Nursing and home health aide jobs

Looking for a foot in the door of the medical industry but don't have a college degree? We have the answer.

Nursing aides

• Nursing aides, also known as nursing assistants, geriatric aides, unlicensed assistive personnel or hospital attendants, perform routine tasks under the supervision of nursing and medical staff.
• Nursing aides answer patients’ call lights, deliver messages, serve meals, make beds, and help patients eat, dress and bathe.
• Nursing aides also may take their temperatures, pulse rate, respiration rate and blood pressure; and help patients get in and out of bed and walk.
• They may keep patients’ rooms neat, set up equipment, store and move supplies, or assist with some procedures. Aides observe patients’ physical, mental, and emotional conditions and report any change to the nursing or medical staff.
• Nursing aides employed in nursing care facilities often are the principal caregivers, having far more contact with residents than other members of the staff. Because some residents may stay in a nursing care facility for months or even years, aides develop ongoing relationships with them and interact with them in a positive, caring way.

Home health aides

• Home health aides’ help care for physically or mentally ill, injured, disabled and infirm individuals confined to patients’ homes or residential care facilities.
• Home health aides help elderly, convalescen, and disabled persons live in their own homes instead of in a health facility. Under the direction of nursing or medical staff, they provide health-related services, such as administering oral medications.
• Like nursing aides, home health aides may check patients’ pulse rates, temperatures and respiration rates; help with simple prescribed exercises; keep patients’ rooms neat; and help patients move from bed, bathe, dress and groom.
• Occasionally, aides change nonsterile dressings, give massages and alcohol rubs, and assist with braces and artificial limbs.
• Experienced home health aides also may assist with medical equipment such as ventilators, which help patients breathe.
• Most home health aides work with elderly or disabled persons who need more extensive care than family or friends can provide. Some help discharged hospital patients who have relatively short-term needs.

Working conditions

• Most full-time aides work about 40 hours a week, but because patients need 24-hour care, some aides work evenings, nights, weekends and holidays.
• Many work part time.
• Aides spend many hours standing and walking, and they often face heavy workloads.
• Because they may have to move patients in and out of bed or help them stand or walk, aides must guard against back injury.
• Aides also may face hazards from minor infections and major diseases, such as hepatitis.
• Aides often have unpleasant duties, such as emptying bedpans and changing soiled bed linens, and the patients they care for may be disoriented, irritable or uncooperative.
• While their work can be emotionally demanding, many aides gain satisfaction from assisting those in need.
• Home health aides may go to the same patient’s home for months or even years. However, most aides work with a number of different patients, each job lasting a few hours, days, or weeks. Home health aides often visit multiple patients on the same day.
• Home health aides generally work alone, with periodic visits by their supervisor. They receive detailed instructions explaining when to visit patients and what services to perform. Aides are individually responsible for getting to patients’ homes, and they may spend a good portion of the working day traveling from one patient to another.

Training, qualifications and advancement

• In many cases, neither a high school diploma nor previous work experience is necessary for a job as a nursing, psychiatric or home health aide. A few employers, such as hospitals, require some training or experience.
• Nursing care facilities often hire inexperienced workers who must complete a minimum of 75 hours of mandatory training and pass a competency evaluation program within four months of their employment.
• Applicants should be tactful, patient, understanding, emotionally stable, dependable and should have a desire to help people. They also should be able to work as part of a team, have good communication skills, and be willing to perform repetitive, routine tasks.
• Home health aides should be honest and discreet, because they work in private homes.
• Opportunities for advancement within these occupations are limited. To enter other health occupations, aides generally need additional formal training. These occupations can offer individuals an entry into the world of work. The flexibility of night and weekend hours also provides high school and college students a chance to work during the school year.

Earnings

Nursing and psychiatric aides in hospitals generally receive at least one week’s paid vacation after one year of service. Paid holidays and sick leave, hospital and medical benefits, extra pay for late-shift work, and pension plans also are available to many hospital, and some nursing care, employees. Home health aides receive slight pay increases with experience and added responsibility. Usually, they are paid only for the time worked in the home and not paid for travel time between jobs. Most employers hire only on-call hourly workers and provide no benefits.

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