Certified Home Health Aide CHHA

Non-exempt position.

Pay

$22 - $27 per hour.

Responsibilities

• Performs only those personal-care activities contained in a written assignment, including:
  • Helps the patient maintain good personal hygiene.
  • Plans and prepares meals.
  • Feeds or assists with feeding the patient when needed.
  • Assists the patient with ambulation.
  • Assists with certain treatments as ordered by the physician and taught and supervised by the nurse for a specific patient, including:
    • Assists with the change of a colostomy bag.
    • Assists with the use of a walker or wheelchair.
    • Reinforces dressings.
    • Assists with prescribed range-of-motion exercises.
    • Assists with prescribed ice cap or collar.
    • Measures intake and output of fluids.
    • Assists with medications that are ordinarily self-administered.
  • Reads and records temperature, pulse, and respiration.
• Additional responsibilities not included in a written assignment may include:
  • Assists in maintaining a safe and healthy environment.
  • Promotes the patient’s mental alertness through involvement in activities of interest.
  • Provides simple emotional and psychological support to the patient, family, and other caregivers.
  • Reports any changes in the patient’s mental or physical condition or home situation to the VITAS Nurse and members of the interdisciplinary team.
  • Teaches basic personal care to the primary caregiver.
  • Practices basic infection-control measures.
  • Observes, reports, and documents patient status and the care and activities provided.
  • Completes at least 12 hours of in-service training per calendar year.
  • Handles other tasks as assigned.
• May not be assigned to:
  • Any institutional setting.
  • Change sterile dressings.
  • Irrigate body cavities (such as an enema).
  • Irrigate a colostomy or wound.
  • Perform a gastric lavage or gavage.
  • Catheterize a patient.
  • Administer medications.
  • Apply heat by any method.
  • Care for a tracheotomy tube.
  • Suction a patient.
  • Provide any personal care that has not been assigned by the VITAS nurse or included in the plan of care.

Requirements

• High school graduate or equivalent preferred.
• Meets personnel qualifications of a Home Health Aide as specified in 42 C.F.R. Section 484.4 and Section 484.36.
• Documented evidence of 75 hours of training as specified in 42 C.F.R. Sections 484.36(a)(1).
• Documented evidence of successfully completing a Competency Evaluation program as described in 42 C.F.R. Section 484.36(b).
• State-specific allowable training/certification:
  • AL, CO, DC, DE, FL, GA, IN, MI, PA, TX, VA, WI: CNA, HHA, HA
  • CA: CHHA
  • CT: Homemaker-Home Health Aide
  • IL: HHA, NA
  • KS: Home Health Aide certificate
  • MO: Home Health Aide
  • NJ: Homemaker-Home Health Aide
  • OH: Home Health Aide
• Ability to read, write, and carry out directions.
• Ability to travel per job requirements.
• Telephone available at home.

Essential Functions & Physical Demands

• Assist in lifting and transferring patients, as required.
• Lift objects in excess of 20 pounds.
• Stand or walk in excess of one hour per day.
• Talk and hear.
• Specific vision abilities required include:
  • Close vision.
  • Distance vision.
  • Ability to adjust focus.
• Sit, stoop, kneel, and crouch.

Direction Received

• Reports directly to the VITAS Nurse.
• Receives clinical direction from the VITAS Nurse.