There are a number of ways that you can choose to have care provided for you or your loved one in a time of need. Professional home care nurses can be hired in three main ways: by-the-hour care, ongoing care, and live-in care. Let’s take a look at each type individually to explore your options in more detail.
By-the-Hour Care
By-the-hour care is also commonly referred to as relief or respite care. If you are a caregiver for a loved one, this type of care has as much benefit to you as it does to the in-need individual you are looking after. Caregivers can be hired for spontaneous periods of time to give you a break from your caregiving duties. There are many reasons why you would need to hire respite care personnel. Since taking care of someone else full time can be an incredibly taxing job, it is recommended that any full time caregiver takes advantage of these services to give themselves a break.
Emergency situations are a frequent reason that by-the-hour care is needed. Unexpected things can happen in other areas of your life that will require your attention, and if you are looking after someone full time, you may feel that you cannot manage both responsibilities. That’s where respite care comes into play. You can hire a nurse part time to look after your loved one while you handle the emergency.
If you are a single parent raising a child by yourself, by-the-hour nurses can help you as well. When you need a night out, a relief nurse can look after your child until you return. This scenario can also apply to individuals that get stuck at work, individuals that work full time and also provide full time care in the evenings, and those that need to get out for exercise or some social time. Caregivers have a lot of needs themselves, and oftentimes they are so busy looking after their loved one that they cannot take care of themselves as well. Relief nurses can help out in all sorts of scenarios to ensure a caregiver’s life also has balance, in order to maintain their own physical and mental health and prevent burnout.
Ongoing Care
Ongoing care is still part time care, but it is on a much more scheduled, regimented basis than by-the-hour respite care. This type of care most often takes the form of wellness checks and medication management services. If you live far away from a loved one in need of care, or you simply don’t have the time to stop by every day, hiring a nurse to provide ongoing care can be the best thing for everybody. They can give you peace of mind over the state of your loved one, and your loved one will not feel solely responsible for their own care. Nurses often form great relationships with their patients, and this can be a wonderful mental benefit to a loved one as well.
One of the most popular reasons someone will hire ongoing care is to make sure that medication is taken correctly and on time. As people get older, they tend to accrue more and more different types of medications, and it can become quite difficult for someone to manage by themselves. Especially if they are also experiencing mental decline, the responsibility can simply be too much. Ongoing care nurses can stop in at a residence once or twice a day to help someone manage their medication.
Wellness checks are another way to provide ongoing care for yourself or your loved one. Nurses can come in to monitor vitals, administer fluids, manage wound care, and much more. These nurses are also a great source of information, so they will also often educate the families about care, medication interactions, and more.
Ongoing care can be daily check ins, weekly check ins, monthly check ins, or any other schedule that suits the needs of a person requiring this type of assistance.
Live-In Care
Live-in care is exactly what it sounds like. A nurse will move into a home in order to provide round the clock care to a patient. There are many services that can be provided by a live-in nurse, and there are many situations that would necessity this type of full time care.
Both personal care and lifestyle support are services that live-in nurses can provide to you or your family. Personal care will include services such as walking assistance, bathing and other grooming needs, dressing, medication reminders, and reporting to family members about the wellbeing of their loved one and any additional information that is required, such as medication refills or a recommendation for a doctor’s visit or additional testing. Lifestyle support services include light housekeeping tasks, meal prep and nutrition monitoring, laundry and bedding changes, grocery shopping and various other errands, and they can even help someone enjoy activities such as walking their dog and engaging in light exercise. Essentially, a live-in nurse can provide any type of service to someone any time of the day or night.
This type of care is not needed by all patients, but there are certain groups that benefit greatly from full time care. If you are recovering from a major surgery and live alone, a live-in nurse can help ensure you heal properly, monitor for complications, and support the day to day responsibilities of you and your household. When someone has suffered a debilitation like a stroke, round-the-clock care can help them get back on their feet. One of the most important groups of people that require a live-in nurse are those with dementia disorders like Alzheimer’s. These people can be a danger to themselves and others if left unsupervised, so a live-in nurse can be a literal life saver. While live-in nurses are often hired for quite serious conditions, they can also be useful on a more temporary basis, such as a family travelling for vacation and leaving a loved one behind that requires care and management.
If you or your loved one needs personal care, reach out to the compassionate, well-trained professionals at Nurses on Demand.