About In-Home Nursing Care

I received a few questions about nursing care so today I will blog about nursing care in my home.

The first time Emily qualified for nursing care she only qualified for about 64 hours each month. This was about 12 years ago. Nurses usually like to work 32 or more hours each week. We went through about three or four nurses before we found a couple of different nurses who wanted to work part-time.

At first it was weird having a new person in my house and taking over the care of my child. I knew exactly how I wanted things to be and I was afraid that the nurse would not give the care that I would give. Boy was I wrong! All I had to do was show them what to do. After a few days of shadowing them I felt comfortable enough to leave the house for a short time.

It was different having a new person in the house, and I used to clean my house before the nurse would arrive! HA! I think about that today and have to laugh.....

We used a nurse part-time for a few years and then had to go without because we couldn't find a nurse who would work so few hours. And of course once our state case worker found out we weren't using the hours (didn't matter than we were having trouble finding a nurse) we got cut off. She promised that we could be reinstated as soon as we found a nurse.

So, my advice here would be, if you have nursing hours, USE them!

Once nursing care was reinstated (after a very difficult fight) Emily received nursing care up to 7 days a week. She had been very ill and was on her second pneumonia in as many months. She was very difficult to care for and I was at the end of my energy reserve. So again we had to meet new nurses.

When a new nurse comes to meet us I go over Emily's medical issues as well as her medications and procedures. I make sure the nurse is comfortable with the care and if she seems to be then we do a trial for a few days. I shadow the nurse for one or two days and I expect the nurse to be able to really care for her by the end of the week. Most nurses coming in can do just that. I am the nursing supervisor so it's my job to make sure the nurse can do the job. I do trust that the agency who sent the nurse already checked to see that the nurse is qualified.

We've had a few minor issues with nurses. One nurse couldn't figure out Emily's feeding pump and after talking to me about it on the phone she still couldn't do it. I told her to ask my son to help her, he knows how to work the pump. Well, she didn't ask him and when I returned home after 10 hours Emily had gotten 1 hr worth of her formula instead of 10 hours worth of formula! I asked for another nurse to be sent out.

When you have a nurse in your home the nurse stays with the child. Emily likes to stay in her room so the nurse is in her room with her. We expect the nurse to keep Emily's area clean. That means if the nurse eats in her room the nurse cleans it up. Any mess that happens because of Emily, such as medical supply wrappers, etc, the nurse will also clean up. We also ask our nurse to fold Emily's laundry and put it away, if I haven't done it. If Emily has been very ill and the nurse has been on her feet all day I don't expect the laundry done. But if there isn't much to do because Emily has had a seizure and she has been sleeping for the last 3 hours, I expect the nurse to do other chores that have to do with Emily's care.

The nurse puts supplies away, keeps track of medications that need to be ordered, cleans the medical equipment, and makes sure that Emily has clean sheets on her bed. She will usually change the sheets when Emily is in her chair watching TV.

When Emily goes to school the nurse goes with her. Emily has a number of medical procedures, aside from needing medications and seizure management, so a nurse needs to be with her at all times. Emily's nurse goes to medical appointments and therapy sessions with us. If we go to Walmart, and Emily is going to go, the nurse goes with us. We also take the nurse to dinner with us if Emily is going to go. We don't expect the nurse to buy her own dinner, we buy it if we are all going.

We do not take our nurse when we go camping in the trailer, when we go on vacation, or when we go visit grandma. We can ask the nurse to go if we want her to, but I never have.

Some places that require a ticket, or entrance fee will not charge the person who is pushing Emily's wheel chair. This happens when we go to the state fair. We have to pay to get in, but the attendant pushing Emily's chair does not.

If our nurse is here at dinner time I like to offer her dinner. However, you don't have to feed your nurse! I just like to. Most nurses will bring lunch. I allow them to use our refrigerator and microwave. The nurses don't usually use any of our dishes. Of the times they do they usually wash them out also. We keep dish soap at the sink and available for anyone to wash their own dishes.

One last thing, our nurse is in our home to take care of Emily, not Grace. We do not ask for nor expect any of the nurses to watch our other child. That is not their job. And while the nurse is working for us, she is really only working for Emily.

There's probably more to tell about nursing care so ask questions if you have them. My advice is to go with your gut feeling. Is the nurse working out? If not, talk to the agency about it. You can always get another nurse, you can't always fix a mistake that might be made because a nurse didn't understand how to do the care. You are the supervisor, it's up to you to make sure that the nursing care is what it should be.