Healthcare Support
Home Health and Personal Care Aides
Monitor the health status of an individual with disabilities or illness, and address their health-related needs, such as changing bandages, dressing wounds, or administering medication. Work is performed under the direction of offsite or intermittent onsite licensed nursing staff. Provide assistance with routine healthcare tasks or activities of daily living, such as feeding, bathing, toileting, or ambulation. May also help with tasks such as preparing meals, doing light housekeeping, and doing laundry depending on the patient's abilities.
Also called: Caregiver, CHHA (Certified Home Health Aide), CMA (Certified Medical Aide), CNA (Certified Nurses Aide), Direct Care Professional, Home Care Aide
- Median pay in Greater Boston
- $40,910
- $19.67/hr
- Jobs in Greater Boston
- 72,420
- Massachusetts 2024–2034
- +12.8%
- 18,800 openings a year
- Typical U.S. entry requirement
- High school diploma or equivalent
- plus Short-term on-the-job training
Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.
Pay range in Greater Boston
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $36,810 | $39,570 | $40,910 | $44,370 | $47,410 |
10% of workers earn less than the first figure and 10% earn more than the last.
What you’d do
- Plan, purchase, prepare, or serve meals to patients or other family members, according to prescribed diets.
- Care for patients by changing bed linens, washing and ironing laundry, cleaning, or assisting with their personal care.
- Bathe patients.
- Maintain records of patient care, condition, progress, or problems to report and discuss observations with supervisor or case manager.
- Provide patients with help moving in and out of beds, baths, wheelchairs, or automobiles and with dressing and grooming.
- Check patients' pulse, temperature, and respiration.
AI and this job
AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.
Moderate exposure34 of 100
The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:
- AIOE 29
- Language-model AIOE 38
- GPTs-are-GPTs 36
Observed AI use today: Not published (Anthropic Economic Index)
AI exposure for this job is moderate, which means AI tools could help with some of the paperwork and planning. Tools may help with care notes, reports to a supervisor, and meal planning. Bathing, dressing, helping someone move, and personal care are hands-on work that AI tools do not do.
Likely to change
- Writing care notes and progress reports
- Planning meals for prescribed diets
Still relies on people
- Bathing, dressing, and grooming patients
- Helping patients move safely in person
Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.
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Training near Boston
College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).
No college programs near Boston map to this job. Many people enter through on-the-job training or apprenticeship.
Talk to a career coach at the Office of Workforce Development about apprenticeships and City partner programs.
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