20 Free Online Caregiver Courses with Certificates
Free online caregiver courses with certificates can help your caregivers become better at addressing the needs of their patients and develop better relationships with them. We’ve listed the best courses for your caregivers to take.
1. Mental Health & Resiliency in Aged Care Facilities by SC Training (formerly EdApp)
Caring for others can have a negative impact on your caregivers' mental and emotional health. It's critical to be mindful of stress factors and the hazards they can face in this line of work. Mental Health & Resiliency in Aged Care Facilities is a free microlearning course that helps your caregivers increase their mental health awareness and promote their emotional resilience. This free online caregiver course covers the 3R's paradigm of resistance, resiliency, and recovery, as well as mental health concerns and how to develop resilience. It concludes by listing several mental health hotlines in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
This course is easier to follow compared to your average online courses, thanks to SC Training (formerly EdApp)'s user-friendly microlearning model. With microlearning, big chunks of information are chopped down to their bite-sized versions. This gives your learners an easier time to digest the training and retain the knowledge better.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- The 3R’s model
- Mental health risks at work
- Fostering resiliency
- Mental health hotlines (USA, UK, Australia)
2. Understanding Dementia by SC Training
Caregiving for dementia patients has specific challenges that caregivers face. For this reason, it’s important that caregivers are prepared with the essential skills and information before caring for patients with this illness. This free online caregiver course will teach them about what dementia is and the effect of dementia on people’s lives. It also tackles how they need to take care of their health while caring for someone suffering from dementia, how to properly interact with the patients, and how to provide good caregiving at various stages of dementia. By learning these topics, they’ll be able to provide better quality care for patients who are struggling already with living a normal life.
Gamification and microlearning tactics used in this NY free caregiver course help with developing better knowledge retention. Partnered with SC Training's platform-friendly software, your caregivers can take their interactive training anywhere and anytime they want, making learning convenient and easy.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- What is dementia
- Caregiver mental health
- Communicating with patients
- Caregiving for different stages of dementia
3. Mealtime Management by SC Training
Mealtime management is critical to guaranteeing your patients' wellness. If your caregivers don't manage meals properly, it can make your patients' recovery slower or even cause their disorders to become worse. Regardless of the illness, your caregivers need to be able to provide the best possible care for patients who have difficulty fulfilling their dietary needs – whether due to dysphagia, intellectual difficulties, or an inability to be fed orally. That’s why SC Training’s Mealtime Management course is perfect for your learners.
This free online caregiver course introduces them to the fundamentals of good nutrition, mealtime management for dysphagic patients, and enteral nutrition or more commonly known as tube feeding. The training lists down the importance of mealtime management and the steps your caregivers can take to improve their current management process. After taking this course and applying what they’ve learned, you’ll be able to see improvements not only in their mealtime management practices but also in your patients’ health as well.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Effective nutrition for people with disabilities
- Managing dysphagia
- Mealtime management for patients with dysphagia
- Enteral nutrition
4. First Aid Training and Standards by SC Training
SC Training has designed this beginner-friendly course for people looking to comply with OSHA safety regulations. This free online caregiver course teaches your learners about the necessity of first aid, adhering to OSHA's safety regulations, and the relevant solutions and consequences involved if they don't. The course is extremely important for your caregivers to take since they'll be the first responders to patients if something happens to them.
This course incorporates the OSHA First Aid Standard (29 CFR 1910.151), which states that a workplace must always have first aid professionals ready if medical assistance is not immediately accessible. It also meets the OSHA CPR Standard for dealing with sudden cardiac arrest. Finally, this training includes Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens (29 CFR 1910.1030) to help avoid infection in victims who have wounds or scrapes.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- OSHA first aid standard
- OSHA CPR standard
- Exposure to bloodborne pathogens
5. Introduction to Safe Patient Handling by SC Training
In the United States alone in 2020, there were over 2.7 million injury and sickness cases that happened in the private sector. With how fragile some patients can be, it’s important that your caregivers take extra care when they’re handling their patients.
This training explains how to minimize workplace injuries while enhancing patient care quality. They'll go over three microlessons that'll offer them an overview of the advantages of safe patient handling, strategies for identifying health dangers, and techniques for properly lifting, transferring, and repositioning patients. The techniques presented can be used in a variety of situations, including patient bathing and walking assistance.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Safe patient handling
- Health hazards
- Lifting, transferring, and repositioning
Explore our library including free online caregiver courses with certificates.
6. Sepsis Awareness by SC Training
Sepsis is a life-threatening infection that can happen if your patients are unable to combat infections within their bodies. It’s important for your caregivers to take a sepsis awareness course so they can help combat sepsis if it happens to their patients.
