Nursing Assistants Can Make More Money As A Home Health Aide

In today's economy, it would be imperative to increase a person's chances in obtaining work, by diversifying your career. As a Nursing Assistant there are opportunities available, but as a Home Health Aide you can add additional skills to your resume. This educational addition will take less time than a Nursing Assistant training.

Nursing Assistants work with multiple patients in various medical institutions and preform care such as bathing, grooming, transferring, and taking vital signs.These are skills that can lead the nursing aide to higher positions in nursing. Health Care is always needing competent staff to assist with patient care. So, it only makes sense for a Nursing Aide to work in home care. The skills are easily transferred to a Home Health Aide. An Aide takes care of patients in their homes. An aide takes care of one patient at a time. An Aide can work eight or twelve hours a shift. These shifts are assigned to the Home Health Aide by the Home Care Coordinator. The H.H.A can also work overnight in the patients home. This can be for three or four days straight.

The amount of pay may be capped off at a rate of sixteen hours for the day, because you will be sleeping and will not be paid when your sleeping.The advantage of this set up is that a certified nursing assistant can receive a Home Health Aide certification, by taking a conversion class at an agency that converts certified nursing assistant to H.H.A. This usually takes one day of class, which goes over additional skills that are not performed by Nursing Assistants, such as cooking, shopping, reviewing the plan of care, and safety in the field. Since Nursing Assistants already have the medical training background, which covers infection control, care of the elderly, bed making, one person transfer with a hydraulic lift, and light housekeeping their training conversion is fast. So, after the training is complete the student not only already has a nursing assistant license, but also obtains a home health aide certification. which makes that individual more marketable in this economy. The certificate remains valid as long as the Home Health Aide comes in for in service during the year. If the person does not work as a home health aide for two years, the certificate will expire. Then the individual must take the one day class over.