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Career Exploration

Home Health Aides

Also called: Certified Home Health Aide (CHHA), Certified Nurses Aide (CNA), Home Care Aide, Home Health Aide (HHA)

What they do:

Monitor the health status of an individual with disabilities or illness, and address their health-related needs, such as changing bandages, dressing wounds, or administering medication. Work is performed under the direction of offsite or intermittent onsite licensed nursing staff. Provide assistance with routine healthcare tasks or activities of daily living, such as feeding, bathing, toileting, or ambulation. May also help with tasks such as preparing meals, doing light housekeeping, and doing laundry depending on the patient's abilities.

On the job, you would:
  • Maintain records of patient care, condition, progress, or problems to report and discuss observations with supervisor or case manager.
  • Provide patients with help moving in and out of beds, baths, wheelchairs, or automobiles and with dressing and grooming.
  • Bathe patients.
On the job, you'll need:

Business

  • customer service

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Basic Skills

  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem

Social

  • looking for ways to help people
  • understanding people's reactions

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Verbal

  • communicate by speaking
  • listen and understand what people say

Ideas and Logic

  • notice when problems happen
  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information

Attention

  • do two or more things at the same time
  • pay attention to something without being distracted

Social

People interested in this work like activities that include helping people, teaching, and talking.

  • Integrity
  • Dependability
  • Self Control
  • Concern for Others
  • Attention to Detail
  • Cooperation

Operating system software

  • Linux
  • UNIX

Video conferencing software

  • FaceTime

Electronic mail software

  • Microsoft Exchange
  • Microsoft Outlook

Video courtesy of CareerOneStop.

Job Outlook

The job outlook for this position is Bright.

New job opportunities are very likely in the future. This career will grow rapidly in the next few years and will have large numbers of openings.

Median Annual Salary: $30,180

Education

High school diploma/GED or certificate after high school is usually needed.