If you are appearing for an interview for the position of a care worker or a home health aide, the interviewer will ask many questions to check your empathy, attitude, and ability to provide home health care.
No matter how much experience do you possess, much concentration needs to be placed on interview preparation. Preparation means that you have practiced most of the home health aide interview questions and answers.
Some questions and answers for a home health aide interview may include the following:
See also: Home Health Aide Resume
12 Common Questions & Answers for Home Health Aide Interview
1. Tell me about yourself?
I am a compassionate and friendly person. After completing high school, I went to a vocational coaching center and got certified as a Home Health Aide. I have been providing high-quality home health care at various institutes and residential facilities for the past six years successfully.
2. What particularly interests you within the personal care arena?
Looking after people who have trouble handling themselves is a source of great comfort to me. This is exciting work not only because of the new challenges one comes across every day but also because it gives me a great sense of achievement to know that I have assisted someone in keeping their health intact.
3. What were the duties you performed in your previous workplace?
In the capacity of an HHA at my previous workplace, I was responsible for monitoring the patient’s physical and mental health, assisting in proper medication intake, providing housekeeping, laundry services, and personal hygiene care, cooking meals, keeping company, taking the patient on social and hospital visits regularly and the like.
4. What measures do you take to keep the client’s family well informed regarding the progress of the client?
I fill in observation report forms regularly, which are signed by the patient’s family and me on a daily basis to ensure communication. I also remain in constant contact with the patient’s family and doctor through meetings and on the phone and efficiently communicate any changes in the patient’s health to them.
5. Share an example where a patient resisted the care you were providing? How did you handle that patient?
Last year I was assigned an old patient who had multiple medical conditions. From day one, he refused to be fed. No matter what I cooked or offered him, he did not accept. The family was quite worried about the issue.
I probed the family about the patient’s meal preferences and cooked the meal daily and left it by his chair without offering feeding assistance. He tried to eat it sometimes but could not due to paralysis. It took me three days to build rapport with the old man, but once I did, he was an easy patient to handle.
6. Why did you choose this field?
As my mother is diabetic, my visits to hospitals were frequent, which developed a sense of compassion and empathy in me. Later, my grandmother who was on dialysis used the services of a home health aide. She was a very nice lady, and I saw the difference she made in my grandmother’s life. That was when I decided to choose this profession, and I’m proud of my decision.
7. How do you ensure the patient’s dignity while providing care?
I am fully aware of the HIPPA guidelines regarding patient’s dignity, and I ensure the same by allowing for privacy and maintaining client confidentiality at all times.
8. What kind of patients have you been caring for previously?
I have mostly worked with old people having Alzheimer’s, paralysis, physical disabilities, dementia, depression, epilepsy, and the like.
9. What qualifies you to handle a medical emergency?
I am first aid certified in AHA and also possess a first-class BLS certificate.
10. What type of diagnosis have you had the opportunity to care for? What was your experience?
Most of the patients that I have worked with have been dementia sufferers. Initially, I felt that looking after people with dementia is more challenging than I want my work to be. Now, I think that there are very few people who can handle such patients efficiently, and I find the challenge very intriguing.
11. If your replacement hasn’t arrived much after your shift has ended, how would you deal with it?
I would stay and continue my work even if my shift has ended. Caregiving is all about sensitivity. I would call to find out why my replacement hasn’t arrived but will never leave my ward unattended.
12. Patients often resist care. How would you handle a patient who makes you feel unwelcome in his or her home?
Working as a home health aide is not about my feelings; it is about my ward’s and his or her family’s feelings. There is nothing personal about this. If a patient tries to make me feel unwelcome, I usually just shrug it off as a work hazard. The patient needs help, and I have been hired to help him. There is no personal element here.
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