nurse, what can you do? A certified home health aide can be an excellent career choice for you. There are a lot of seniors who prefer staying in the comfort of their homes, over staying at a hospital or nursing home. Some patients may also have chronic illnesses, while others can also be dealing with disabilities.

A home health aide takes care of patients in the comfort of their own homes.

There are several reasons why people choose to become home health aides. Some people choose this career because they enjoy caring for patients, while others enjoy the versatile schedule a home health aide has.

Working As A Home Health Aide 

A lot of home health aides enjoy getting to work in people’s homes. They find that home environments suit them better than sterile hospital environments. They also like the idea of caring for a patient over long periods of time. They get to know the habits as well.as routines of their patients and can help them better.

As a certified home health aide, you can provide medical as well as non-medical services to your patients. Examples of medical aid include caring for wounds, giving medicine according to prescriptions, and so on. But there is a lot of non-medical care that you can also provide as a home health aide. You can help patients with basic daily tasks, such as bathing and dressing. You may also be asked to help them take care of their house.

A lot of the tasks you’ll be performing are similar to those of a nurse, but there are additional roles that you need to fulfill as well. However, the training and education requirements for home health aides are less than that of nurses. This is why the kind of medical care you’ll be providing won’t be on the same level as that of licensed nurses.

How Can You Get Trained and Certified to Become a Home Health Aide? 

You’ll need to have at least a high school diploma or a GED equivalent if you want to become a certified home health aide. After graduating school, consider enrolling in a training program. Keep in mind that the exact requirements needed to become a certified home health aide vary from state to state. So you should consider checking out what the state requirements are of the state that you want to work in.

Usually, you’ll need to complete at least one hundred and twenty classroom hours, as well as forty to sixty hours of clinical work. There are several places you can get certified from. You can choose to be certified by the National Association of Home Care and Hospice. You can also choose to attend community colleges or vocational schools, in order to get certified. To get certified as a home health aide, expect to pay anywhere between $300 to $650 for your course.

Pay and Salary Outlook for Home Health Aides 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that in 2021, the median pay for home health aides was around $14.07 per hour. You can also expect to earn an average annual salary of around $29,260 every year. However, what you actually earn can change depending on various factors.

One such important factor that you’ll need to take into account is the wage laws of the state you’ll be working in. Depending on your location, you can expect to make between $9 to $18 an hour. If you want to increase your hourly pay, then consider getting further certifications. You can get yourself certified for geriatric issues, as well as behavioral issues. This will allow you to specialize in your career, and gain recognition as well. With additional certifications, you can increase how much you earn per hour by fifty cents to a dollar.

There are several reasons to consider becoming a home health aide at this time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that job prospects for home health aides are great, and are expected to grow. They predicted that this growth between 2020 and 2p39 would be by around 33%.

Conclusion

Becoming a certified home health aide allows you to earn from caring for patients in their own homes. To become a certified home health aide, you should consider home health aide training. With home health aide training, you can gain the skills needed to work as a home health aide. If you want to learn more about home health aide training, then click here.

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