After 35 years in homecare, I’ve heard every myth under the sun about caregivers. They’re arguably the most critical people in the homecare ecosystem, so understanding what drives them is important. But too often the people theorizing about what caregivers need, want, or care about have never worked alongside one, or even spoken to one.
That’s a problem. So, I want to walk through the caregiver myths I’ve heard over and over, the ones that just won’t go away, in the hope that agencies and technology companies can build policies around the truth instead of the assumptions.
Myth 1: Caregivers don’t know how to use technology
Nonsense. I’ve heard this one so many times, and it always bothers me. It usually comes up around Electronic Visit Verification (EVV). If an agency bills Medicaid, caregivers have to clock in and out electronically, and the preferred method is a mobile app. The pushback is always the same: caregivers can’t handle that.
These are highly capable adults who carry a smartphone everywhere, same as the rest of us. They’re just as tech-literate as anyone else. And if someone genuinely isn’t comfortable with a phone, they can be taught (I’ve watched it happen plenty of times). Now, some caregivers may not want to use their personal phone for work, even though EVV is on a separate app. If that is the case, it may mean spending extra time explaining the importance of clocking in and out electronically and reassuring them that their privacy is protected.
Here’s the truth: getting caregivers to use their phones for EVV is no different than getting anyone to adopt a new tool. It has to be worth their while. I’ve watched adoption jump when it’s tied to a benefit, like a rewards platform that gives caregivers points for every successful clock in.
Myth 2: Caregivers only care about pay.
If someone’s told you caregivers only chase the highest pay rate, they’ve not telling you the full story. Pay matters, of course, but its too often blamed for turnover.
What I’ve seen over and over is loyalty. Caregivers stick with an agency that treats them like a person, not a line item, and that keeps them invested in working for you. Give them consistent hours, and they’ll give you consistency back. What actually drives someone out the door is going weeks without enough hours, inconsistent client matching, feeling like a number instead of someone the agency knows by name, or watching every call go to voicemail when they need help.
Caregivers, like anyone else at their job, want to feel like they belong and are a part of something. An agency that checks in, that remembers a caregiver’s name and their client history, takes their client matching preferences into account, and treats a schedule change as a conversation instead of an order—that’s the agency that keeps its people. Chase pay rates and you’ll always be one dollar away from losing someone to a competitor. Build loyalty and you’ve got someone who’ll turn down a higher offer to stay.
Myth 3: Caregivers Want to Become Nurses
The pitch for solving caregiver retention always seems to land on the same idea: offer career growth, meaning upskill caregivers until they become nurses or other medical professionals. It sounds good in a boardroom. It falls apart in the real world, because not everyone wants to go to college, and not everyone who’s great at caregiving wants a different job.
The industry has a habit of treating caregiving as a stepping stone instead of a destination, and that habit needs to end. This is a career. It’s not “unskilled labor”—it takes real judgment, patience, and a level of emotional intelligence that most professions never ask for. Reading a client’s mood, knowing what to say to convince someone with Alzheimer’s to take a bath, or managing a family’s anxiety on top of the client’s needs are just a few examples of the skills great caregivers master.
There’s also a practical problem nobody mentions: if the industry’s answer to retention is training caregivers into a different job entirely, that doesn’t solve the caregiver shortage. It just moves it downstream. You still need people at the bedside.
Growth doesn’t have to mean an exit. It can mean going deeper into the work itself — advanced certifications in dementia care or other specialized conditions. It can mean mentoring newer caregivers, or moving into a lead caregiver role. It can be learning more just for the satisfaction of becoming an expert at what they do, and the pride that comes with that. Ask caregivers what they want and most of them aren’t asking for a way out. They’re asking to be respected, and paid, for the work they’re already doing well.
Keeping myths out of homecare
None of these myths would survive if we all had regular conversations with caregivers. Myths always come from a distance, from people making assumptions about caregivers instead of asking them.
So, I would encourage everyone to ask. Sit with a caregiver for an hour and find out what keeps them showing up every day, what makes them dread a shift, what would make them recommend your agency to a friend. You’ll get better answers than any of the myths above, and you’ll probably walk away with a few more myths to add to this list.
If you are interested in learning more about what we are building at HHAeXchange to help move the needle where it comes to caregiver retention, speak with our team.
