Something happened to your mom. She had a stroke. She’s been diagnosed with breast cancer and is undergoing surgery and other treatments. She has pneumonia and doesn’t want to stay in the hospital, but her doctors are hesitant to release her as she lives alone.
Her doctors brought up home health care and home care as options to helping her recover at home. You’re not sure how they differ. Why would you need two services? It helps to understand how home health care nurses and home care aides differ.
The Goals of Home Care
Home care services help people retain or regain independence at home. For example, your mom may need help with laundry, cooking, housekeeping, and transportation to stay in her home. In addition, she may need to have someone remind her to take her vitamins, supplements, and prescription medications.
Those are things home care aides help with. In addition, they offer companionship. Your mom doesn’t have to be alone all day, every day. She has someone stopping by for a conversation. She has a caregiver who can take her shopping and help her carry bags.
Home care aides are not certified or licensed medical professionals. They undergo caregiver training, but any duties of a medical nature, such as injections, are beyond their abilities.
How Home Health Care Nurses Differ
To recover or heal at home, your mom might need intensive medical care. She could be at home, except she needs IV medications each day or every few days. She has surgical incisions that are healing and need cleaning and inspection each day to heal correctly.
Home health care nurses are licensed or trained medical professionals. They come to your mom’s home to provide the medical care she needs while she recovers. Home health care nurses can give injections, insert IV lines, change bandages, and clean surgical incisions.
Can’t you do these things for your mom? While wound care might be possible, it’s not always easy to tell if a surgical incision is healing correctly. Her incision is still red and a little swollen days after the surgery, which is on the sheet the surgeon gave you. While those are signs of infection, it could also just be normal for your mom to heal a little slower than a younger adult.
A nurse has experience and training in wound care. You may be uncomfortable changing bandages, cleaning the incision, and removing stitches when it’s time. But, a nurse will have no problem taking care of it. And, it keeps your mom from having to go to a medical office when her immune system is compromised.
Talk to your mom’s doctors about the care she needs. She may only need medical help from a home health care nurse. However, you may need to consider pairing a nurse with a caregiver for comprehensive care. Once you know what your mom’s care plan looks like, make the arrangements she needs to ensure she heals well at home.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering home health care in Aurora, CO, please contact the caring staff at SYNERGY HomeCare today. Call us at (303) 756-9322.
