Health

Hands-on training prepares aides for rewarding careers

Amy Leshner Thomas, vice president of Best Choice’s Home Health Care division, employs 800 home health aides and is highly aware of the importance of quality training for her company’s aides.

“We’re trying to do 20 free home health aide training programs at our Bronx and Brooklyn training sites this year,” she says. “These are four-week programs — a bit longer than most programs of their kind. They’ve been developed for the adult learner and include lots of hands-on activities,” says Thomas.

The NYS Department of Health’s mandated curriculum calls for HHAs to complete a 75-hour certified training program. As part of this required program time, eight hours must consist of practical training, says Thomas, which means that for a portion of the instruction, students are interacting with patients in a day (assisted living) facility and performing tasks while being observed by a nurse, including toileting and meals.

“It’s an opportunity for a nurse to watch them interact and look for the confidence there. Being able to actually apply concepts and material learned in class cements learning and personalizes it for students. They love it,” says Thomas.

Another required eight hours are spent in a lab setting.

“Students learn on mannequins, using hospital beds and mandatory equipment,” says Thomas.

The remaining specified training hours are lecture-style.

“We cover toileting, bathing, and checking temperature and pulse, and a few diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes are studied. Safety at home is an important component. Students learn about the common things that can cause a patient to fall, such as throw rugs and wires. Infection control and prevention (hand-washing techniques) are covered too, as well as food and nutrition. What are the correct portion sizes for patients? Diet factors, like low salt, low-fat and low-sugar, are very important,” says Thomas.

At Partners in Care, the free home health aide training program is 114 hours in duration, which exceeds the required NYS number of hours, according to its president, Marki Flannery.

“The extra week we add is telling. We want our aides to be the best in the industry. We reemphasize this and observe them to make sure they’re up to our standards,” says Jay Conolly, vice president of human resources for Partners in Care. “We also offer a personal care attendant upgrade certification, so certified PCAs can be recertified as home health aides,” he adds.

The three-week beginner training classes are offered twice weekly at two New York City locations and once each month in Long Island.

A full drug, health and reference check, criminal background check and fingerprinting screening have to be completed in order to achieve NYS certification.

“The fingerprinting results go to the NYS Department of Health’s Criminal History Record Check, [and] are run through the FBI and Department of Justice [databases]. Aides can never go to a patient’s home without a passing return on this test,” says Conolly.

After the completion of classroom and clinical work and a paid orientation, “Aides can go out in to the field. They meet a supervisor and can start right away,” he addss.

Home health aides also undergo a general health screening.

“This profession keeps you active, bending and moving. There is light housekeeping involved, as some patients can’t do this for themselves. You have to be in good physical health,” says Thomas.

Skill competency must be demonstrated and re-tested annually, adds Flannery. “In order to retain their certification, aides must obtain 12 hours of in-service continuing education annually in NYS,” she says.