A hospice care aide helps individuals unable of helping themselves. These aides travel to the patient’s home and help them perform activities required for daily life. Hospice care aides are often associated with the elderly or disabled who are unable to take care of themselves, so they perform all required functions specific to the patient.
Hospice aides usually work within a hospice environment or travel to the patient’s home. They help the individual eat, get up out of bed, or help them with the bathroom or a bedpan. The number of duties involved depends on the nature and the status of the patient, since they are expected to help the patient function as normally as possible. If working within a hospice environment, they work with individual patients to make their final days as comfortable as possible. If working in a home environment, they spend time sitting with or caring for an elderly or disabled patient who requires extra care.
Many times, families of patients in either a home or hospice environment can’t commit to 24 hour care, so they hire a hospice aide to help during the times they are absent. Hospice aides travel to the home and work in shifts providing round the clock supervision and care. They aren’t usually a registered nurse or hold a license and cannot usually administer medication, so the responsibilities are typically fundamental.