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Personal Care Aides

Also called: Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), Home Health Aide (HHA), Home Care Aide, Caregiver

What they do:
Assist the elderly, convalescents, or persons with disabilities with daily living activities at the person's home or in a care facility. Duties performed at a place of residence may include keeping house (making beds, doing laundry, washing dishes) and preparing meals. May provide assistance at non-residential care facilities. May advise families, the elderly, convalescents, and persons with disabilities regarding such things as nutrition, cleanliness, and household activities.
On the job, you would:
  • Administer bedside or personal care, such as ambulation or personal hygiene assistance.
  • Prepare and maintain records of client progress and services performed, reporting changes in client condition to manager or supervisor.
  • Perform housekeeping duties, such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes or dishes, or running errands.

Knowledge

Business
  • customer service
Safety and Government
  • public safety and security
Arts and Humanities
  • English language
Math and Science
  • psychology

Skills

Basic Skills
  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • talking to others
Problem Solving
  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Abilities

Verbal
  • listen and understand what people say
  • communicate by speaking
Ideas and Logic
  • notice when problems happen
  • order or arrange things

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include
helping people, teaching, and talking.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Integrity
  • Dependability
  • Concern for Others
  • Self Control
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Attention to Detail

Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Electronic mail software
  • Email software
  • Voltage SecureMail
Spreadsheet software
Optical character reader OCR or scanning software
  • Computer reading software

Education

Education: (rated 2 of 5)
high school diploma or
some college
usually needed

Get started on your career:

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Job Outlook

Bright Outlook
New job opportunities are very likely in the future.
Salary
$19,730
per year, on average
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See more details at O*NET OnLine about personal care aides.