Home health pros and cons??

mvm2 · Oct 23, 2014

I have been working in Home Health for over 2 years now and for the most part I love it.

Some of the pros in working for home health

1. For the most part you get to set your own schedules. For my work place a month in advance we put in a monthly work schedule of what days we can work. If there is a day like a childs B-Day that month I simply just cross that day off and I am not scheduled for that day. It is up to me to decide how much I want to work.

2. I love that I get to spend one on one time with my clients. Getting to know them and actually being able to get to know them as a person is such a joy.

3.It is not fast pace and I don't have to feel like a chicken with her head cut off everyday.

4. I always have options of not taking on cases. If I feel it is too far of a drive, or they are a smoker and me with health problems can not work around that kind of enviroment I do't have too.

5. Please be aware that with Home Care you will be doing many household chores for your clients. If this is something that you do not like doing then think hard about being a home health aide. So many times home health aides will complain about the house work but it is part of the job discription and part of the service we give out clients.

The negatives of being a Home Health Aide

1. Sometimes you can be driving a lot

2. Home Health Aides hours can sometimes vary and are not as consistant as lets say working in a LTC. Your schedules can vary from week to week. Sometimes shifts are canceled, and many times it feels like you are on call at all times and schedulers will call you for picking up extra shifts sometimes with short notices as in like an hours notice. Or even the dreaded no shows where you hear someone was suppose to be at Mr. Bill's a half an hour ago...can you go there.

Hope this helpes a little. Like any job it might not be for everyone, but for certain people it is a great health care job, and many aides I feel do love there jobs, and I think we are seeing a trend that more and more people want to stay in there homes as long as possible and we aides can help in extending their time at home where they can be happy.

5ummer · Oct 24, 2014

Thanks for the advice!! I was just curious because I'm just a few weeks I'm taking my state test, I want to be sure that home health is right for me. Because I'm interested in starting off their and I landed an interview with an agency.

johndough · Oct 24, 2014

PROS for me

1. If you get a client you get along with, it is a big stress relief knowing that you don't have a complicated client.

2. Sometimes when you are done with all of the work you need to do and still have a lot of hours left, you just sit down and wait for time to pass. It's like respite. My brain gets all in a panic trying to figure out something to do.

3. You can always refuse clients you don't get along with, but it will probably look bad on your record though.

CONS for me

1. You don't get the a lot of experience. If you plan on becoming a nurse that works at a hospital, it would be a different experience.

2. There's too much driving.

3. If you have multiple clients for one day (totaling of 8 hours), you would be paid for 8 hours of work, but you would have spent 10-12 hours doing something work related such as driving. Some agency requires you to have a 1 hour gap between clients.

5ummer · Oct 25, 2014

Oh wow, well cna work can be optional in terms of getting a job at a facility, hospital, or the home Health route. But what I've been contemplating is working only weekends at a nursing home or hospital. Then staying with the home health agency and maybe have one client during the week in between my classes.