How Do I Become a Home Care Coordinator?

A home care coordinator oversees a team of personal aides or medical health professionals who visit the homes of outpatients and provide a variety of different services. Someone wishing to become a home care coordinator must gain some industry-relevant experience and in many instances, these professionals have to undergo academic and professional training. Additionally, people employed in these roles supervise a number of employees and many firms prefer to fill these positions with professionals who have prior managerial experience.

Some home care professionals are non-skilled employees who help elderly or disabled people with household chores while others are trained nurses or other healthcare professionals who can check client's blood pressure, assist with physical therapy and provide basic medical treatment. Typically, someone wishing to become a home care coordinator must have gained some firsthand experience working in both of these roles. To work as a nurse, an individual must typically complete a college training course and pass a licensing or certification examination. Depending on the type of treatments being provided, someone overseeing a team of these workers may need to pass more than one licensing exam since rules in some locations require nurses to undergo various training courses before being able to assist people with different types of ailments and conditions.

Strict laws exist in many areas that govern the types of in-home care that firms can provide. Someone wishing to become a home care coordinator should be familiar with local rules and regulations. Many firms require anyone working in one of these roles to have completed a first aid training course, during which basic skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation are taught. Additionally, people in these roles often have to use computer software programs and online sites when liaising with employees or consulting other medical professionals or partner firms. Some firms require job applicants to have undergone some formal information technology (IT) training that may take the form of a short-term community college-based vocational course or an undergraduate program, such as a business administration or management degree that includes computer modules.

Aside from gaining field experience and completing vocational courses, anyone wishing to become a home care coordinator must also gain some supervisory experience. Some licensed nurses work as department heads in clinics or hospitals, while others employed in this field work in administrative roles for other types of businesses before going to nursing school. The size of the coordinator's territory may dictate the amount of supervisory experience that is required since many firms require anyone who oversees a large group of employees to have more managerial experience than someone who presides over a small territory.