Home Health Aide Job Description, Duties, and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the home health aide job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may be expected to fulfill to be hired for the home health aide role by most employers/recruiters.

What Does a Home Health Aide (HHA) Do?

Home health aides are responsible for providing care to patients suffering from injuries, disabilities, or chronic illnesses, including physical, mental, and psychological illnesses in the privacy of their home or in an assisted living center. They also provide care to the elderly who can no longer care for themselves.

Also called home care aide, in-home caretaker, certified home health aide, home health assistant, or home health provider, the home health aide’s job description entails providing patients with love and care that enable them to recover quickly from illnesses and to maintain good health.

They assist patients with bathing, eating, brushing teeth, and dressing up, taking medicine, wearing or removal of artificial limbs, and changing dress, and with other activities necessary for daily living.

The home health aide’s role also involves observing and documenting changes in his/her patient’s condition, such as change in appetite, problem with breathing, and bruises or cut on body.

He/she will report the observed changes to the patient’s doctor, nurse, or family.

He/she works under the supervision of a medical staff who directs him/her in administering oral medications on his/her patient when necessary, as well as checking their pulse, temperature, blood pressure, and respiration rates.

The work description of home health aides also includes keeping patient’s room clean and helping them to use the medical devices that have been prescribed for them.

Home Health Aide Job Description Example/Sample/Template

Home health aides perform various functions as they strive to provide quality care and assistance to their patients.

Here are major duties, tasks, and responsibilities commonly assigned to people who work as home health aides:

• Offer personal care and assistance to patients following their care plan
• Help patients to get in and out of bed, and with ambulation
• Learn from health personnel and administer prescribed exercises to patients
• Prepare therapeutic diets and other meals and help patients to eat them
• Help patients in using urinals, bedpans, or commodes, or to the bathroom
• Provide domestic and house-hold services to enhance patients’ self care at home
• Assist patients in applying or taking self-administered medications
• Perform activities such as bladder hygiene care, changing colostomy bags, taking of non-sterile bowel and vital signs, and other activities taught by a healthcare professional
• Report to the case manager or supervising therapist or nurse observed changes in patient’s needs and condition
• Document services performed or provided, as well as all communication with other healthcare service providers
• Take necessary action in case of emergency and quickly report case to the supervisor
• Adhere to agency policy and time frame, complete and submit daily progress notes, expense reports, time cards, schedule logs, and changes in schedule
• Take part in care coordination meetings
• Ensure assignments are well organized, planned, prioritized, and completed following agency guidelines
• Take part in departmental utilization review and quality assurance activities
• Establish relationships and trust with patients and their families.

Requirements – Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities – for Home Health Aide Role

To access the home health aide job, most recruiters will expect candidates to meet the following requirements and qualifications:

• Possess high school diploma or its equivalent
• Possess CNA or HHA certificate or ability to pass written HCA test and skills
• Ability to read and comprehend written instructions
• Possess reliable transportation; car ownership/valid driver’s license
• Ability to take and understand instructions in patients’ homes through phone
• Ability to observe and report changes in patients’ condition to the case manager or the supervising health professional
• Relevant experience in providing personal care to patients; positioning; and transferring
• Strong ability to be consistent and punctual to work
• Respectful, patient, and positive mined individual
• Possess passion in helping the elderly or people with illness or disability.

Conclusion

If you are looking to hire a home health aide, you will need to publish a suitable description to attract the right persons for the job.

The sample job description and detailed information about the duties and responsibilities of the home health aide role provided in this post can be of help to you in creating a comprehensive description of the position in your organization.

This post will also be helpful to individuals looking to start a career in the home health service industry. They will be able to understand the duties that make up the home health aide job.