Home Health Aides

Overview

Home Health Aides has a national median salary of $35,800 per year, with +18.1% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

Monitor the health status of an individual with disabilities or illness, and address their health-related needs, such as changing bandages, dressing wounds, or administering medication. Work is performed under the direction of offsite or intermittent onsite licensed nursing staff. Provide assistance with routine healthcare tasks or activities of daily living, such as feeding, bathing, toileting, or ambulation. May also help with tasks such as preparing meals, doing light housekeeping, and doing laundry depending on the patient's abilities.

Work Values

• Relationships
• Support
• Independence

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• Plan, purchase, prepare, or serve meals to patients or other family members, according to prescribed diets.
• Care for patients by changing bed linens, washing and ironing laundry, cleaning, or assisting with their personal care.
• Bathe patients.
• Maintain records of patient care, condition, progress, or problems to report and discuss observations with supervisor or case manager.
• Provide patients with help moving in and out of beds, baths, wheelchairs, or automobiles and with dressing and grooming.

Work Activities

• Assisting and Caring for Others
• Getting Information
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Thinking Creatively
• Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work
• Developing and Building Teams
• Handling and Moving Objects
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
• Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge

Detailed Work Activities

• Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
• Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
• Encouraging and building mutual trust, respect, and cooperation among team members.
• Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
• Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished a bachelor's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Bachelor's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for a high school diploma or equivalent.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Home Health Aides:

Video Resources