Home Health Aide HHA/CNA

Non-exempt position.

About the role

Provides personal care and services to hospice patients to augment care given by family members or other caregivers.

Pay

$15–$18 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 physician-ordered treatments taught and supervised by the nurse, such as:
    • Changing colostomy bags
    • Using walkers or wheelchairs
    • Reinforcing dressings
    • Prescribed range-of-motion exercises
    • Applying prescribed ice caps or collars
    • Measuring intake and output of fluids
    • Assisting with medications that are ordinarily self-administered
  • Reads and records temperature, pulse, and respiration
• Additional duties that may arise but are not part of the written assignment:
  • Maintains 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 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 (e.g., enemas)
  • Irrigate a colostomy or wound
  • Perform 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 not 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 successful completion of a Competency Evaluation program as described in 42 C.F.R. Section 484.36(b)
• State-specific certifications:
  • AL, CO, DC, DE, FL, GA, IN, MI, PA, TX, VA, WI: CNA, HHA, or HA
  • CA: CHHA
  • CT: Homemaker-Home Health Aide
  • IL: HHA or 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:
  • 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