Think You Want To Be a Home Health Aide? The Answer Here

Home health aides (HHA’s) take care of elderly, ill, and disabled patients; and they most work in the patient’s home.

Why’s that?

It is the fastest growing job in the country and expected to grow by about 48% between now and 2026. Most of this is driven by aging of the population and it’s much cheaper to stay at home while aging/recovering.

Being a home health aide requires no formal education and you can get on-the-job training. With the right planning you can be working in 4-6 weeks.

The job requires compassion, organization, attentiveness, patience and, yes, even physical strength. Aides need to exercise integrity and trustworthiness. There will be minimal on-site supervision and “exposure” to personal belongings.

Are You Fit To Be a HHA?

Find out if you’d be a good fit for the job before you head down the homecare path.

Ask yourself: “will I make a good aide or have the qualities it takes to work in home healthcare”.

These types of tests are also known as Pre-Employment Tests, HHA Profile Tests, Pre-Screening Exam, Psychometric Tests, etc. – all comes down to narrower it down a step further to help the potential employee and employer make sure there is a quick look to not waste time of either party.

Employers such as home health agencies, assisted nursing facilities and hospitals use personality test questions to make sure they hire the most qualified folks.

Health Care Agencies Use of Personality Tests

Because of the hiring frenzy by agencies they are trying to be as efficient as possible with the ways in which they screen potential employees.

For example, if fifty (50) people show up to a home health aide job fair then employers want to narrow it down (if possible). They need to focus on those who will make the best aides.

They do not want to hire, train and have all them working in a few weeks only to find that half of them don’t have “what it takes” to be a home health aide.

Employers are using personality tests to gain insight to who is applying and if they are the right fit for them and the clients with whom they’ll be working.

They can also help hiring managers determine who may be the best fit for a specific job at the agency/facility. Results of some tests, for example, could point individuals to more of a personal care aide role and not a home health aide.

Personality tests give employers one more piece of information about who is applying to work for them. Besides, they are simple and inexpensive to administer.

But remember:

They are not the ultimate decision-maker and should not alone be the determining factor for employment; these tests cannot predict the future (wish they could!) but provide a little bit of insight.

In fact, most “personality” tests focus on the “behavior” of traits that won’t change over time such as compassion, empathy, caring, etc. They would be difficult to determine future behavior such as drug use, larceny, etc.

Here’s a comprehensive pre-employment test to be used for home health aides.