How to Become a Home Health Aide in Tennessee (Requirements & Schools)

If you want to know what it takes to become a home health aide in Tennessee, this is the guide you’ve been searching for!

The healthcare industry is a great demand for personnel, in all the fields.

Becoming a home health aide is one of the quickest and easiest ways of entering the industry.

Ideal Candidate

You should start by figuring out if this position is for you.

As a home health aide, you’ll be working with the frail, disabled, or injured, to ensure their nutritional, personal care, and mobility needs are met.

The candidate is usually required to have:

• A sympathetic attitude
• Maturity
• Reading and writing abilities
• Physical stamina

It’s possible that working with some people might include operating specific machinery for which training is required.

Knowing how to work with children, pets, or speaking other languages can also be useful skills on the job.

Training and Certification in Tennessee

In Tennessee, home health aides need to be properly prepared for the job.

This is done through training, and the standard is:

• At least 75 hours
• At least 16 hours being supervised practice

This is the training requirement set at a federal level, as in Tennessee home health aides do not need a license or certification for this position.

Many employers might have it as a hiring condition though.

During training you’ll learn, among other topics, about:

• Human dignity
• Aging process/ illness-driven emotional problems
• Helping clients become self-reliant
• Nutrition and hydration
• Personal care
• Transfer and ambulation
• Recognition and handling of emergencies

The shortest programs last for 2 weeks, and below you can see the schools offering such training.

To enroll in any of these programs, you’ll generally have to:

• Have a high school diploma or GED
• Pass a background check
• Prove you’re healthy, especially free of tuberculosis

Each school might have further enrollment requirements, so check those out first.

Training can also be completed through the employer, within 3 months from getting hired.

Once the training is completed, you’re expected to pass an exam.

The exam has 2 parts, a written part and a part in which your skills will be tested.

Employment and Salary Info in Tennessee

Everyone wants to work for or with the best agencies in the state.

In Tennessee, these ones are:

• Deaconess Homecare, in Savannah
• Extendicare Home Health of Western Tennessee, in Union City
• Sunbelt Homecare, in Jellico
• University of Tennessee Medical Center Home Health Serv, in Morristown
• Volunteer Home Care in Humboldt
• BrightStar Care, in the Sumner and Wilson Counties
• ComForCare, in Hendersonville
• Comfort Keepers, in Memphis
• Lifeline Home Health Care, in Springfield
• AMEDISYS Home Health Care, in Knoxville
• Right at Home, in Clarksville

If you want a higher paycheck, consider searching for a job in one of the larger cities, such as Nashville, Memphis, or Knoxville, though these are not all your options.

Regional Salary in Tennessee

Extra Info

This position is a supervised one, and home health aides report to a certified nurse.

The nurse will assign duties based on the person’s needs, such as:

• Assisting with self-administered medication
• Performing basic household tasks
• Observing the client and most importantly, the functions of their bodies

It’s also possible to get hired as a personal support person, and for this position, you need even less training.

However, as the name suggests, your responsibilities will be limited and different from those of a home health aide.

HHA Schools by State