Health ProfessionsTest + Skills

Home Health Aide

A 50-question test on caring for clients at home, then short bedside skills such as apical pulse, intake and output, dressing changes and denture care for the top scorers.

The AI judge does not score skill stations. Use the practice test for Round One.

About this event

Home Health Aide is a solo two-round event for the Secondary and Postsecondary/Collegiate divisions. Round One is a 50-question multiple-choice test in 60 minutes written from Homemaker Home Health Aide (Balduzzi) and Providing Home Care (Leahy, Fuzy and Grafe). Forty percent of the test is body systems and common disorders and almost a quarter is caring for special populations; the rest covers responsibilities and legal issues, communication, infection control and safety, and basic healthcare skills. Top scorers advance to Round Two, a secret scenario drawn from eight quick skills of 3 to 5 minutes: taking an adult tympanic temperature, taking an apical pulse, emptying a urinary drainage unit, changing a dry dressing with non-sterile technique, measuring and recording intake and output, caring for dentures, moving a client up in bed with a drawsheet (with a family member played by the judge), and applying an elasticized stocking. Each skill ends with documentation on a daily record sheet. Bring a manual watch with a second hand, tape, bandage scissors and three pairs of non-latex gloves. A 70 percent skill score is required to place; test and skill scores are added and ties go to the higher test score.

Test day

What to expect

Round One test, then skill stations

Round One is a 50-question test in 60 minutes; the top scorers advance to Round Two, the skill stations. Official format: 50-question test, 60 minutes, then Round Two skill scenarios of 3 to 5 minutes each for top scorers.

Written from the test plan

Questions follow the event's published test plan, section by section, and are written from the listed reference texts. Practice questions here are drawn in the same proportions.

How you advance

How many advance from regionals to states and on to the International Leadership Conference (ILC) depends on your association's rules. Study the official test plan: it lists each section and its share of the test.

What judges score

Skill I: Taking an Adult Tympanic Temperature (3 minutes)Skill II: Taking an Apical Pulse (3 minutes)Skill III: Emptying a Urinary Drainage Unit (4 minutes)Skill IV: Changing a Dry Dressing Using Non-Sterile Technique (5 minutes)Skill V: Measuring and Recording Intake and Output (5 minutes)Skill VI: Caring for Dentures (5 minutes)Skill VII: Moving a Patient Up in Bed Using a Drawsheet (3 minutes)Skill VIII: Applying Elasticized Stockings, one leg (5 minutes)

What's on the test

Responsibilities and Legal/Ethical Issues · 10%Effective Communication · 6%Infection Control and Safety · 10%Body Systems and Common Disorders · 40%Caring for Special Populations · 24%Basic Healthcare Skills · 10%