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Essential Information That You Need to Know about the Home Health Aide Healthcare Professional
Healthcare is a basic necessity and a right for any person and in some countries, it is enshrined as a right. To this end, therefore, the need for qualified healthcare professionals is rising. This is thanks to a growing population and middle class in most parts of the world. The US is no exception to this rule and the need for healthcare professionals is growing at a rate of over 22% and by 2018, the demand for registered nurses as a subset of the healthcare workers will have witnessed an increase of 3.4 million new jobs.
Therefore, it is a smart choice for you to consider joining this recession-proof job group since whatever the economic circumstances, people will need to get treated as soon as possible when they fall ill. One of the “hottest” healthcare professions out there is the health aide healthcare, HHA, professional. The statistics do not lie and according to the US bureau of labor and statistics, bls, the demand for this professional cadre will increase at a rate of 38% per annum for the next decade from 2014 through to 2024, registering an employment change of 348,400 persons and their median salary is USD $ 21,920 per year.
Home health aides are critical to the income of a healthcare establishment and as such, they provide a large percentage of the medical billing service fees that such establishments receive in the course of their business. Their primary role is in helping people who suffer from disabilities, chronic illnesses or cognitive impairment with activities that make them enjoy and improve their quality of life. In most cases, they help older adults who need assistance including giving them medication and checking their vital signs under the supervision of a nurse or a healthcare practitioner.
Some of the tasks that they complete include dressing, bathing, assisting the patients to be safe in their homes, cleaning out, cooking, light housekeeping and laundry. They will undertake written documentation of the patient’s status, condition and report the problems to the nurses involved. In effect, the HHA career is a highly rewarding one for someone who is interested in having direct and one-on-one contact with patients.
The beauty is that the amount of time which it takes for one to qualify in this field is quite short. In most cases, there is no formal training required for this job as all the training that is required is normally carried out by registered nurses, RNs. Some of the formal preparatory classes that you can undergo include specializations in CPR and dietetics among others.
This being a job which places you in contact with the patients, most of the training is hands-on under the watchful eye of a registered nurse. To be a good HHA and to find out if you are a good personality match, you need to be comfortable going into patients’ homes alone, be able to work in diverse geographical areas comfortably, and be self-directed, that is, be able to perform tasks without the direct supervision of a healthcare professional among other personal qualities.
Author Bio
Rosy Bower is a registered nurse who has trained several HHAs over the past 3 decades. She also has extensive knowledge on the use of effective medicalbilling service software, a skill which she imparts to her trainees.
