Home Health Aides On The Lives Of People With Disabilities

1(p19) Several medical professionals and educators recognized this shortage and tried to address it by promoting the need for a “mid-level” provider. 1(p21) Eugene A. Stead, Jr., MD was the first person to successfully establish a program designed to train these mid-level providers. In 1965, Stead instituted the first educational program for physician assistants at Duke University with the first class consisting of four ex-Navy medical corpsmen. 1(p24) Several similar programs soon followed and the demand for primary care physicians continued to increase with the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid programs. 1(p25) By 1970, the American Medical Association (AMA) validated the idea of a physician assistant. 1(p29) In the years following, the AMA worked together with other medical societies to establish an accreditation process for the educational programs, and the National Commission on Certification of Physician’s Assistants (NCCPA) determined standards for an examination in order to establish the competency of the physician assistants. 1(p31-38) After the establishment of necessary guidelines, the physician assistant profession continued to grow and gain popularity. Over the years, the scope of the physician assistant’s duties expanded from data gathering and repetitive tasks to include history-taking, physical examinations, diagnosing, treating, and prescribing medications.1 (p8)

The challenge America now faces is the number of people reaching retirement will double in number by 2030, and the U.S. population will increase almost 20 percent ("Our Aging Nation," 2015). The goal is for the elderly to maintain and live with independence and dignity, as well as, provide a wide range of professional health and social service expertise, home care, and residential support and services that will be needed ("Our Aging Nation," 2015). Since the number of caregivers needed for this population will not be able to meet the demands other resolutions are considered necessary.

Assisted living is a fairly new and unique part of the long term care continuum of services. The goal of assisted living is to maximize the independence of older adults while living in a homelike environment. This paper will provide an overview of assisted living facilities including the number of facilities and residents, costs, services, and growth expectations. Challenges with oversight and regulations will be discussed as well as solutions to the problem. Challenges and solutions for staffing and training issues will also be discussed. The paper will also highlight “In Loving Hands Assisted Living” which is a local assisted living facility that I called and visited to aid in my research. I will give an overview of the

Aides spend many hours standing and walking, and often face heavy workloads. Because they may have to move patients in and out of bed or help them stand or walk, they must guard against back injury. Aides may also face hazards from minor infections and major diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis, but can avoid infections by following proper procedures. Most L.P.N.’s work a 40-hour week, but because patients need around-the-clock care, some work nights, weekends, and holidays. They often stand for long periods and help patients move in bed, stand, or walk. They also face hazards from caustic chemicals, radiation, and infectious diseases and also are subject to back injuries when moving patients. In addition, the patients they care for may be confused, irrational, agitated or uncooperative.

… should be responsible, compassionate, patient, emotionally stable, and cheerful. In addition, aides should be tactful, honest, and discreet, because they work in private homes. Aides also must be in good health. A physical examination, including State-mandated tests for tuberculosis and other diseases, may be required (BLS, Other Qualifications, para. 1).

The biggest challenge that Physician Assistances face is when a patient questions their competency or their ability to care for them. PA’s are one of the youngest allied health fields and some people are unaware of the role of a physician assistant. The best way to reassure the patient that they are being properly taken care of is to educate the patient on the topic of Physician Assistant. The first Physician Assistant program started in 1960 in the military, to help with the growing need for primary care doctors (Mittman). Physician Assistance must first obtain a four year degree with a competitive GPA of 3.6 or

The rate of enrollment to medical schools in the United States has decreased from previous years, therefore there will be less licensed physicians within the health care field, as the older physicians age out. The growing elderly population in the United States, in need of medical care, is another reason for the increase in need for medical assistants. One last factor is the greater accessibility to health insurance for all. This is driving more people into the health care system, therefore spawning a need for more non-medical professionals, such as medical assistants who can assist on the administrative end to get the patients information into the system for care and

•Required to Be Registered: Home Care Aides who offer non-medical services (sometimes referred to as “private duty” services) must be registered and listed with an online registry administered by the state if they are employed by companies that enlist them to work in clients’ homes. To do this, these workers must receive relevant training mandated by the state each year, and they do need to pay a registration fee to the state. They will also be background-checked (fingerprint-based) and checked for TB.

“To qualify as a medical assistant-certified, an individual must complete a medical assisting training program approved by the Health Department, pass a certification exam approved by the Department, and meet any additional requirements imposed by regulations to be developed by the Department”(McCarty). Organizations such as American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) , American Medical Technologists (AMT), National Healthcareer Association (NHA), National Center for Competency Testing (NCCT), and The National Association for Health Professionals (NAHP) are all working together to insure medical assistants are getting the necessary credentials and continuing education required by federal and state regulations. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1998 (CLIA ’88) are setting in motion mandatory credentials that will be vital in the hiring process, but as now they do not require medical assistants to be

medical wounds to elders, and dressing patient,eeeew, i do not like that at all. Do you have these skills in order to be a home health aide? Yes, yes I does.

Competition in the home health field is intense, particularly in rural areas, where the need for services is in more demand. Because services are expensive to provide, it is critical for agencies to generate a volume of visits sufficient to cover fixed expenses plus make a small profit. Competition is primarily between another company Care One, Inc., a multicounty operation that has been established in the area for well over 10 years. AHHS surpassed them in total number of visits after its second year of operation and has been progressively growing. Many of the physicians in the area, however, continue to use Care One, and Care One receives more referrals from the local hospitals than AHHS. Currently AHHS has 32 employees, including 15 registered nurses, 8 nursing aides, 1 physical therapist, I speech language therapist, and 7 administrative staff.

This assignment will initially define and discuss the chosen service user groups of people with a physical disability and a young carer. Following this there will be a discussion on identifying the needs of the young carer and the person they care for, the range of roles the young carer might provide and the issues involved providing informal care support, the range of support available for both groups, and the role of policy and legislation.

The one thing that was the noticeable is although that there are things available they are not very known or easy to find. Unless you are really searching for something it isn’t very readily available to the public. I think the one that I found that has the most public knowledge about is the North Dakota Special Olympics, but even with that there wasn’t a ton of information. There were plenty of other small programs and events that were out there but once again none of them provided many details on how to get involved or what it was really

The next portion of this analysis is the evidence that the situation provides. Care aids in Canada have a document that outlines competencies needed in order to provide the public with safe, competent and ethical care (HCA Core Competency Profile, 2014). Upon my analysis of this document, the care in the situation had not met competencies 1.0: Health and Caring, 3.0: Communication Skills, 5.0: Safety, and 6.0: Responsibility, Accountability and Ethical Behavior. I begin to question what the ramifications are for care aids that do not meet these standards in Canada. Is it possible that the care aid has forgotten the competencies in which she is required to meet? It could be that the care aid isn’t educated about dementia and wasn’t aware of

During the last 20 years I have worked as a Support carer with home-care agency, care and residential homes providing care for the elderly and people with disabilities including Parkinson and dementia, brain juries as well as dealing with palliative care, peg feed, tracheostomy, Micky –button. I have experiencing with