The need for nurses in the United States is growing every year. The Department of Labor predicts that the number of carers will increase by 34% over the next 10 years. It is due to the fact that pensioners who need special care do not want to go to nursing homes, preferring home conditions.
The Home Attendant is a home assistant whose responsibilities include caring for the elderly, conducting activities to maintain cognitive abilities, and providing communicative support. There are Home Attendants who care for the elderly with dementia, Alzheimer’s, or physical disabilities.
In some states, after receiving home health aide training ma, a Home Attendant can help with medication, blood pressure, and other things under the direction of a doctor.
But getting such a job is not easy.
All Home Attendants can be divided into two groups. Uncertified carers who are privately hired, as well as carers with the necessary documents, do not receive a salary directly from the family where they work but from companies that recruit such employees. In the second case, the services of a nurse are paid through health insurance, which is free for the family.
In the first case, carers usually work with accommodation when the family pays for all the services. In fact, it turns out 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. But the income is more than worthy. Sometimes they can reach up to $95-100 thousand per year.
On average, the minimum income for a Home Attendant in the United States is about $30,000 per year. At the same time, holders of special certificates have not only a permanent job and earnings but also benefits (paid vacation, sick leave, medical insurance).
Certificates required for Home Attendant operation
Home health aide training (HHA) is the most popular. Its main task is to ensure the client’s hygiene: help bathe, dress, cook, and feed an older person. Responsibilities also include transportation and holding conversations.
Personal Care Assistant PCA is your care assistant.
The PCA is an employee who helps people with daily activities at home: self-care, housework, and preventive work with the client’s cognitive functions.
There are two “levels” or types of PCA.
- Housekeeping, which people need because of disability and other impairments. They need support with cleaning, cooking, and laundry. But they can take care of themselves. Therefore, the duties of the Housekeeper do not include bathing and dressing.
- Personal Care includes everything a Housekeeper does, plus help with personal needs (bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, walking, feeding, medication assistance, meal preparation with special diets and daily routines, skin care ).
How to get a certificate?
First, you need to undergo special home health aide certification training. While each state is different, the industry standard for certification programs is 120 hours of classroom instruction and 40 to 60 hours of clinical work.
There are a lot of courses. There are professional schools like savinghands.net, and there are special courses at colleges.
Vocational schools offer you home health aide training and job placement, as they cooperate with insurance companies. Free schools sometimes do not have such an opportunity, and graduates must look for work themselves.
Nursing work is not considered accessible. But it all depends on who you have to look after. In more straightforward cases, you need to help around the house, walk with an older person, and talk with him. It is more complicated when it comes to bedridden patients. But for such work, as a rule, they pay more. You can learn everything in a certified home health aide training center.
By the way, this work is only for women. There is a need for male carers when it is necessary, for example, to care for people who are overweight and have limited movement.
There is no easy job. Home Attendant is one of them. Certified home health aide training in Massachusetts is a good start. And in the US, there is not a drop of contempt for such work.