Designed with Point of Impact by Disruptiveplay, SC Training’s Sepsis Awareness course defines what sepsis is and the early warning signs if their patients are suffering from it. It’ll teach them the proper steps to take when they’ve identified that their patient has sepsis and how best they can support them. The last two lessons are dedicated to post-sepsis care and what to watch out for during recovery. After taking the course, they’ll be able to both prevent sepsis from worsening and better support their patients.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Definition of sepsis
- Identifying sepsis
- Post-sepsis life
- Antimicrobial resistance
7. Hazard Communication (for Healthcare) by SC Training
As healthcare professionals, caregivers are frequently exposed to hazardous chemicals in their day-to-day life. Learning about hazard communication can help your caregivers mitigate risks when handling dangerous substances.
SC Training’s Hazard Communication (for Healthcare) is designed to equip learners with the necessary skills and knowledge they need to keep themselves informed and safe from injuries and illnesses. This free online caregiver course with certificates defines what the current hazard communication standards are and the practices your caregivers should be applying at work. It teaches them how to properly read chemical labels and how to maximize safety data sheets. At the end of the course, they’ll be able to more safely handle dangerous substances without risking theirs.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Hazard communication standard
- Reading chemical labels
- Safety data sheets
8. Medication Management by SC Training
Medication management can be considered the most crucial part of caregiving. Proper management can help symptoms subside and make recovery go faster. SC Training’s Medication Management course teaches your caregivers everything they need to know about this field.
This free caregiver training program with certificates tackles the definition and importance of medical management, the strategies and practices your caregivers can apply, and how to handle the medication properly. The course also teaches them how to deal with difficult patients and symptoms to observe if the medication isn’t working for them. Proper storage and waste management are also explored within the course so your caregivers won’t accidentally spoil important medication or cause any hazardous risk to someone else.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Introduction to medication management
- Medicine administration techniques
- Proper handling, storage, and waste disposal
9. The Hows of Hand Hygiene by SC Training
Hand hygiene is a simple, low-cost, and effective method of keeping oneself healthy and germ-free. Hand hygiene, when practiced and becomes a habit, helps to avoid the transmission of infections to your caregivers, their patients, and other people around them. This free online caregiver course with certificates will teach them the hows of proper hand hygiene, including how hands serve as the primary gateway for germs, how to keep their hands clean while doing activities at work, and how to perform an after-work hand care practice. Knowing about these subjects can help foster a cleaner working environment and a better level of quality care for patients.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Germ transmission
- How to wash your hands properly
- How to use an alcohol-based hand rub
- Proper hand care
10. Suicide Caregiving by SC Training
Caregiving extends beyond caring for aging family members or children. It extends to others who're in need. Suicide Caregiving is a sponsored free online caregiver course presented on SC Training in partnership with Suicide is Different. This training will provide your caregivers with the skills and support they need to deal with the difficulties of being a suicide caregiver. They'll learn about the role of a suicide caregiver, how to generate empathy around suicide, disprove suicide misconceptions, and how to communicate effectively about suicide. They'll also learn how to take better care of themselves by recognizing suicidal behavior in themselves and others. According to the course, they’ll be able to do that by getting better knowledge of suicide, negotiating change, creating boundaries, and reassessing self-care.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Exploring the role of a suicide caregiver
- Empathy around suicide
- Debunking myths
11. Introduction to Caregiving - Revised
Alison offers an Introduction to Caregiving that’s regularly updated to keep its learners stay up to date with new information regarding care services. This course introduces what is involved in working as a professional caregiver. Here, you will learn the fundamentals of caregiving such as the roles and responsibilities of carers, legal and ethical issues in caregiving, and communication in caregiving and long-term care. You will also learn fundamental skills like stress management, reporting and documenting, and cultural difference awareness in caregiving. At the end of the courses, you'll take an assessment where can receive a caregiver certification online for an 80% passing score or higher.
Cost: Free
Scope:
- Fundamentals of caregiving
- Fundamental skills in caregiving
- Course assessment
Created by Alison
12. Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia Care
Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia Care is a course offered by the digital learning platform edX. Useful in eldercare and for those working in nursing homes, the course provides an overview of Alzheimer’s disease, including its pathophysiology, risk factors, and how it’s diagnosed. It also goes over the stages, symptoms, and medications of this disease. You will also explore the topic of dementia caregiving and the challenges and experiences you might have caring for a person with dementia. Unfortunately, this course is archived on edX. What it means is that while you have access to all the course materials for free, you will be unable to receive a caregiver certification online upon completion.
