For those with compassionate hearts, working as a home health aide can be a rewarding career. These medical professionals spend many hours every week in the homes of aging and ailing individuals. A home health aide can do a lot to help someone remain independent.
Elderly people who might have to go into assisted living can often remain in their homes with the support of a professional who visits routinely. As part of this job, you can expect to likely help patients with basic mobility. You may also need to perform some household tasks or even take patients to medical appointments or out for grocery shopping.
Unfortunately, while it is a noble and necessary profession, there is a lot of risk involved in providing health care in someone’s home.
Joint and back injuries are common issues for health care workers
As people age, they have more difficulty getting up and down from chairs or in and out of bed. As a home health aide, you may need to assist your patients with moving around the home. Unfortunately, that demands a lot of physical exertion on your part.
Every time you help lift or move another person, you risk potentially injuring yourself. Even if you take great care to lift with your legs, all it takes is moving at the wrong angle to damage your connective tissue or joints. Home health aides could injure their backs easily in the line of duty.
Thankfully, if you suffer a serious injury in the line of duty, you should have the option of seeking workers’ compensation benefits.
Workers’ compensation helps make sure you can get back to work
Many companies do not pay much over minimum wage for home health aides. Many times, the people who work in these positions do so because of a desire to help others. You want to keep the people you work with at home and comfortable for as long as possible. That is why it is so important that you seek proper care and treatment after an injury.
Workers’ compensation benefits can help ensure that your bills get paid while you recover. Those benefits could also connect you with the medical care you need to return to full health without any deductible, co-pay or co-insurance.
While you may worry about your patients while you are on leave, they will benefit more from you being at peak performance in the long run then they will from you attempting to work while injured.
Moreover, working when you already have an injury to your back, knee or other joint could mean that the injury gets worse. Ignoring an issue for too long could mean that you can no longer provide medical support for those who want to stay at home as they age.
