Home Health Aide Careers - Top Careers for 2013

Home Health Aide Careers Information

Personal and home care aides and home health aides provide care that allows patients to remain at home instead of staying at hospitals, clinics, or retirement homes.  Working under doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals, home health aides provide front-line care for recovering, disabled, or elderly patients.

The routine for aides can vary, from staying with a client for only a few days to being with the same patient for years. Some aides work exclusively with one client who might need more care than others. While personal/home care aides and home health aides have similar duties, there are several distinctions between the two careers:

Personal and Home Care Aides typically provide solely household duties, such as housekeeping, and work independently from their supervisors.

Home Health Aides provide basic medical care for their patients, such as checking their pulse rate, temperature, and respiration rate. Home health aides answer directly to medical professionals, usually a nurse, and can even be trained to assist with medical equipment.

Home Health Aide Careers Path

In most cases, formal education is not a requirement for employment as a home health aide.   This means that a career as a home health aide is a good option for those looking to gain employment in the healthcare industry in a very short timeframe.   Some employers will direct students to short-time coursework to prepare new hires, but on-the-job training is more common.

The lack of expensive educational requirements makes employment as a home health aide an excellent springboard to many other medical careers.

Many students work as home health aides before or during their coursework, and then move on to positions as registered nurses or medical technicians.   Oftentimes, having previous medical experience of the kind professionals can garner as a home health aide puts them in a strong position in both school admissions and the job market.

Home Health Aide Careers: Compatible Personality Traits

Dependable, caring, courageous, concerned, durable, diligent, considerate, polite, charismatic, friendly, accommodating, reliable, consistent.

Home Health Aide Careers: Salary Expectations

Because of the lack of educational requirements, home health aides will often make less than other entry-level medical professions. According to the Department of Labor, the median annual salary for home health aides is $20,560. Possibilities for advancement, however do exist, both within home healthcare businesses and within the larger healthcare sector, as experience is an important requirement or asset for those wishing to move into other medical occupations.

Home Health Aide Careers: Job Outlook

Because the enormous baby-boomer generation is aging, the healthcare industry as a whole is expected to experience very strong growth. Occupations within healthcare which are especially related to aging patients, such as work as a home health aide, should have particularly good prospects. The Department of Labor estimates that employment for home health aides should grow by more than 70% by 2020.