What is a Hospice Aide?

Hospice aides generally work at private residences and provide palliative care for patients who are terminally ill and bedridden. They are there to make sure the life quality of their patients is as good as possible. They administer medication, take care of household chores, and keep their patients' precious human company. Working as a hospice aide, you will help your patients with grooming and personal hygiene routines. You will make sure they have all the supplies they need, including food, medicine, or other items.

You will also take care of the following medical instructions and keep records of the care you provide. If you are considering this career path, make sure you are an emotionally stable person who does not shy away from stressful situations. You will need a high school diploma and a CPR certification to get started, but it is the continuation that will be tricky, requiring all the stamina and dedication you have.

What Does a Hospice Aide Do

There are certain skills that many hospice aides have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, compassion and patience.

Learn more about what a Hospice Aide does

How To Become a Hospice Aide

If you're interested in becoming a hospice aide, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 12.8% of hospice aides have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.8% of hospice aides have master's degrees. Even though some hospice aides have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Hospice Aide
Top Hospice Aide Jobs Near You

Hospice Aide Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of licensed practical nurse you might progress to a role such as registered nurse eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title nursing director.

Hospice Aide

Average Salary for a Hospice Aide

Hospice Aides in America make an average salary of $28,632 per year or $14 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $36,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $22,000 per year.
Average Hospice Aide Salary
$28,632 Yearly
$13.77 hourly
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Roles and Types of Hospice Aide

The role of a hospice aide includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general hospice aide responsibilities:

  • Provide personal care for patient according to plan of care to ensure activities of daily living are being met. Provide assistance with bathing, dressing, feeding, hair care, skin care,
  • Assures continuity of quality patient care delivered according to the aide plan of care with appropriate documentation an utilizing infection control measures that protect bot the staff
  • Demonstrate exceptional service to patients, families, referral sources, co-workers

There are several types of hospice aide, including:

Aide

Role:

Aides make it possible for patients to stay at home with less severe conditions, instead of staying in hospitals or retirement homes. They monitor the patients' condition, keep them company, and help practicing hygiene and with chores around the house. Aides perform basic health care as well and help with transportation, if necessary.

Home health aides are the fastest-growing occupation in the U.S., with an increase in demand of 70% from 2010 to 2020. This tendency is likely to continue in rapid growth up to 2030, as the Baby Boomer generation reaches seniority.

Aides make $18 per hour, on average, and generally work 40 hours a week, sometimes taking night shifts and working on weekends, too. Part-time and live-in arrangements are both common as well, so you have a lot of options to figure out what works best for you.

  • Average Salary: $27,793
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Certified Nurses' Aide

Role:

The duties of certified nurses' aides mainly focus on providing healthcare and well-being assistance to the patients in private clinical establishments, hospitals, hospices, or whatever establishment that provides care for a long period.

It is also a part of your responsibility to aid patients in putting on clothes, ensuring they take their bath, catheter utilization, crucial regular exercise and strolls, and arranging and feeding meals. What is more? You must observe patients' crucial signs and general state. You must cooperate with nurses and other health care personnel by announcing alterations and recovery as well as helping nurses in the direct treatment of trauma patients.

Nurses' Aides don't usually require a university education, but the most frequently used degree for a certified Nurses' aide is a high school diploma, although an associate degree can be used as an alternative. Furthermore, you must demonstrate excellent communication, problem-solving, and writing skills. You should also be detail-oriented and show empathy for patients. You will earn an average yearly salary ranging from $22,000 to $37,000.

  • Average Salary: $32,566
  • Degree: High School Diploma

Nurses' Aide

Role:

If you have been admitted to a hospital before, the nurse aide is the individual in charge of performing basic chores such as preparing meals, dressing, and bathing. Their primary role is centered around providing welfare and health care assistance, and they're supervised by a registered nurse.

Daily, a nurses' aide will also record vital signs, administer patient medication, and undertake light housekeeping duties. They are in charge of transporting patients to operating rooms, conducting equipment set up, and working with nurses in reporting patient progress.

Employers require nurses' aides to have a minimum high school diploma or G.E.D equivalent. On top of that, they will also need certification as a nurse aide I or nurse aide II, depending on the job scope. This role earns, on average, $13 per hour.

