What is Home Nursing?

When a loved one has a chronic illness, or disability, or has been discharged from the hospital after surgery, a serious illness, an accident, or any other thing that necessitates extra care and attention, it can place a burden on the rest of the family. Keeping the patient in a care facility is one option you can try, but it can be very expensive. The better option is to bring home your loved one and engage the home care services that can provide a dedicated nurse. Such a nurse can take care of all the needs of the patient – self-care, medication, food, and daily routines. 

Home care nurses interact with the family, keeping them in the loop regarding the patient’s condition and progress so that they can help the home nursing professional to achieve the wellness goals they have set for the patient. Personalized home nursing care offers several benefits to both patients and their families – which we will discuss both, in this blog.

Benefits of Home Nursing for Patients

The biggest benefit of home nursing is that the patient can be in their own home, in their comfortable and familiar surroundings. With a dedicated nurse, they get personalized care that meets their individual needs. The patient can spend quality time with family members while they receive professional care. 

By getting care at home, the patient will be protected from hospital-acquired infections as well. If you are undecided between home nursing vs hospital care, let us look at the benefits of in-home nursing for patients in detail:

1. The patient gets family attention along with professional care

A home nurse can provide all the medical care the patient requires, allowing the rest of the family to provide emotional support and care to help them recover faster. Having a full-time home nurse also ensures that the patient does not neglect their own needs like meals, medication, personal hygiene, and so on. This happens a lot with patients suffering from memory loss, depression, and other mental health issues. In-home nursing for elderly can help them perform their daily chores like self-care, dressing up, going for a walk, preparing meals, and more. 

2. Patients are in comfortable and familiar surroundings

Prolonged hospital stays can be physically and mentally uncomfortable; seeing other patients, hearing the sound made by medical monitors and other devices, and so on, can add to the anxiety of a patient. Hospitals are also hotbeds of infection, and patients can easily catch bugs from other patients, especially when their immunity is low. 

While they can obviously get the best medical care in hospitals, patients can get emotional and social support only when they are at home and in familiar surroundings. This is one of the biggest benefits of home nursing for patients and their families too, as patients tend to recover faster as they feel more comfortable at home. They receive professional care from the home nurse along with the love and support of their family members.

3. Customized medical care 

Nursing care at home allows for customizing everything as per the patient’s requirement and comfort, unlike in hospitals where everything is standardized. You can engage a home nurse who is willing and capable of helping the patient with their daily chores, meals, food, socializing, and similar requirements. Such personalized, one-on-one care will help the patient recover faster and better.

4.  Access to all necessary medical aids

Having a professional home nurse can help you get the necessary medical equipment on rent – and this may be especially necessary in the case of patients with chronic conditions like COPD, heart disease, diabetes, or disabilities. They can even do tasks like getting medications from the pharmacy, scheduling doctor’s appointments, requesting home visits, and so on. 

Home nursing for chronic conditions especially is a dire necessity as the patient may need round-the-clock care and support for the rest of their lives, which the family may not be able to provide. A professionally trained home nurse is skilled to manage all of these requirements in a safe and timely manner.

5. Better quality of life 

In-home nursing can allow a person to lead a more dignified, fulfilling life, as the caregiver is trained to help patients in their daily routines. This includes bathing, personal hygiene, grooming, dressing, walking, eating, medications, and even small outings; they can help prevent the patient from falling or otherwise injuring themselves, – which is very important, as such incidents can slow down their recovery. They can even help around the house with simple chores like tidying up, doing the laundry, getting groceries, and so on.

6. Improved outcomes

In-home nursing for children, those with chronic conditions, and anyone else with lowered immunity can help in a quicker recovery. There are fewer health complications when professional medical care and support is provided at home. 

7. Dietary support.

Eating healthy meals is important for all of us, but for the elderly, and those recovering from illnesses and surgeries, it is extremely crucial. A home healthcare provider can ensure that the patient has nutritious food throughout the day, which helps in recovery. Family members may not have the time to see to this on a daily basis, and therefore, engaging a professional home nurse is necessary. 

A well-trained and experienced caregiver can even help in the preparation of meals according to the doctor’s or nutritionist’s recommendations and see to it that the patient eats well. They can even keep a chart of what the patient eats and report any changes in eating behavior to the family or doctor.

8. Companionship and emotional support

Not just seniors or adults living alone, even those patients who live in families can feel lonely as everyone else at home may go out the whole day for work or to school etc. This loneliness can make them feel isolated socially and lead them into depression and even negatively impact their overall health and well-being. 

