To earn your home health aide certification, you need to follow your state requirements.
What is home care, and how can you work in the home care field? With a home health aide certification, you can assist people with disabilities, the chronically ill and the cognitively impaired by helping them bathe, dress, administer medications, and with other personal care activities.
Generally home health aides work in clients' homes, but they may also work in group care settings. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggests that the need for home health aides will grow by 70 percent from 2010 to 2020.
How to earn a home health aide certification is simply a matter of completing a home health aide certificate program and meeting the requirements set out by your state. Home health aide training will teach you basic patient care skills, with instruction in life support, medical terminology, first aid and CPR.
Community colleges offer certificate programs that generally consist of only a few courses, so you can get your qualifications in less than a year. Some programs offer both online and hands-on training components. Yet it is not currently possible to obtain home health aide certification solely online.
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The demand for home health aides is high and continues to grow, so certificate programs are now offered by all kinds of organizations. For example, some health systems, such as the Unity Health System in Rochester, N.Y., offer training to their potential employees, which may be a more affordable and quicker route to certification.
If you want to work for certified home health care or hospice agencies, once you have completed your training you must apply to your state for certification. Depending on where you live, you may have to pass an exam and a criminal background check in order to be certified. Some states certify home care agencies rather than their employees, so be sure to check what the requirements are in your state.
You may be able to improve your job opportunities by getting the Personal Care and Support Credential, offered by the Direct Care Alliance. The Alliance developed this standardized test, which determines basic competency, as a step toward a national credential and training requirement.
Until the federal government recognizes standardized certification, the above credential can be used to show competency to employers, especially if you wish to work independently, outside of an agency.
Another option is certification through the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC). The NAHC requires you to pass a written exam and 75 hours of training that covers 17 skill sets.
Working as a home health aide can be a fulfilling experience. If you enjoy helping people, especially those who can't help themselves, then look into home health aide certification and start your career.
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