Looking for Work

If you're thinking of joining the profession, or if you're a direct-care worker who's thinking of switching to a new setting, there are many factors to consider:

Is this the right kind of work for you?
Despite the challenges of direct-care work, many people find it rewarding because it allows them to help others care for themselves or enhance the quality of their lives. If you have ever cared for someone other than an infant who needed help with things like eating, dressing, bathing, or toileting and you liked it, direct-care work may be right for you.

You may enjoy direct-care work if you're mature, responsible, and motivated by the desire to make a difference in people's lives and to form long-term, caring, and mutually respectful relationships. You're also likely to be good at this work if you're a good listener and problem-solver, you like juggling many tasks at once, you're open-minded about people who are different than yourself, and you prefer interacting with people to working on your own or at a desk job.

Who do you prefer to work with?
All kinds of people need direct-care assistance, from elders with Alzheimer's disease or chronic illness living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities to children with physical or developmental disabilities living in group or private homes. Thinking about what sort of people you’d prefer to work with will help you decide what kind of job you want to prepare or apply for.

What type of setting do you want to work in?
If you like the stimulation and sense of community that comes from interacting with a lot of people daily, including other direct-care workers and a variety of consumers, you might consider a nursing home, an assisted living facility, an adult day center, or some other busy setting where you’d work with many people during a shift.

If you like the idea of working in an intimate atmosphere and having a lot of one-to-one interaction with the people you assist, you might prefer being a personal assistant or home care worker. That could mean reporting to a consumer who hires you directly, working in a small group home, or working for an organization such as a home health agency or a public authority that matches you up with people in community-based settings who need direct care.

Different settings also provide very different amounts of structure and supervision. If you prefer to work without much daily oversight, home- and community-based care might suit you best. There is also less supervision and activity during the night shift at nursing homes and other residential facilities than there is during the day.

Who do you want to work for?

How do I get the training I need?

For more information about training requirements, click on the link for the kind of work you’re interested in on the Job Duties and Training Requirements page.

Even if training isn’t legally required, you may want to seek out a program that can help you develop the skills you will need on the job. The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute has written a pair of issue briefs that outline what’s available. Click here to read about standard training practices and ways of finding good programs. Click here to read more detail about federal and state training requirements.

Workers on their work

If you think you might be interested in doing this kind of work, listening to someone who's already doing it is probably the best way to learn what it's like. Here are some ways to do that online:

• Visit Voices from the Frontline to read writings by and interviews with direct-care workers.
• Click on Connect With Your Peers for a list of message boards, websites, and listservs where direct-care workers share their thoughts and ideas
• Click here for a list of videos that show direct-care workers talking about their work.

Online Resources

Most direct-care jobs are not listed online, but a growing number of websites offer advice on how to find work, information about job openings, or both.

For a national job bank hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor and backed by the American Health Care Association and the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, click here.

For general job-hunting advice or for contacts for all types of direct-care jobs in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, click here.

For information about openings for direct support professional in Wyoming, click