Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and Home Health Aide (HHA)

Certified nursing assistant and home health aide share many common responsibilities in the field of health care. Both CNA and HHA provide personal care for patients and are focused on fulfilling the patient’s needs with activities of daily living.

The key difference between a certified nursing assistant and home health aide is in their responsibilities. The home health aide is allowed to administer medication while the certified nursing assistant cannot do so.

Furthermore, the CNA work in organizational healthcare settings such as nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals while the HHA work in the patient’s home. While certified nursing assistants can work in the patient’s home, the home health aides never work in organizational healthcare settings.

The common for both healthcare positions is that they involve providing companionship and taking care of the patient’s activities of daily living (ADLs) and basic needs such as feeding, bathing, changing, replacing bandages and dressings, exercising, etc. Both CNA and HHA are supervised and report back to the nurses and doctors overseeing the patient’s care.