Once you become a Home Health Aide (HHA), you need to expect a variety of duties that has to be done for each client.
How to successfully perform these duties and tasks can be taught by attending proper training and earning your HHA certificate.
It is important to attend classes at a reputable school or agency.
Still, training and education are not the only qualifications that a successful HHA should possess.
You will need to have excellent personal qualities that will improve the quality of your care for your patients.
If you have what is necessary to be a successful Home Health Aide, you can consider becoming one.
You can keep on reading our article which focuses on the top qualities of a successful HHA.
Future Home health aides will be working in the home health care field, meaning that their job will directly impact the lives of their patients.
So as to reach greater success and a long-lasting career as an HHA you will need to possess the following qualities.
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Top Qualities of a Successful HHA
Good Communicator
The most of your shift, you will be working with patients who would like to communicate, as they are frequently isolated due to their illness or condition.
You will be using different ways to communicate with them, not only by talking but also by writing and active listening.
Communication skills are so important and considered a great advantage in each and every career, and this is especially significant in the medical arena.
People who are the best HHAs are good listeners as they need to listen to their clients so as to show that they are really concerned about their well-being.
When it comes to speaking, a good HHA will always speak clearly and will use the best and simple vocabulary to make sure that his/her clients understand everything he/she is saying.
However, reaching good communication skills is not an easy process and it usually takes a lot of time and practice to achieve.
So as to become a good communicator, you can consider finding a course that will teach you these skills.
Patient
Another significant quality of an HHA is patience.
This would include your capacity to be calm in an emergency situation and have self-control.
You need to be able to stand in tiring situations without complaining, as you will be working with people who have a physical or mental condition.
Even though your work will be done according to a set schedule, you will need to stay longer being that your patient may have limited mobility resulting in a longer amount of time needed to perform a certain activity.
You will need to help them complete any tasks and this can cause you to be late with your next client.
Our suggestion is to neither rush the client, nor complain that you have a fixed schedule and that you are late.
By being patient at all times, you will not upset the patients.
Honest
It is very important to always be honest with your patients and their families and try to understand the feelings of the daughter or son of a person who requires the assistance of a home health aide.
By knowing that their HHA is an honest person will make them feel secure and peaceful.
HHAs spend a lot of time in the private homes of their clients, so it is necessary that they are trustworthy people.
HHAs have to treat both the patient and his/her property with respect.
Dependable
Dependability is yet another quality of a great HHA.
The best HHAs are trusted to complete the agreed job, and it includes arriving on time to visit the clients, and successfully complete the assigned tasks.
You need to know that your clients will depend on your services, and in case you do not fulfill their needs, they will not be able to carry on their day.
By being there at an agreed time and completing specific tasks makes you a perfect home health aide.
So, the first quality that you need to show your clients is that you are a responsible person.
Perceptive
A perceptive person is able to understand things or situations relatively easily and act according to the specific situation.
After you have been assisting clients on a routine basis for some time, you will get a sense of how the client functions and what has to be done so as to provide him/her support.
A perceptive Home Health Aide will notice any particular changes in them.
This means that it is an HHA’s responsibility to notice if a client needs more help than you can provide.
This includes noticing that they are not talking as much as they used to, or they may have lost weight. All these changes have to be noticed on time and reported to your supervisor.
Empathetic
Empathy is also an important quality of an HHA.
Empathetic people are able to share in the feelings of another person, meaning that your patients can feel that their emotions are understood and that they are not alone during difficult moments in their lives.
It is necessary that an HHA displays empathy toward his/her patients as it will help reduce recovery time.
