What Are the Duties of Personal Home Care?

If you are interested in hiring a personal home care attendant, or considering working as one yourself, you want to know what duties are expected of you. While a great deal of flexibility exists in this area, certain job responsibilities are common across the board. Whether or not aides will take on additional tasks is something that should be discussed in individual situations. Also, in certain states, home care attendants working for an agency must be certified and licensed; check whether this applies to your situation.

Dressing

• Assisting the client to dress and undress is one duty of a care aide. Often, these services are provided to senior citizens, who have trouble selecting clothing, buttoning and unbuttoning garments, and removing items.

Bathing

• Bathing and showering clients is another common duty. Some elderly people are especially at risk in the bathroom alone, where they can slip, fall, and injure themselves. Home care workers help them use special equipment (such as a shower chair) in order to get cleaned up safely.

Medical Management

• Medical management may be an expected duty, but it depends on the employer and the training of the aide. Laying out oral medications, such as pills, for the client, is possible; administering injections is typically done by a nurse. Home care workers may also make phone calls on behalf of a client (for instance, to a family member or pharmacy).

  Aides may also accompany clients to the doctor's office and help them communicate with the physician or other staff. They can take notes and ask questions of which the client may not have thought; they may then relay the result of the visit and any recommendations to family members or health care coordinators.

Other

• Feeding clients, performing housework or laundry, and sometimes transporting patients or running errands are other home care worker duties. These professionals can also assist them in practicing therapy exercises or stretches recommended by other health workers. At times, these aides simply provide company and socialization to their clients, who may be lonely and lacking intellectual stimulation.

Considerations

• Other types of home care exist in addition to those rendered by aides. Such care may be given by professionals like nurses (RNs, or Registered Nurses; LPNs, or Licensed Practical Nurses; and NPs, or Nurse Practitioners). You can also hire physical, speech, and occupational therapists, spiritual workers (such as pastors), social workers, therapists, and hospice workers. Duties for other types of workers include things that aides cannot typically do, such as providing wound care, giving injections, and offering spiritual counsel.