14 Pros and Cons of Being a Home Health Aide

Are you contemplating joining the healthcare field and helping the elderly?

Perhaps becoming a home health aide is an ideal career path for you.

Working as a home health aide allows you to help elderly individuals who are unable to care for themselves.

Some of the things you’d be assisting with include helping with cooking, bathing, shopping, personal activities, and transportation.

But before you join the home healthcare field, check out the following list of pros and cons to determine whether this is the best career path for you.

Pros of Being a Home Health Aide

Here is a list of advantages of working as a home health aide:

1. An Increase in Demand

One of the first advantages of working as a home health aide is that the profession is growing, which means there’s a constant demand.

This also means that you’ll never be out of work.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, home health careers are increasing by 15%.

And because there’s an increase in the elderly population, the demand for home health aides will also increase, which means you’ll be able to quickly find work.

This is a good thing if you’re looking for a home healthcare job where you can start quickly.

2. Flexibility

If having a flexible career is important to you, you are in luck being in the home health care field.

Working as a home health care aide offers a lot of flexibility in scheduling.

It is perfect if you have other responsibilities in your personal life, including small children.

When you have a lot of other things going on in your life, you can create a schedule that works for both you and the people you are taking care of.

This means that you can choose when you’d like to work and when you’d like to take time off.

3. Developing Relationships

Another pro of working as a home health aide is that you’ll develop some pretty awesome relationships with the patients you are caring for.

You’ll become a critical part of their lives since you’ll be seeing them frequently.

Besides, it’s nearly impossible not to develop a personal relationship with someone you spend so much time with.

And because of this rare connection with them, you’ll feel more like family when you’re around them.

After all, who wouldn’t want to settle for a job that can lead to creating even more friendships in their life?

4. Work Is Rewarding

Working in an extremely rewarding profession is always a plus.

Fortunately, this is one of the biggest advantages of working as a home health aide.

Why is that you ask?

You’ll have the chance to make a huge impact on the people’s lives that you take care of, including their families.

Not only will you form many great connections, but you’ll receive a ton of gratitude from the patients you care for.

As a result, this can be fulfilling.

After all, these feelings will leave you wanting to go to work instead of dreading it.

5. No Experience Required

If a career as a home health aide sounds enticing, you’ll be glad to know that no experience is required to get started.

No extensive education or training is required on your path to becoming a home health aide.

Many of these positions only require you to have at least a high school diploma or a GED.

You may also be required to go through on-the-job training, which is normally provided by the agency you are employed by.

If you don’t have the means or are not interested in pursuing higher education, being a home health aide may be an excellent career choice.

6. Variety of Tasks

One thing you’ll quickly learn when working as a home health aide is that the needs of the clients will differ.

So, what does this mean for you? It means that your job tasks will vary, which can be great for those looking for such a work environment.

For example, you may have a client who needs help dressing and bathing, while another client may just be looking for companionship and light housekeeping.

And this may even change day by day if you have more than one client you take care of.

You don’t get to pick and choose which clients you want, which can be good if you like unpredictability.

7. Opportunity for Advancement

Perhaps working as a home health aide is just a stepping stone to another career for you in the healthcare field.

Or maybe you want to stick around as a home health aide for quite some time.

Either way, it’s good to know that this is a career where you have plenty of options.

With additional training and experience, if you choose, you may move up to a more specialized role in the home healthcare field.

For example, maybe you have dreams of eventually becoming a home nurse, an occupational therapist, or even a nursing assistant.

There are endless opportunities, and you are in control of when you’re ready for a change.

Cons of Being a Home Health Aide

Now let’s look at a list of cons of working as a home health aide:

1. Can Be Stressful

While it is certainly heartwarming to take care of others when they need it most, it can start to take a toll on you, which creates stress.

For instance, if you are not careful while caring for a client who is injured, it can become increasingly overwhelming.

The client can also feel a level of stress, as they may feel uncomfortable having someone in their home caring for them.

This is because they may feel they have lost their independence.

This can cause the patient to act out, which can create a hectic, stressful environment.

2. Unstructured Work

Working in someone’s home can bring unexpected changes out of nowhere, compared to working in a healthcare facility.

For example, you may make plans to grocery shop for your patient every week, but because of short notice, you may have to run more errands.

If you are more adaptable to working in structured work environments compared to unstructured ones, a career as a home health aide may not be ideal for you.

3. Pay Is Low

Even though home health care is a critical profession, often the pay is low and comes with long work hours.

And if you’re a home health aide with very little or no experience, the starting salary can range between $20,130 and $23,560.

This means that you’ll only be making between $10 and $11 per hour starting.

This isn’t good pay if you are dependent on your salary to provide for yourself and your family.

Fortunately, the pay does get better with experience.

4. Physically Demanding

Depending on where you work and your specialty in home health care, a job as a home health aide can be physically demanding.

You’ll often find yourself working under conditions that can be extremely challenging.

For instance, you may usually have to lift heavy items while cleaning your client’s homes.

You may even have to lift your patient if you bathe or groom them.

Home health aides typically work long hours and are on their feet for most of the day.

If you are not able to meet the physical demands of this job, you may want to reconsider.

5. Exposure to Germs

It’s no secret that you’ll be exposed to germs and viruses while working as a home health aide, even after taking every precaution you can.

You are still going to be at risk of contracting a virus from a patient.

Additionally, you must follow strict protocols that will help protect yourself against needlestick injuries, as you’ll be exposed to bodily fluids daily.

Extra steps must be taken when taking care of and cleaning your client’s homes to reduce your risk of catching something.

6. Emotional Stress

While working as a home health aide, you’ll soon find that you will gain a sense of accomplishment when caring for someone.

However, you may also experience a tremendous amount of pain if you lose a patient.

Many home health aides have seen a lot of patients they care for pass away.

As a result, they may need to undergo counseling to prevent burnout from occurring.

In addition, home health aides may come across challenging patients who are difficult to please and treat them unkindly, which can also be mentally draining.

7. Challenges with Transportation

Having more than one client is typically the norm when working as a home health aide.

This can cause transportation challenges as you must frequently travel between clients’ homes.

This can also cause long commute times, especially if the distance between your clients’ homes is huge.

If you don’t have reliable transportation, you may want to reconsider a job as a home health aide.

Pros and Cons of Being a Home Health Aide – Summary Table

Should You Become a Home Health Aide?

Being a hero to your clients and the families of your clients is rewarding in itself.

When a person is of the age where they are no longer able to care for themselves and small daily tasks become challenging to do, your presence means everything.

Being a home health aide is well worth it if you are looking to make a difference in people’s lives, help those in need, and have a career that offers a lot of flexibility.

However, being a home health aide also comes with minor downsides, such as low pay and exposure to germs.

If you can look past those and realize that the good outweighs the bad, a career as a home health aide may be worth pursuing.