However, with a professional home nurse, this loneliness can be eliminated; the nurse acts as a companion, conversing with the patient, doing activities with them like gardening or board games, and even taking them out on walks. Communication is crucial for maintaining the health of an individual and keeping them mentally alert.

9. Access to skilled nursing care teams at home

There are many different types of home nursing services that you can avail of for your loved one: it could be a professionally trained nurse who can provide help with occupational therapy, speech therapy, physiotherapy, feeding tube care, gastronomy services, ventilator care, caring for delicate conditions like spinal cord injury and brain trauma, catheter care, vital sign monitoring, and so on. In fact, for certain patients, you may need to have a whole team in place. There could be a home nurse who stays with the patient 24×7, to take care of their daily needs, and you may need a nurse providing one or more of the specialized services. 

These care providers can be supervised by a physician who reviews the patients’ progress at set intervals. The benefit of home health care is that patients can receive help from all of these professionals without ever having to go to a hospital, rehabilitation center, or clinic – they can be in the comfort of their own homes. Of course, each professional is meticulously trained in caregiving in each of the mentioned areas.

Benefits of Home Nursing for Families

If you are still not convinced about choosing a home nursing provider to care for your loved one, remember that it’s not just patients, but you and the rest of the family that gets benefited from this.

1. Continue with your daily routine

When you have in-house nursing care, you don’t have to worry about taking leave, neglecting your studies, or delegating your business to others. You can continue to go to work and study, and even carry out your leisure activities, and don’t need to feel guilty that your loved one is being ignored. The professional home nurse will make sure that the patient’s health, wellness, and social needs are fulfilled. You are relieved of the burden of care and can rest assured that your loved one is being well looked after.

2. More economical

Most people may be surprised to know that home nursing costs are lower than long-term hospitalization expenses. In some cases, as special procedures are required, prolonged hospitalization may be inevitable. But today, many such procedures can be performed at home by a professionally trained home nurse at a much lower cost. In fact, you may be able to save up to 50% of the cost of your hospital stay. Today, you can hire most medical equipment like oxygen concentrators, non-invasive ventilators, oxygen, blood pressure, and other monitors that can provide requisite care for your loved one at home.

How to Choose the Right Home Nursing Provider

Now that you know what to expect from home nursing services, the next question before you is, which home nursing service you should engage to care for your loved one. Let’s take a look:

• First and foremost, assess your needs for in-house nursing care
• Decide your budget – how much can you afford to pay for a professional caregiver?
• Ask friends, colleagues, and family if they have hired a home nursing service, and how their experience with them was; were they genuinely caring and attentive? Did they ever suspect abuse?
• Check online for service providers and make comparisons by reading home nursing provider reviews
• Check out their hiring and training process
• If possible, do a background check and verify their history
• How approachable is the agency? Can you contact them at any time?
• Check their qualifications and certifications – you can ask to see them physically
• Determine if the service provider conducts quality checks to ensure that the care given to patients is always of superior quality
• Verify how much experience they have with caring for patients with the same or similar conditions as your family member; for example, if you’re seeking care for your aged parent, check if the nurse is experienced in looking after seniors.

Now you know how to choose a home nursing provider. Lana Life Care is a home nursing services provider in Dubai that has strict quality measures in place and makes the patient the number 1 priority. Our home nurses are well-trained not only in medical procedures but also in providing emotional support to patients and helping them with daily chores. 

Contact us if you’d like to schedule home nursing services from Lana Life Care for your loved one.

Conclusion

So now you know the various benefits provided by in-home nursing care for both you and your loved one who needs care. Let’s just have a quick recap: you are freed from the burden of care, and your loved one has a dedicated caregiver who looks after their physical, mental, and emotional well-being and assists them with their daily chores and activities. Your family member can recover or heal in the comfort of their home, at a more affordable cost, and have a better outcome than what you could get with hospitalization. 

Lana Life Care is committed to providing the best possible home health care to our patients – with compassion and integrity. We strive to help our patients lead a life of dignity and independence as much as possible. We provide in-home nursing consultations, which you can avail of before making a final decision. Whether it’s seniors, adults with disabilities, children recovering from surgeries, or any other requirement that you may have, Lana Life Care is there to support you and your loved one.

Now, no more wondering, are there home nursing services near me? 

Just get in touch with us right away to know more about all our services and engage the services of a professional home nurse.