Home Health Aide Classes

Succeed by learning how to use your Penn Foster program.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Understand how to use your Student Portal.
• Access the Penn Foster Community and use it to find answers.
• Connect with Penn Foster on various social media sites.

The course orients the student to Penn Foster’s course structure. It introduces the student to the curriculum, the externship, the student portal, and Penn Foster’s community. It offers an overview and introduction to the role of the Home Health Aide working in the home or community setting. Students will explore current trends and career options. Professionalism, regulations, responsibilities, and standards are also discussed.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Identify skills needed to be a confident and independent online learner
• Describe the opportunities, roles, and skills of a Home Health Aide

In this course, you’ll learn the importance of human interaction, including verbal and nonverbal communication, the communication feedback loop, barriers, cultural competence, and effective communication techniques. You’ll learn how applying communication skills can assist in caring for patients and families to meet their health care needs. Effective communication skills will be covered, along with practices involved with caring for special populations. This course also introduces the Home Health Aide to basic medical definitions and abbreviations. It covers word
analysis, word usage, roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Emphasis is placed on spelling and constructing medical terms. Development of oral and written skills to understand, spell, and build medical words, as well as developing the ability to speak with patients, families, medical personnel, and caregivers, is discussed.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Summarize the elements of interpersonal communication
• Identify the best practices for communicating with patients
• Define medical terms and regions and structures of the body by analyzing medical terms

This course will familiarize you with various body systems, including structure, function, diseases, disorders, and treatments. You’ll also learn drug delivery systems, drug administration routes, drug classifications, and commonly used medications for various organ system disorders.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Identify the anatomy, physiology, diseases, and treatments of the cardiovascular and hematologic systems
• Identify the anatomy, physiology, diseases, and treatments of the respiratory and endocrine systems
• Identify the anatomy, physiology, diseases, and treatments of the gastrointestinal, urinary, and reproductive systems

This course is a continuation of Body Systems and Medication 1. You’ll continue to learn about various body systems, drug delivery systems, drug administration routes, drug classifications, and commonly used medications for various organ system disorders. You’ll also learn basic medication calculations, storage, how to assist patients with administration, and proper documentation.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Identify the anatomy, physiology, and diseases and treatments of the integumentary and musculoskeletal systems
• Identify the anatomy, physiology, and diseases and treatments of the sensory and nervous systems
• Identify the anatomy, physiology, and diseases and treatments of the immune system
• Explain how the Six Rights of Drug Administration dictate proper drug administration and storage

This course is designed to train you in providing personal care to patients to meet their physical, psychological, and mental needs. You’ll develop homemaking and organizational skills as well as a working knowledge of IADLs. You’ll learn to apply standard practices and safety procedures. The course demonstrates how to take vital signs. You’ll learn to perform a basic health assessment with concentration on observing patients for condition changes. This course discusses basic infection control and prevention strategies, with emphasis on handwashing and bag technique. You’ll explore how to prevent the spread of infection as well as special precautions. The course also demonstrates safety precautions and procedures for maintaining a clean and safe environment for the worker (aide), for patients in the home, at outside locations, and while transporting, along with proper body mechanics.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Explain the procedures for maintaining a safe and healthy environment for both clients and yourself
• Identify personal care tasks, including the steps involved in bedmaking and elimination care
• Describe specimen collection and assessment procedures and other special procedures needed for client care

Nutrition is the science that investigates how our bodies take in, break down, and use foods. The course will provide you with basic information on how these processes take place, including information about nutrients and how they contribute to the way the body functions. This will help you to have a better understanding of your decisions about food and diet. You’ll also learn about physical activities that can contribute to a healthier lifestyle. Because a central focus of nutrition studies is on health promotion, suggestions for individual nutrition choice will be discussed, as well as tactics for maintaining a healthy weight and keeping food supplies safe.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Explore how nutrition supports a body’s wellness
• Discover the body’s use of water, nutrition, and minerals
• Develop a healthy and safe lifestyle

This course provides an overview of various dimensions of aging, including the aging process and how to provide competent care to the aging patient. It explores normal biological aging, attitudes toward aging, myths of aging, and how to monitor and assess for changes in psychosocial and functional status. It teaches how to develop an instructional plan for families to effectively manage physiologic and/or psychosocial changes. It also discusses end of life issues. Finally, it covers how to identify and handle emergency situations.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Describe human needs and considerations and the documentation required when meeting those needs for clients
• Explain how to care for clients at any stage of life
• Describe types of special client needs, emergency situations, and emergency situation procedures

In this course, you’ll learn how law affects healthcare practitioners, the origin of law that affects medical professionals, the basics of the process of litigation and its alternatives, the common-law basis for the confidentiality of healthcare information, and the laws regulating healthcare information collected and maintained by government agencies.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following: 

• Interpret civil and criminal laws related to healthcare
• Assess ethical issues healthcare professionals face today
• Analyze confidentiality laws and regulations

This course introduces you to the home health aide externship and discusses the externship process and requirements. This externship provides you with hands-on training. The goal of the externship is to produce a competent home health aide by developing the essential skill sets through hands-on experience. This externship consists of 40 hours of clinical experience.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Demonstrate home health aide skills learned throughout the program