  • Average Salary: $30,496
  • Degree: High School Diploma
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States With The Most Hospice Aide Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active hospice aide jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where hospice aides earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Hospice Aide Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1Pennsylvania5,355$28,436
2California3,989$33,255
3Texas3,372$24,236
4New York3,190$30,431
5Florida3,092$21,708
6Illinois2,712$23,343
7Ohio2,394$31,715
8Michigan2,209$30,450
9Massachusetts2,151$35,021
10North Carolina2,081$25,403
11New Jersey2,030$31,774
12Georgia1,869$24,131
13Indiana1,864$30,894
14Minnesota1,862$29,009
15Virginia1,648$26,685
16Washington1,524$33,265
17Wisconsin1,485$27,560
18Tennessee1,361$24,052
19Missouri1,329$26,602
20Arizona1,087$28,139
21Colorado972$25,084
22Connecticut935$34,554
23South Carolina887$22,815
24Oregon811$30,411
25Maryland805$27,887
26Alabama771$24,220
27Iowa721$25,661
28Kentucky701$27,610
29Arkansas622$22,183
30Oklahoma594$26,320
31Kansas588$24,855
32West Virginia473$25,574
33Louisiana430$21,983
34New Hampshire413$28,445
35Maine406$34,599
36New Mexico404$22,649
37Nebraska360$25,781
38Mississippi355$21,645
39Montana353$25,892
40Utah345$23,655
41Idaho279$27,497
42Rhode Island268$30,691
43Delaware224$29,384
44Vermont200$28,521
45Nevada189$31,148
46Alaska144$25,691
47South Dakota137$28,297
48North Dakota137$25,640
49Hawaii108$31,834
50Wyoming63$28,290

Hospice Aide Education

Hospice Aide Majors

Nursing
32.4 %
Medical Assisting Services
11.8 %
Health Care Administration
8.2 %

Hospice Aide Degrees

Certificate

25.7 %

High School Diploma

25.3 %

Associate

22.0 %

Top Skills For a Hospice Aide

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 21.6% of hospice aides listed home health on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and compassion are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Hospice Aide Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Hospice Aide templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Hospice Aide resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Hospice Aide diversity

Hospice Aide Gender Distribution

Female
Female
91%
Male
Male
10%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among hospice aides, 90.5% of them are women, while 9.5% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among hospice aides is White, which makes up 63.7% of all hospice aides.

  • The most common foreign language among hospice aides is Spanish at 71.4%.

Online Courses For Hospice Aide That You May Like

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1. Transitions in Care from Survivorship to Hospice

coursera

This course should be taken after the Symptom Management course and continues building your primary palliative care skills – communication, psychosocial support, goals of care, and symptom management. You will explore transitions in care such as survivorship and hospice. You will learn how to create a survivorship care plan and how to best support a patient. The course also covers spiritual care and will teach you how to screen for spiritual distress. Finally, you will learn the requirements...

2. Essentials of Palliative Care

coursera

This course starts you on your journey of integrating primary palliative care into your daily lives. You will learn what palliative care is, how to communicate with patients, show empathy, and practice difficult conversations. You will learn how to screen for distress and provide psychosocial support. You will learn about goals of care and advance care planning and how to improve your success with having these conversations with patients. Finally, you will explore important cultural...

3. Home Health Aide, Nurse Aide, Caregiver Certification Course

udemy
4.6
(460)

Become A Certified Home Health Aide, Personal Care Aide, Nurse Aide/ Caregiver At The End Of This Course. Enroll Now!...

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Best States For a Hospice Aide

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a hospice aide. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, and Washington. Hospice aides make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $35,021. Whereas in Maine and Connecticut, they would average $34,599 and $34,554, respectively. While hospice aides would only make an average of $33,265 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Maine

Total Hospice Aide Jobs: 406
Highest 10% Earn:
$41,000
Location Quotient:
1.45

$34,599

Avg. Salary

View 406 Hospice Aide Jobs In ME

2. Connecticut

Total Hospice Aide Jobs: 935
Highest 10% Earn:
$43,000
Location Quotient:
1.33

$34,554

Avg. Salary

View 935 Hospice Aide Jobs In CT

3. Massachusetts

Total Hospice Aide Jobs: 2,151
Highest 10% Earn:
$42,000
Location Quotient:
1.11

$35,021

Avg. Salary

View 2,151 Hospice Aide Jobs In MA
Full List Of Best States For Hospice Aides

How Do Hospice Aides Rate Their Jobs?

4/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Hospice Aide Reviews

4.0
Jan 2020
Pros

I love working as a hospice aide, it was a midlife career change given to me my God. I feel like I am doing for others that I would want for me or any of my loved ones.. past, present and future.

Cons

Under appreciated and under paid, after eight years of blood sweat and tears.

4.0
Oct 2019
Pros

Assist with bathing,assist with grooming,assist with feeding

Cons

I don’t like when they are gone because I miss them a lot

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Top Hospice Aide Employers

Most Common Employers For Hospice Aide

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Community Hospice$33,252$15.9920
2Gilchrist$33,011$15.8718
3Amedisys$32,618$15.6851
4Good Shepherd Hospice$32,551$15.6515
5Mayo Clinic$32,433$15.5912
6St. Croix Hospice$31,653$15.2211
7Compassus$31,486$15.1449
8Hospice of Michigan$31,355$15.0711
9Seasons Hospice$31,310$15.0519
10Houston Hospice$31,241$15.029
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Hospice Aide Videos

Hospice Aide: Common Signs of Approaching Death. Video A. FSCC Hospice Aide.
Hospice Aide Review Caring for the Dying 1 of 10

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Updated April 6, 2023