Home Health and Care Aide

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Work Tasks

HOME HEALTH AND CARE AIDES help the elderly, ill, and persons with disabilities live in their own homes instead of in a health facility. Most aides work with clients who need more extensive care than family or friends can provide. Home health and care aides provide health-related services, such as giving oral medications under physician's orders or direction of a nurse. They provide personal care services such as bathing, dressing, and grooming clients. They assist clients in and out of bed, and help with simple, prescribed exercises.

Salary, Size & Growth

• $26,000 average per year ($12.50 per hour)
• A very large occupation (1,668,900 workers in 2010)
• Expected to grow rapidly (4.8% per year)

Entry Requirements

The federal government has enacted guidelines for HOME HEALTH AND CARE AIDES whose employers receive reimbursement from Medicare. Federal law requires home health aides to pass a competency test covering areas such as communication skills, observation, reporting, and documentation of patient status, reading and recording vital signs, basic infection control, emergency procedures, the physical, emotional, and developmental characteristics of patients, personal hygiene and grooming, and basic nutrition. The National Association for Home Care certifies home health aides.