Home Health Aide / Certified Nursing Assistant

The VITAS Home Health Aide (HHA)

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.

Salary: $20‑$24 per hour, plus mileage reimbursement and full benefits.

Schedule: Monday‑Friday, rotating weekends, 8 am to 5 pm.

Assigned Job Responsibilities

• HHA helps the patient maintain good personal hygiene.
• HHA plans and prepares meals; feeds or assists with feeding the patient when needed.
• HHA assists the patient with ambulation.
• HHA assists with certain treatments as ordered by the physician and taught and supervised by the nurse for a specific patient, including: change of the colostomy bag; use of a walker or wheelchair; reinforcement of a dressing; prescribed range‑of‑motion exercises; prescribed ice cap or collar; measure intake and output of fluids; and assist with medications that are ordinarily self‑administered.
• HHA reads and records temperature, pulse and respiration.

Other Responsibilities not Included in a Written Assignment

• HHA assists in maintaining a safe and healthy environment.
• HHA promotes the patient’s mental alertness through involvement in activities of interest.
• HHA provides simple emotional and psychological support to the patient, family and other caregivers.
• HHA reports any changes in the patient’s mental or physical condition or home situation to the VITAS Nurse and interdisciplinary team.
• HHA teaches basic personal care to the primary caregiver.
• HHA practices basic infection control measures.
• HHA observes, reports, and documents patient status and the care and activities provided.
• HHA completes at least 12 hours of in‑service training per calendar year.
• HHA handles other tasks as assigned.

The Home Health Aide (HHA) May Not

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

Qualifications

• High school graduate or equivalent preferred.
• Meets personnel qualifications of a Home Health Aide as specified in 42 C.F.R. Sections 484.4 and 484.36.
• Documented evidence of 75 hours of training per 42 C.F.R. Section 484.36(a)(1).
• Documented evidence that the 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

• Ability to read, write, and carry out directions.
• Ability to travel per job requirements.
• Telephone available in home.

Essential Functions / Physical Demands

The physical demands described for the HHA represent those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties, the employee is regularly required to:

• Assist in lifting and transferring patients as required.
• Lift objects in excess of 20 pounds.
• Stand or walk for more than one hour per day.
• Talk and hear.

Specific vision abilities required:

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

The HHA will be required to sit, stoop, kneel, and crouch.

Direction Received

HHA reports directly to the VITAS Nurse.

HHA receives clinical direction from the VITAS Nurse.