Home Health Aide; HHA

Position: Home Health Aide (HHA)

Apply for the Home Health Aide (HHA) position at VITAS Healthcare
.

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

Assigned

Job Responsibilities

• Perform personal care activities as written in an assignment. Tasks may include:
  • Maintain patient personal hygiene.
  • Plan and prepare meals; assist with feeding when needed.
  • Assist patient ambulation.
  • Assist with treatments ordered by physician and supervised by a nurse, e.g., changing colostomy bags, operating walkers or wheelchairs, dressing reinforcement, prescribed range‑of‑motion exercises, prescribed ice caps or collars, measuring intake and output, and administering medications that are ordinarily self‑administered.
  • Read and record temperature, pulse, and respiration.

Other Responsibilities (Not in Written Assignment)

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

Restrictions – Tasks Not Allowed

• Be assigned to any institutional setting.
• Change sterile dressings.
• Irrigate body cavities (e.g., enema).
• Irrigate a colostomy or wound.
• Perform 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.
• 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 HHA 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 to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing duties, the employee is regularly required to:

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

Vision Requirements

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

Direction Received

• HHA reports directly to the VITAS Nurse.
• HHA 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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