New Jersey Certified Homemaker-Home Health Aide (CHHA) · Certification Requirements
Training Program
On this page 6 sections
In 30 seconds
CHHA training has to come from a program the Board has approved, not just any class with the right title. The program runs at least 76 total training hours, split into sixty classroom hours and 16 clinical hours. The clinical hours happen in a skills laboratory or a real patient-care setting, so you practice with your hands and not only with a textbook. The content follows two curricula together: the CHHA training curriculum and the home-care/hospice curriculum. Finish an approved program with both parts and you have the foundation the rest of the certification process is built on.
Why this matters
The training program is where a future CHHA actually learns the job, and because New Jersey sets both the approval and the minimum hours, a course that misses either one will not count toward certification.
The college version
In normal terms
- Only a Board-approved CHHA training program counts, so confirm approval before you enroll or pay.
- The minimum is 76 total hours: sixty in the classroom and 16 clinical hours in a skills lab or patient-care setting.
- Both classroom and clinical instruction are required, and the lessons cover the CHHA curriculum plus the home-care/hospice curriculum.
Concepts in this outline
- Board-approved CHHA training program. — The course must carry New Jersey Board of Nursing approval, or its hours do not count toward certification.
- At least 76 total training hours. — The program must run a minimum of 76 hours of combined classroom and clinical instruction.
- Sixty classroom hours and 16 clinical hours in a skills laboratory or patient-care setting. — Sixty hours are lecture and discussion; 16 hours are hands-on practice in a lab or real care setting.
- Required classroom and clinical instruction. — Both the learning-by-listening part and the learning-by-doing part are mandatory, and neither can be skipped or substituted.
- CHHA training curriculum and home-care/hospice curriculum. — The lessons cover the core CHHA topics plus what is different about caring for people at home and in hospice.
Eli explains
The same idea, in plain words
Explain it like I’m 10
Think about learning to swim at a community pool. There is a poolside lesson where the teacher explains the strokes on the deck. Then there is time in the water, where you actually kick and float with the teacher close by. Nobody would call you a swimmer after only the deck lesson. CHHA training is built the same way, with a talking part and a doing part.
First, the program has to be a Board-approved CHHA training program. Approved means the New Jersey Board of Nursing checked the course and agreed it teaches what a CHHA needs. A great-sounding class that is not approved is like a swim lesson at a pool with no lifeguard. It might be fun, but it does not count.
Second, the program has a size. It must include at least 76 total training hours. Those hours are split in a set way. There are sixty classroom hours, which are the deck lessons. In the classroom you learn about the body and about safety. You learn how to talk with clients and work with the home-care team. Then there are 16 clinical hours. Clinical means hands-on practice with real care tasks. Those hours happen in a skills laboratory or a patient-care setting. A skills laboratory is a practice room with beds and equipment where you can try things safely. A patient-care setting is a place where real people are receiving care, with an instructor watching. That is your time in the water.
Both parts are required. The rule calls this required classroom and clinical instruction. You cannot swap deck time for water time or skip the water altogether. Each part teaches something the other cannot. The classroom gives you the reasons, and the clinical hours give you the feel of doing it.
Third, the program follows two lesson plans at once. One is the CHHA training curriculum, which is the core set of topics every CHHA must learn. The other is the home-care/hospice curriculum. Home care is different from care in a hospital because you are a guest in someone's house. Hospice means caring for a person who is near the end of life, where comfort and respect come first. This curriculum teaches what is special about both.
Put it all together and you get a complete course. It is approved, it is at least 76 hours, it mixes talking and doing, and it covers both curricula. When you finish, you have learned the strokes and practiced them in the water. You are ready for the next step.
Worked example
Luis enrolls in a Board-approved CHHA training program a short bus ride from his apartment. Before paying, he confirms with the school that the program holds Board approval and meets the 76-hour minimum. For the first several weeks he spends his sixty classroom hours learning about the body, safety, communication, and the home-care/hospice curriculum.
For his 16 clinical hours, Luis moves into the school's skills laboratory. There, under an instructor's eye, he practices safe transfers and personal-care tasks on a practice bed before helping a real client, Mrs. Ortiz, with a bed-to-chair transfer in a patient-care setting. By the end, his instructor confirms he has completed the required classroom and clinical instruction.
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