Home Health Aide; HHA

Position: Home Health Aide (HHA)

Join to apply for the Home Health Aide (HHA) role at VITAS Healthcare

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

Assigned

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 with ambulation.
• Assist with certain treatments as ordered by the physician and taught and supervised by the nurse, including: changing a colostomy bag; using a walker or wheelchair; reinforcing dressings; assisting with prescribed range-of-motion exercises; using an ice cap or collar; measuring intake and output of fluids; and assisting 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.

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. § 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 that the Home Health Aide has successfully completed 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

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.

• 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.
• Close vision and distance vision; ability to adjust focus.
• Required to sit and stoop, kneel, and crouch.

Direction Received

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

Seniority Level

• Entry level

Employment Type

• Full‑time

Job Function

• Health Care Provider

Industries

• Hospitals and Health Care

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