Home Health Aide​/Certified Nursing Assistant; CNA

Position: Home Health Aide/Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)

VITAS Home Health Aide (HHA) is a non‑exempt employee who receives training to provide personal care and services to hospice patients to complement care given by family members or other caregivers.

Salary Range: $19 - $20 per hour.

Job Responsibilities

• Perform only those personal care activities contained in a written assignment.
• Help the patient maintain good personal hygiene.
• Plan and prepare meals, feed or assist with feeding the patient when needed.
• Assist the patient’s ambulation.
• Assist with treatments ordered by the physician 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.
• Assist with medications that are ordinarily self‑administered.
• Read and record temperature, pulse, and respiration.

Other Responsibilities Not Included in a Written Assignment

• Assist in maintaining a safe and healthy environment.
• Promote the patient’s mental alertness through involvement in activities of interest.
• Provide simple emotional and psychological support to the patient, family, and other caregivers.
• Report any changes in the patient’s mental or physical condition or home situation to the VITAS Nurse and members of the interdisciplinary team.
• Teach basic personal care to the primary caregiver.
• Practice basic infection control measures.
• Observe, report, and document patient status and the care and activities provided.
• Complete at least 12 hours of in‑service training per calendar year.
• Handle other tasks as assigned.

Restrictions (Tasks the HHA May Not Perform)

• 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 not assigned by the VITAS nurse or included in the plan of care.

Qualifications

• High School graduate or equivalent (preferred).
• Meet the personnel qualifications of a Home Health Aide as specified in 42 C.F.R. § 484.4 and § 484.36.
• Documented evidence of 75 hours of training as specified in 42 C.F.R. § 484.36(a)(1).
• Documented evidence of successful completion of a Competency Evaluation program as described in 42 C.F.R. § 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

Representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• 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:

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

Additional physical requirements:

• Sit, stoop, kneel, and crouch.

Direction Received

• Reports directly to the VITAS Nurse.
• Receives clinical direction from the VITAS Nurse.

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