Home Health Aide (HHA)

VITAS Healthcare; Riverside (CA); On-site; USD 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a compassionate team dedicated to providing essential personal care to hospice patients. As a Home Health Aide (HHA), you'll play a vital role in enhancing the quality of life for those in need, offering support in daily activities such as meal preparation, personal hygiene, and mobility assistance. This position allows you to make a meaningful impact in patients' lives while working closely with a dedicated nursing team. If you're passionate about providing care and support to others, this opportunity offers a rewarding career path in a supportive environment, where your contributions truly matter.

Qualifications

• High School graduate or equivalent preferred.
• 75 hours of training and competency evaluation required.

Responsibilities

• Assist patients with personal hygiene and daily activities.
• Report changes in patient condition to the nursing team.

Skills

Personal care

Patient assistance

Meal preparation

Basic infection control

Documentation skills

Education

High School diploma or equivalent

75 hours of training

Competency Evaluation program

Job description

The VITAS Home Health Aide (HHA) is a non-exempt employee, who is trained to provide personal care and services to hospice patients to augment care given by family members or other caregivers.

ASSIGNED JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Performs only those personal care activities contained in a written assignment. Home Health Aide (HHA) assignments may include:

1. Helps the patient to maintain good personal hygiene.
2. Plans and prepares meals. Feeds or assists with feeding the patient when needed.
3. Assists the patient with ambulation.
4. Assists with certain treatments as ordered by the physician, and taught and supervised by the nurse for a specific patient including: assist with the change of the colostomy bag; assist with the use of a walker or wheelchair; reinforcement of a dressing; assist with prescribed range of motion exercises; assist with prescribed ice cap or collar; measure intake and output of fluids; and assist with medications that are ordinarily self-administered.
5. Reads and records temperature, pulse, and respiration.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE HOME HEALTH AIDE (HHA) NOT INCLUDED IN A WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT MAY INCLUDE:

1. Assisting in maintaining a safe and healthy environment.
2. Promoting the patient’s mental alertness through involvement in activities of interest.
3. Providing simple emotional and psychological support to the patient, family, and other caregivers.
4. Reporting any changes in the patient’s mental or physical condition or home situation to the VITAS Nurse and members of the interdisciplinary team.
5. Teaching basic personal care to the primary caregiver.
6. Practicing basic infection control measures.
7. Observing, reporting, and documenting patient status and the care and activities provided.
8. Completing at least 12 hours of in-service training per calendar year.
9. Handling other tasks as assigned.

THE HOME HEALTH AIDE (HHA) MAY NOT:

1. Be assigned by VITAS to any institutional setting.
2. Change sterile dressings.
3. Irrigate body cavities (such as an enema).
4. Irrigate a colostomy or wound.
5. Perform a gastric lavage or gavage.
6. Catheterize a patient.
7. Administer medications.
8. Apply heat by any method.
9. Care for a tracheotomy tube.
10. Suction a patient.
11. Provide any personal care that has not been assigned by the VITAS nurse or included in the plan of care.

QUALIFICATIONS

1. High School graduate or equivalent preferred.
2. Meets personnel qualifications of a Home Health Aide as specified in 42 C.F.R. Section 484.4 and Section 484.36.
3. Documented evidence of 75 hours of training as specified in 42 C.F.R. Sections 484.36 (a)(1).
4. Documented evidence that Home Health Aide has successfully completed a Competency Evaluation program as described in 42 C.F.R. Section 484.36(b).

STATE ALLOWABLE TRAINING/CERTIFICATION

AL, CO, DC, DE, FL, GA, IN, MI, PA, TX, VA, WI: CNA, HHA, HA

CA: CHHA

CT: Homemaker-Home Health Aide

IL: HHA, NA

KS: Home Health Aide certificate

MO: Home Health Aide

NJ: Homemaker-Home Health Aide

OH: Home Health Aide

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

1. The ability to read, write, and carry out directions.
2. The ability to travel per job requirements.
3. A telephone available in home.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS/PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described for the Home Health Aide (HHA) are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of the Home Health Aide (HHA), the employee is regularly required to:

• 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 by the Home Health Aide (HHA) include:

• Close vision.
• Distance vision.
• Ability to adjust focus.

The Home Health Aide (HHA) will be required to sit and stoop, kneel, and crouch.

DIRECTION RECEIVED

1. Reports directly to the VITAS Nurse.
2. Receives clinical direction from the VITAS Nurse.