Home Health & Hospice Week

The need for home care aides is rising, but drawbacks to the job may make recruiting increasingly difficult. The Centers for Disease Control surveyed a sample of the 160,700 home care and hospice aides in 2007. Their average hourly pay rate was $10.88 and almost 19 percent of aides had no insurance. More than one in 10 had at least one work-related injury in the previous year, says a new report on the survey from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. "Retention of direct care workers is a major challenge," the report says. "A low pay structure, lack of or limited fringe benefits, a heavy workload, poor working conditions, lack of appropriate training, little opportunity for professional advancement, and a lack of respect from management are some of the reasons cited for high turnover and vacancy rates." Among the statistics included in the report are the percentage of aides [...]