Maryland Home Health Aide Programs

New graduates celebrate with their families at their nursing commencement ceremony.

How to Become a Home Health Aide in Maryland - Home Health Aide Programs in Maryland

Whenever someone has had a serious health event such as a heart attack or stroke, one alternative to having to put them in a nursing home for extended care is to hire a home health aide. A home health aide is someone who is trained in regular day-to-day tasks as well as in taking care of clients who are either too sick to do all of those things for themselves or they just can't seem to do it all. When you are a home health aide, you will do things like cook and clean, shop for groceries at the grocery store, give the patient their medication, etc. You will also be the one person they likely see the most that day so you will have to provide them with some companionship. That means having conversations with the client, even over trivial things like the weather.

The only basic requirement needed in order to become a home health aide in Maryland is to have a high school diploma or GED. Most of the training you will receive will be on the job and provided by the company you work for. However, if you would rather not work for a company and instead work for yourself, you can get the training you need from various programs throughout Maryland. Many technical schools and even some community colleges offer training programs in being a home health aide. You can either study on campus or you can enroll in a program where you learn from home. The way you get your home health aide training is really flexible.

When you work as a home health aide, you can expect to make around $20,000 a year. That is not a bad salary, especially if you just have the high school diploma and get your training from your employer. Considering how you will be helping the client with their routine tasks and providing them with someone to talk to on a regular basis, it really is not bad at all. Being a home health aide is more of a calling – meaning you need to have a certain temperament to be good at it. If you like talking to people and helping them out, then this is definitely the career for you.

Some people use being a home health aide as a stepping stone to going for their nursing assistant education or even to going all the way and becoming an RN. Of course, if you do well with caring about people and making them feel at ease, then that is definitely a good idea.

• Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Health and Human Services
• Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)