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  • Questions to Ask When Hiring a PCA

    Posted by kevin-schaefer on May 14, 2018 at 1:31 pm

    Hiring a new personal care assistant (PCA) can be a stressful process. Whether you have plenty of experience with this process or are totally new to it, here are some good questions to ask a potential PCA during an interview.

    -What kind of medical experience do you have? 

    -If you have been a PCA before, did you have strong relationships with your previous clients? Did you listen to them and follow their instructions? 

    -Are you comfortable handling my personal hygiene needs, bathing, dressing, transfers to the bathroom, etc.? 

    -Are you willing to do your tasks the way I want them done? For instance, if I need to be transferred a specific way, are you willing to do it that way and not your own? 

    -Do you handle constructive criticism well? If there’s a problem, can I communicate with you without you getting angry or defensive? 

    -Do you understand how vital it is for you to come to work on time? And if you know that you’re going to be late or you need a day off, can you communicate this information in advance? 

    These are just a few of the questions I like to ask when I’m interviewing a potential PCA. What about you all? Are there any questions you’d like to add? Join the discussion.

    kevin-schaefer replied 5 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • michael-morale

    Member
    May 15, 2018 at 12:15 pm

    These are excellent questions that need to be asked anytime you hire a personal care assistant. One other suggestion that I would have would be to make sure that you do a criminal background check on the individual that you are thinking about hiring. While some agencies do this as their part when they hire them to work for their agency, many times, they only do a state wide check. Running a nationwide background check may cost you a few dollars, but nationwide checks usually examine more areas that could be of concern to you. An example of that would be that the agency that runs a state wide check may only want to know if they have any major criminal offenses against that particular individual, whereas a nationwide check will also examine if they have any minor thefts, personal injury claims and other offenses that could come back to haunt you if you’re not aware of them. One other example would be that if you live in Texas, and they run a state wide criminal background for this person in Texas, it may come back clean. The only problem is if that individual lived in another state, and they had a criminal record within that particular state, it will not show up if the background check company only runs a background for your particular state.

    There are many different background check companies that are available throughout the nation. The easiest way to locate them is to do a Google search for nationwide background search companies. When you contact them, make sure that you let them know that you want a nationwide background check and not just your local state.

    • kevin-schaefer

      Member
      May 15, 2018 at 12:45 pm

      Great suggestion Michael! Yes background checks are crucial, and I agree that it’s important to do a nationwide one in addition to the local one done by the agency. Thanks for bringing this up.

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