Four Ways to Build a Partnership With a Home Health Care Nurse

When your mom or dad needs home health care services, you want to make sure you build a strong partnership with the nurse or nurses coming to help them. How do you do this? These four tips will help. 
 
Ask Questions

Home Health Care Havertown, PA: Home Health Nurses


 
Ask questions. Don’t think that the question you have is too embarrassing to ask. It may seem that way, but home health care nurses would rather know you completely understand. If you’ll be taking over your mom’s medication management when the time with the skilled nurse ends, the nurse wants to make sure you know exactly what you’re doing. 
 
If you’ve watched the nurse take your dad’s blood pressure and wonder why you always get a different reading when you use the digital one, ask why. See if it would be better to learn how to take his blood pressure the traditional way. 
 
Be Honest 
 
Be honest with the skilled nurse, therapist, or whoever else is providing home health care services. If you try to hide things in hopes of looking better or seeming that you know more than you do. It’s better to be honest and get the instruction you need. You want to make sure your parent is getting the right care. 
 
For example, if your dad is on a low-sugar diet, but you know he’ll never give up that pint of IPA during the week, talk to the nurse. A plan can be arranged to help keep your dad’s drinking to a minimum. He may need to switch to a non-alcohol version or switch to a beverage like HOP that is seltzer mixed with hop oils and brewer’s yeast. 
 
Make Yourself Available 
 
Be available for instructions, to address concerns, or to answer questions. When you’re talking to the skilled care nurse, put away your phone and focus just on the nurse. Do not act like it’s an annoyance having to take this time or that you have better things to do. 
 
If the nurse needs to meet with you once a week, make sure you’re there and on time. If the nurse asks for other family members to also be there, make it known to everyone. Set reminders through an app like Google Calendar to make sure everyone has the same reminder and time. 
 
Listen 
 
Listen carefully to instructions and double back to the “ask” rule if you have questions. If you worry about remembering steps, write them down for guidance. 
 
When possible, have the nurse there to watch you do something for your mom or dad. If you do it wrong, it can be corrected right then. Note what you did wrong so that you don’t repeat the same mistake. 
 
Elderly care is a great service to have in addition to home health care. Your mom or dad has a skilled nurse for some of the medical aspects of care. Elderly care aides help with other tasks like laundry, housekeeping, meal preparation, and transportation. Learn more by calling a specialist. 

 

If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Health Care in Havertown, PA please contact the caring staff at True Direct Home Health Care today.

Perry C. Doc Alleva, Owner & Administrator
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