What's Better for an Elderly Parent-A Nursing Home or Home Nurse

As parents age they usually develop a wide variety of ailments that slow them down and make day to day living difficult. As they continue to age and their physical conditions worsen, their children find that they are taking on an ever increasing share of the responsibility of caring for their elderly parent. At some point a majority of these children realize that at some point their parent's health has deteriorated to a point that the child can no longer take care of the parent. At least not by themselves. When this happen the child has to decide if their elderly parent would better off in a nursing home or if moving a nurse into the home would be a better option.

Nursing homes are great because they provide twenty-four hour round the clock care. Most nursing homes hire competent and caring people. Your parent will receive three well balanced meals, receive their medications in a timely fashion, and have the benefit of a social life. The down side to nursing homes is that it is sometimes difficult to visit your elderly parent. It is also difficult to decide if moving your elderly parent from their familiar surroundings and into an unfamiliar nursing home will cause their parents condition to worsen at a more rapid rate.

A home nurse is a nurse who is trained to come into a patients home and care for them. They are responsible for making sure that the patient continues with their physical therapy and takes all their medications.

Some home nurses come into the home for just a few hours a day to check their patients overall health and to help them take their medication. These nurses are typically paid an hourly rate and usually don't move into the home.

Some people hire a home nurse to help patients rehabilitate after surgery. These nurses come into a home and check that the patient is proceeding with their physical therapy, that they are eating, that their spirits are high, and that they are taking their medications and painkillers, and to answer any questions that the patient might have. This type of home nurse could be at a patients homes seven days a week or as seldom as once a week. This type of home nurse is typically employed by a hospital or medical facility. The facility pays the nurse and then bills the patient or the patients insurance company.

In some case doctors recommend that their patients recommend that a patient needs twenty-four hour, round the clock care. In these cases, a home nurse normally move into the patients home. The home nurse typically sleeps in the patients spare bedroom. They help arrange doctor's appointments, make sure the patient is following a strict diet, they see that the patient is taking all their medications, and make sure that the patient doesn't seem to becoming depressed over their condition.

It is not unusual for a home nurse who moves into a patients house and become a valued member of the family.

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