Home healthcare over the last decade has improved a lot. You can now provide care to your loved one suffering from ill-health, needs post-operative care, elderly, chronically ill, has cognitive problems or having any disabilities without having the patient travel to a nursing home. Trained in-home nurses provided by registered in-home care agencies in a city like Dubai brings medically professional home care for your patient without having you to sacrifice your time from your professional life for taking care of your ailing loved one at home. These home care nurses provided by home health care agencies are qualified medical professionals with training and education certifications required for a caregiver and with qualities to administer care related to health conditions such as diabetes, gastroenteritis related issues, colostomy, respiratory, post-operative care, cognitive impairments, locomotion impairments etc.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF IN-HOME CARE NURSES

Before choosing a nurse for you suffering loved one, the first thing that you need to ensure is to have a detailed discussion about the health condition of the patient with the home healthcare agency by producing all the investigation reports and doctor prescriptions to avail a home nurse specialising in care for a condition that your patient is suffering from.

On a general basis, in-home care nurses can be broadly divided into three categories.

I. ADL
II. IADL
III. Companionship

ADL ( Activities for Daily Living or Self Care)

If your patient requires something more than medical care like help, support and care related to daily activities such as bathing, mobility etc, then you should go for a nurse specialist in ADL care.

Basic ADL activities include:

• Support with the feeding of the patient
• Mobility of the patient that may include getting up from the chair or out of the bed. The nurse would assist the patient with the correct postures of movement etc.
• Assistance with dressing and choosing the right fabric of the dress for better comfort.
• Maintaining the highest standards of hygiene during this susceptible phase of the patient. Helping the patient to maintain toilet hygiene and avoid various infections such as a Urinary tract infection or maintain personal hygiene such as hair styling, brushing etc.
• Assistance with daily activities such as bathing and shower.

IADL ( Instrumental Activities of Daily Living)

These mostly support activities instrumental to daily living and functioning.
Such activities include:

• Maintenance of cleanliness in the room where the patient is living to create a dust-free environment with minimum germs inhabiting in the area. Maintaining strict discipline to ensure visitors family members frequenting the patient room follow certain do’s and don’t’s.
• IADL home health care nurses prepare meals for the patient keeping in mind the diet of the patient at the same time including ingredients for a healthy diet of the patient and maintaining a routine and timing of meals for the patient. The home nurse may also go for shopping buying necessities and medicines for the patient with even responsibilities of managing the funds and expenses related to the patient. An IADL nurse may at the end of a week provide you with a summary of expenses that happened during the week.

Based on your requirement for the patient purely depending on medical monitoring, ADL or IADL choose your home caregiver after thorough consultation with your home care services agency.

Another category of home-care nurses provided by home care agencies is companionship based. Let’s know more about this category in details.

Companionship and positive mental health caregiver nurses

Companionship home care nurses ensure that they supply the positive spirit required by your patient to recover and get well. They also supply confidence to terminally ill patients such as the ones suffering from any kind of cancer to fight the disease with a positive spirit. Companionship also includes spending time with the patient, engage in positive conversations during hours when near and dear ones of the patient are out of the home due to work. Do keep in mind that these category of nurses are not necessarily only medical caregivers and their role goes beyond just providing assistance with activities to the patient. This category of nurses is also recommended for patient suffering from depression related to their disease or in requirement of any kind of psychological counselling.

We hope that this blog will now help you choose a home care nurse for your loved one more judiciously in a city like Dubai which provides home care services with registered ADL, IADL and companion nurses enrolled with them.