Home Health Aide; HHA

Overview

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.

• 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, supervised by the nurse, including colostomy bag change, use of a walker or wheelchair, dressing reinforcement, prescribed range‑of‑motion exercises, prescribed ice cap or collar, measure intake and output of fluids, and assist with medications normally self‑administered.
• Read and record temperature, pulse, and respiration.

• Maintain a safe and healthy environment.
• Promote the patient’s mental alertness through activities of interest.
• Provide emotional and psychological support to the patient, family, and caregivers.
• Report changes in the patient’s condition 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 provided.
• Complete at least 12 hours of in‑service training per calendar year.
• Handle other tasks as assigned.

• Assume any institutional role assigned by VITAS.
• Change sterile dressings.
• Perform irrigations, gastric lavage, catheterization, or medication administration.
• Apply heat, care for a tracheotomy tube, or suction a patient.
• Provide any personal care not assigned by the VITAS nurse or included in the plan of care.

• High School graduate or equivalent (preferred).
• Meet personnel qualifications of a Home Health Aide as specified in 42 C.F.R. Sections 484.4 and 484.36.
• Document evidence of 75 hours of required training.
• Document evidence that the HHA has successfully completed a Competency Evaluation program.

• Read, write, and follow directions.
• Travel per job requirements.
• Have a telephone available at 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.
• Talk and hear clearly.

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

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