Home Health Aide Certificate

What is A home health aide Certification?

With a certificate as a Home Health Aide you will be able to help patients in their homes who are in need of assistance because of illness, disability, lack of mobility/stability, or some cognitive deficit.  You may help patients every day, for a few hours a day three times a week, or any other hours that are needed to take care of personal needs like eating, bathing, or using the bathroom.  You may also help them with grocery shopping or doctors’ visits.  You may take care of basic medical procedures like dispensing medicine, taking vital signs, or getting a prescription filled while also helping with cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. Some of the work may be done as part of a hospice program for people nearing the ends of their lives.  Some Home Health Aides work for families while others work for agencies.

To earn a Home Health Aide certificate, you’ll take courses in basic patient care, CPR, first aid, and life support, and the program will take up to a year to complete.  If you really want to help people by being patient and caring to people in need, you’ll have a good job outlook—better than average—for the foreseeable future. You may not get rich, but you’ll find the work rewarding in other ways.  Jobs titles you’ll see are Home Health Aide, Home Health Companion, and Home Hospice Aide.

The videos below discuss “typical” programs, so they should help regardless of which school you are considering.