A first look at home health aide stress

The home health industry is projected to be one of the fastest growing industries employing over 700,000 home health aides and unlicensed assistive personnel as of 1998. Home health aides play an important role in the home health care industry, providing basic care needs to patients, yet the home health aides are one of the lowest paid and least supported members of the health care industry. The purpose of this study was to identify job stress factors for home health aides and then develop an in-service training series to assist home health aides in managing stress.; Data was collected from a sample of home health aides who are certified in the state of Wisconsin and who were employed at the main office location of the Visiting Nurse Association of Wisconsin. The sample consisted of 62 home health aides employed by the VNA of Southeastern Wisconsin of which 52 initially agreed to the study (by taking a study packet) and 36 completed the questionnaire.; Using the NIOSH Generic Job Stress Questionnaire this study found the primary source of stress for home health aides is specific to decision control and decision-making. The Balance Theory (Smith and Sainfort, 1989) was then used as a framework for the development of a series of in-service training sessions to reduce the negative aspects of this stressor.; The training sessions met their goals, providing an interactive environment that motivated the home health aides to become aware of their decision making process.