Home Health Aide Education Requirements: What Training Do HHAs Need?

A successful care agency depends on a reliable and efficient caregiver team. Direct care workers, including Home Health Aides (HHAs), play an integral role in home health care providing quality assistance and support to patients and their families.

In a $302 billion industry quality training is essential. In addition to ensuring the highest standard of patient care, training ensures that your organization meets all requirements and maintains a positive reputation.

But what are the home health aide education requirements and what training can you develop to meet them? In this article, we’ll explore how to efficiently guide and train your HHAs.

What Are the Minimum Home Health Aide Education Requirements?

There are no standardized requirements for direct care workers nationwide—minimum qualifications vary by state and federal agency. Generally, state and federal agencies do not require HHAs to be certified to work in direct care, but you should verify your state requirements.

The minimum common criteria across states is a high school diploma, but an equivalent credential, such as a GED, is acceptable. Candidates with a high school diploma should be able to prove they took health-related courses, such as health, biology, anatomy, or communications. A written or oral competency test should be available for those who don't meet this requirement. 

Do HHAs Need Certification?

Although certification isn't required for every home health aide job, HHAs can pursue certification to prove their understanding and abilities. To become certified, HHAs must undergo training at an accredited institution. There will be a written certification test and practical skills test, which includes skills like testing vital signs and bathing patients. 

Upon passing the exam, the HHA receives a certification and a listing in the state and nationwide directories of HHAs. 

With a team of certified HHAs, your agency can provide the highest quality care to your clients. Additionally, offering a pathway for your team to obtain certification can help increase employee satisfaction and retention.

What Type of Training Do Home Health Aides Need? 

HHA training requirements vary by agency. Many private agencies don't have formal training requirements, but Medicare and Medicaid-funded agencies must provide at least 75 hours of training. More experienced aides, nursing assistants (CNAs), or registered nurses often provide this training on the job.

HHAs must also attend yearly training to renew their certification, usually 12 hours, but it depends on the state.

Training courses for HHAs should provide comprehensive training in the following areas.

Infection control

During this training, HHAs learn to maintain a healthy environment to prevent spreading infectious diseases. HHAs will learn cleaning, disinfecting, and protection techniques to control an infection's spread. Topics include:

• Hand hygiene
• Disposal of sharp or contaminated equipment
• Cleaning and disinfection
• Use of personal protective equipment (PPE)

Safety/fall prevention

Falls are more common among older adults and have a greater impact regardless of severity. Around 37% of older adults who fall each year said they needed medical treatment. It is important for HHAs to be aware of the risks associated with falls, and the training area teaches them how to prevent them or minimize their probability.

Hygiene assistance

Many older adults have limited mobility or medical conditions that affect their ability to maintain proper hygiene. Helping patients with hygiene upkeep is essential to an HHA's role. During this training, direct care workers will learn how to safely bathe patients, care for their oral hygiene, and care for their nails. The course also helps HHAs practice patience when working with older adults.

Elder abuse recognition

There’s a high abuse rate among the elderly—statistics show that 1 in 6 people 60 and older in community living suffer abuse. HHAs need comprehensive lessons on what verbal, physical, sexual, emotional, and financial abuse looks like and how to report it. The training covers topics such as how to recognize abuse or neglect, prevent it, and report it.

Safe mobility management

From canes and crutches to wheelchairs and stair lifts, mobility equipment is often an important part of older people's lives. While mobility aids provide many benefits to users, they also may cause injury if misused, and some require precise instructions to operate. Therefore, HHAs should receive thorough training on how to use them. 

Assessing vital signs

Because vital signs are a medical procedure, HHAs aren’t permitted to take them in every state, but knowledge of them remains an important part of their training. This course teaches HHAs to study and track clients' health and to evaluate any changes in the client's vital signs—temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and pain—to determine when it is appropriate to do so. By knowing when measurements are unhealthy, HHAs can seek medical attention.

Range-of-motion assistance

As many older people require assistance with movement, healthcare assistants must understand their safe range of motion. In this training, HHAs learn about the anatomy of body joints, muscles, range-of-motion exercises, and muscle work. This teaches them how to help older adults perform several safe range-of-motion workouts to strengthen their upper body and joints while improving their overall physical health.

Emergency response

Healthcare assistants must be attentive and alert enough to avert mishaps and disasters when caring for the elderly. This class teaches HHAs about emergency medical response and what to do in natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, severe weather conditions, and fires.

How to Provide Training That Meets Home Health Aide Education Requirements

Check federal requirements 

For Medicare or Medicaid home health agencies, an HHA must follow federal training guidelines. These include at least 75 hours of training, of which 16 hours of classroom training must come before 16 hours of supervised practical training. The guidelines outline training subject areas and the standards for evaluating competency.

Check state requirements

Every state has regulations and rules defining best practices for HHAs, and the training levels vary widely. Of the 50 states:

• 33 don't require more than the minimum federal standard of 75 hours 
• 18 exceed the federal minimum
• 6 meet the National Academy of Medicine recommendation of 120 hours
• 16 require more than the minimum clinical training hours, up to 80
• 11 require HHAs to be CNAs
• 4 allow CNAs to become HHAs with supplementary training

Understand the precedence requirement

After noting the state and federal requirements, you may wonder how to adhere to each diligently. It's simple: the stricter requirement always takes precedence. 

Provide comprehensive training for direct care staff

As long as these programs meet the laws of the federal and state laws, you can build a direct care staff training program to foster a deeper understanding of what home health care means.

Use technological solutions like CareAcademy

Direct care worker training online is accessible anytime, anywhere, and is more cost-effective than traditional classroom training. CareAcademy offers comprehensive courses on safety, infection control, and dementia care. Our interactive and engaging courses provide learners with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. 

CareAcademy Offers 24/7 HHA Training

CareAcademy is dedicated to making agency management easy and efficient.  Meet home health aide education requirements and more with our comprehensive library of online training courses. Our industry-leading caregiver training platform offers bite-sized, scenario-based video training designed specifically for smartphones. 

Get your staff onboarded faster, comply with state regulations easier, and help your healthcare workers stay up-to-date with the latest best practices. With our platform, you can maximize your home health aide education efforts while minimizing costs.

Interested? Click here to learn more.