Home Health Aide; HHA

Urgently Hiring
. The VITAS Home Health Aide (HHA) is a non‑exempt employee, trained to provide personal care and services to hospice patients to augment care given by family members or other caregivers. Salary Range: $22–$23 per hour.

• Performs only those personal care activities contained in a written assignment. HHA assignments may include:
  • Help the patient maintain good personal hygiene.
  • Plan and prepare meals; feed or assist with feeding the patient when needed.
  • Assist with patient ambulation.
  • Assist with certain treatments as ordered by the physician and taught and supervised by the nurse for a specific patient, including: change of the colostomy bag; use of a walker or wheelchair; reinforcement of a dressing; prescribed range‑of‑motion exercises; prescribed ice cap or collar; measure intake and output of fluids; and assist with medications that are ordinarily self‑administered.
  • Read and record temperature, pulse, and respiration.

• 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.

• Be assigned by VITAS to any institutional setting.
• Change sterile dressings.
• Irrigate body cavities (e.g., 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.

• High School graduate or equivalent preferred.
• Meets personnel qualifications of a Home Health Aide as specified in 42 C.F.R. Section 484.4 and Section 484.36.
• Documented evidence of 75 hours of training as specified in 42 C.F.R. Sections 484.36(a)(1).
• Documented evidence that Home Health Aide has successfully completed a Competency Evaluation program as described in 42 C.F.R. Section 484.36(b).

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.

• Ability to read, write, and carry out directions.
• Ability to travel per job requirements.
• Telephone available in home.

• 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.
• Be able to talk and hear.

Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The home health aide may be required to sit, stoop, kneel, and crouch. The HHA reports directly to the VITAS Nurse and receives clinical direction from the VITAS Nurse.