Home Nursing Where To Begin

Nearly every family at some time faces the problem of caring for someone sick or injured. Today, self-help and family health in nursing care take on new meaning in view of the many demands upon physicians and nurses, the steady increase in the aging population, the early dismissal of the hospitalized patients, and the growing emphasis on home care programs for the patient with a long-term illness. In addition, the necessity to prepare the family and, in a broader sense, the community to take care of disaster-caused injuries and illness had increasing importance in a world grown smaller in time and space. For all these reasons, responsible adults and their teenage sons and daughters need to learn those skills and to acquire the knowledge that will enable them to give care to the sick at home when it becomes necessary.

What is a “home nurse”? As the term implies, a home nurse is a person who gives nursing care to someone sick at home. That person can be any or each of the members of the family, depending on the circumstances. The word “nurse” is derived from the Latin nutrire, which means to nourish, to protect, to protect, to sustain, and to give. Since all the meanings are attributes of motherhood, what is more natural than to think first of mothers as home nurses, for it is they who most often have responsibility for the care of the sick at home.

Mothers themselves, however, sometimes become ill, and then it becomes the responsibility of someone else to be the home nurse. Frequently, too, the responsibility for patient care must be shard so that it does not become a burden to any one person. Perhaps it is the father, an older son or daughter, or grandmother who helps out when sickness occurs. The home nurse can be anyone who has the know-how and the desire to give nursing care to the sick at home.

Nursing has many qualities, but its chief characteristic is service to others with the desire to alleviate pain, to bring comfort to mind and body, and to help the sick regain health. Knowing how to recognize the signs of illness may avert serious complications of illness that may occur if the patient is neglected. The home nurse who knows how to guard against the spread of disease protects herself and her family from infection, knowing how to give simple, basic nursing care to the sick can shorten illness and make the patient more comfortable while he is in bed. The more skillful the home nurse is in taking care of the patient, the less disturbing the illness is to him and to the other members of the household as well.

Another dividend in of knowing how to take care of the sick is the self-confidence it gives to the home nurse. Knowledge and practice help the home nurse to become competent, and competence makes the care of the patient easier and less than the time for her. Sick people are quite perceptive and quickly recognize and respect, skilled nursing care. Also they are very sensitive to the attitudes of others, which are reflected in the quality of the care they receive. Sick people are more likely to cooperate and to accept care that they cannot give to themselves if they have rapport with the person who is caring for them.

Every one wants to be independent and should be encouraged to do whatever he can for himself, but there are times when illness makes it necessary to rely on other. This situation is particularly true for older people, who may feel that because their illness makes them relatively helpless they are a burden. The more skillful the care given, the easier it is for the patient to accept, because the home nurse appears to use so little effort. In a broad sense, having the knowledge and skill to give competent home nursing care and to work knowingly with the doctor makes the home nurse a member of a larger health team whose objective is optimum health for the patient, the family, and the community.