Cost: Free
Scope:
- What Alzheimer’s disease is
- Risk factors, stages
- Symptoms and mediations
- Dementia caregiving
- Caregiving challenges and experiences
Created by edX
13. The Basics of First Aid
It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so learning basic first aid should be included in your list of caregiver training courses taken. The Basics of First Aid by SC Training is recommended to be taken as a refresher course, but it’s also applicable to those taking a first aid training course for the first time. Here, you will first learn how to assess the scene and determine what type of first aid is required. It then teaches you how to deal with different injuries like bleeding, shock, heart attacks, choking, electrical shock, eye injuries, and more in just five microlessons.
Thanks to SC Training’s AI translation feature, you can take this course in a language that’s easier for you to understand. With over 100 different languages, SC Training helps increase and improve readability to make your learning more accessible.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Scope:
- Assess the scene
- Bleeding and shock
- Heart attacks and choking
- Electrical shock and eye injury
- Burns and broken bones
- Heat, fainting and seizures
14. Family Caregiver Online Training
To add to list of online free certificate courses, you may explore Generations Home Care’s Family Caregiver Online Training course, which covers 40 hours of training and over 25 hours dedicated particularly to Alzheimer’s and dementia. Besides covering the two disorders, you will also learn about human needs and development, emergency first aid, skincare, life care, care planning, and more. Additionally, you’ll go over other health and nutrition topics like preventing weight loss and improving diet. Lastly, this course also discusses different perspectives and communication methods that can be applied in caregiving and caregiver support.
Cost: Free
Scope:
- Alzheimer’s and dementia training
- Emergency first aid
- Skincare, life care, care planning
- Health & nutrition
- Different perspective and communication methods
Created by Generations Home Care
15. Health and Safety for Caregiving Revised
Another course from Alison, Health and Safety for Caregiving will teach learners how to provide pain relief and perform different types of physical therapy. You will learn more about infections, nutrition, and food safety in the first module, and emergencies, falls, and fire safety in the second module. The last module is a course assessment that covers lessons and key concepts taught in both modules. The course can be finished in three hours, and even comes with certification. In just 3 hours, you can learn about the knowledge and training required to work as a physical therapy aide at an adult day care.
Cost: Free
Scope:
- Infections
- Nutrition
- Food safety
- Emergencies
- Falls
- Fire safety.
Created by Alison
16. Great Beginnings: An Introduction to Child Care
Caregiving isn’t limited to just giving care to the elderly, but also to children. Care Courses offers An Introduction to Child Care, an eight-hour course that provides an overview of what caretakers need to know before working with kids. You will learn about the physical and cognitive development of young children and the role an adult plays in their learning and development. Additionally, you will learn how to keep children safe and how to handle accidents and injuries. By being equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge, you can help in preventing development disabilities from occurring.
Cost: US$46
Scope:
- Physical and cognitive development
- The role of an adult in learning and development
- How to keep children safe
- How to hand accidents and injuries
Created by Care Courses
17. Diploma in Caregiving
Alison offers a comprehensive free caregiver training program for all things caregiving. Your learners will tackle practical, legal, and even ethical issues concerned with taking care of the elderly and sick. Lesson include personal care, emotional needs, stress management, cultural differences, nutrition, fall safety, understanding dementia, and more.
Cost: Free
Scope: fundamentals of caregiving, skills of caregivers, food safety and nutrition, emergencies like fall safety, working with dementia, traumatic injuries, aging effects on the body, preparing for final rest
Created by Alison
18. The Fundamentals of A Home Care Caregiver
myCNAjobs.com offers a wide range of caregiver certifications for those who want a quick and easy way to get into the profession. This fundamental home care course covers the skills and responsibilities of home care caregivers, understanding a care plan, observing and reporting, and stress management. Each course is self-paced and available online so learners can take this at their own time, and take the assessment at their own pace.
Cost: Free
Scope: what is a caregiver, home care skills and responsibilities, care plans, observing, reporting, and documenting, stress management
Created by myCNAjobs.com
19. Preparing to Work in Adult Social Care
Designed for those working in England, this caregiving training course covers essential topics such as person-centered care, safe working practices, and the importance of safeguarding. Learners will be able to understand what to expect in the adult care sector and learn vital skills for providing high-quality support to individuals. Over the course of about nine weeks, they can study at their own pace, making it easy to fit into their schedule.
Cost: Free
Scope: Person-centered care, safe working practices, duty of care and safeguarding, equality and diversity
Created by Reed Courses
20. Caregiving Essentials
Over approximately 10 hours of online learning, this caregiver certificate course tackles important topics such as the roles and responsibilities of a caregiver, health and medical information, and how to navigate complex issues like family dynamics. In addition to practical skills, the course also focuses on the emotional aspects of caregiving. Your learners will explore ways to identify stressors, recognize symptoms of anxiety and depression, and develop personal coping strategies.
Cost: Free
Scope: Roles and responsibilities of a caregiver, financial planning, medical and social systems, stressors and symptoms of depression
Created by Class Central
