In addition to higher pay and Medicare coverage, I’d also like to see some tighter regulations on training. What’s required varies by state, but usually it’s not too stringent, often something like a 2 week course and a background check.
I work in 911 dispatch, people who have home health aides obviously have a lot of medical emergencies, and it’s often those aides calling me when they do. Often they’re completely clueless about the patients medical history, unable to answer basic questions like their age, often don’t even know the address, and often are uncooperative with me and sometimes refuse to do things like perform CPR when I need them to.
We are going to have a lot more elderly soon, and not a lot of young people to fulfill these roles. I am not sure making the requirements more stringent is the best answer… I would rather everyone have an aid, rather than half the people having heavily qualified aids.
Maybe they could create some program that just applies to the industry, where there is some form with all that vital information that the state administrates thar the care giver is required to maintain on hand. Free/mandatory CPR classes should be a must also.
In addition to higher pay and Medicare coverage, I’d also like to see some tighter regulations on training. What’s required varies by state, but usually it’s not too stringent, often something like a 2 week course and a background check.
I work in 911 dispatch, people who have home health aides obviously have a lot of medical emergencies, and it’s often those aides calling me when they do. Often they’re completely clueless about the patients medical history, unable to answer basic questions like their age, often don’t even know the address, and often are uncooperative with me and sometimes refuse to do things like perform CPR when I need them to.
Some are great, most aren’t.
We are going to have a lot more elderly soon, and not a lot of young people to fulfill these roles. I am not sure making the requirements more stringent is the best answer… I would rather everyone have an aid, rather than half the people having heavily qualified aids.
Maybe they could create some program that just applies to the industry, where there is some form with all that vital information that the state administrates thar the care giver is required to maintain on hand. Free/mandatory CPR classes should be a must also.