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Home Health Aides

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Monitor the health status of an individual with disabilities or illness, and address their health-related needs, such as changing bandages, dressing wounds, or administering medication. Work is performed under the direction of offsite or intermittent onsite licensed nursing staff. Provide assistance with routine healthcare tasks or activities of daily living, such as feeding, bathing, toileting, or ambulation. May also help with tasks such as preparing meals, doing light housekeeping, and doing laundry depending on the patient's abilities.

Related: Licensed Practical & Licensed Vocational Nurses Nursing Assistants Paramedics Personal Care Aides Psychiatric Aides

Industries: Health & Counseling

Summary
Details

Administer prescribed oral medications, under the written direction of physician or as directed by home care nurse or aide, and ensure patients take their medicine.
Perform a variety of duties as requested by client, such as obtaining household supplies or running errands.
Change dressings.
Accompany clients to doctors' offices or on other trips outside the home, providing transportation, assistance, and companionship.
Direct patients in simple prescribed exercises or in the use of braces or artificial limbs.
Provide patients and families with emotional support and instruction in areas such as caring for infants, preparing healthy meals, living independently, or adapting to disability or illness.
Care for patients by changing bed linens, washing and ironing laundry, cleaning, or assisting with their personal care.
Plan, purchase, prepare, or serve meals to patients or other family members, according to prescribed diets.
Massage patients or apply preparations or treatments, such as liniment, alcohol rubs, or heat-lamp stimulation.
Maintain records of patient care, condition, progress, or problems to report and discuss observations with supervisor or case manager.
Bathe patients.
Check patients' pulse, temperature, and respiration.
Entertain, converse with, or read aloud to patients to keep them mentally healthy and alert.
Care for children with disabilities or who have sick parents or parents with disabilities.
Provide patients with help moving in and out of beds, baths, wheelchairs, or automobiles and with dressing and grooming.

Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.

Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.

Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

Less than 1 month on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

46140/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

22.18/hr

Currently Employed

4,782,400

Yearly Projected Openings

718900

Social: People interested in this work like activities that include helping people, teaching, and talking. They do well at jobs that need:

Integrity
Dependability
Self Control
Concern for Others
Attention to Detail
Cooperation

Abdominal binders
Blanket frames or lifters
Canes
Crutches
Desktop computers
Electronic blood pressure units
Enema kits
Extremities cradles
Glucose monitors or meters
Home care ventilators
Knee therapeutic brace or support
Lower extremity prosthetic devices
Medical heat lamps
Mercury blood pressure units
Notebook computers
Ostomy appliances
Oxygen therapy delivery system products
Patient lifts
Patient stabilization or fall prevention devices
Personal digital assistant PDAs or organizers
Shower or bath chairs or seats for the physically challenged
Therapeutic ice packs or pillows
Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation units
Upper extremity prosthetic devices
Urinalysis test strips
Vascular or compression apparel or support
Walkers or rollators
Walking braces
Wheelchairs

Cloud-based data access and sharing software
Customer relationship management CRM software
Data base reporting software
Data base user interface and query software
Electronic mail software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Internet browser software
Medical software
Object or component oriented development software
Office suite software
Operating system software
Presentation software
Spreadsheet software
Video conferencing software
Word processing software

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Home Health Aides

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