Home Health Care

For a rewarding experience if you're a nurse, in home health care would be a good choice. You get the opportunity to change someone's life by caring for their needs and allowing them to stay in the area they are used to. Too often, the elderly and disabled are forced into institutionalized facilities just because they have no one left to watch out for them.

Dropping people who are sick into unfamiliar surroundings can be especially traumatic. The combination of unfamiliar surroundings and people can have a devastating effect on the state of mind of these people. As has been proved through research, the state of mind and the will to live is an important factor for fast recovery. Thus it is necessary to ensure that the patient is stress-free to ensure their fast recovery.

In the case of an older person, who may have already lost a spouse, comforting surroundings are especially important. Taking into consideration how long they may have lived in one place, suddenly moving them to a place that they are unfamiliar with can be devastating.

The state you live in will determine if you have to take a state-administered test. Some states do not have a state law that the home health care worker be licensed or certified. Many health care providing agencies are available for placing clients and workers together. This is typically the way home health care workers find employment. If you move after receiving your training, you may be required to bring documentation to the agency through which you will be seeking work. Any certifications, licensing, or relevant training you have had will have to be submitted to this health care agency. Alternatively, in the case of seeking work through a nursing registry, they will require this information as well.

Nowadays, a lot of folks are covered by either Medicare or Medicaid. To obtain employment with either of these departments, home healthcare aides need a minimum of 75 hours of training. Sometimes they are also required to take a test to demonstrate whether they are sufficiently competent. If you contemplate employment with a licensed private agency, then you must have 40 training hours and take a competency test as well. However, there are agencies which have even higher recruiting standards. Each agency has its own policies.

If you are planning to seek work through a nurse's registry, you will have to provide proof of completing at least 40 hours of training for health aides in either a public vocational school or a private career school licensed by the state, or a home health agency. These requirements are in place to assure clients of the qualifications of their home health care worker.

A home health agency can provide you training to work as an aide. To satisfy the growing demand for workers in this field and help people enter a field that pays better, the agencies sometime relax their criteria and provide free or reduced training. This is provided the candidates meet certain criteria. These agencies can provide such training because they are licensed by the states in which they operate.

You are required to have two hours of HIV/AIDS training to be employed by any home health agency or nurse's registry. It is required that every two years you pass an hour long in-service training test on HIV/AIDS. Obtaining a current certificate in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is also required.

To work as an aide for a Medicare or Medicaid agency, employees must complete twelve hours of in-service course work each year. The time spent working on CPR training counts as part of the twelve hour requirement.

As you can see there is not a lot of training required for this type of job. However, be prepared to work all the hours not everyone else wants, because being the last to be hired, means everyone that was there before you will get the best hours. The rewards you reap will far outweigh all the qualms you have about pursuing this job.

Finding satisfaction in your job is sometimes quite rare in the workplace. However, knowing that you have given someone the opportunity to stay in a familiar environment and avoid ending up with strangers can give you the satisfaction that you desire.