Using A Private Duty Nurse Helps The Family

By Marci Glover


Many people need more help, while in the hospital, than what is available from the staff of that institution. A large percentage of the elderly need special assistance and it is just not in the budget of many hospitals. The private duty nurse can be called on to fill in this gap as they can perform many of the same chores.

All of the readings that are usually taken by the hospital staff can be done by these nurses. Heart rate monitoring as well as blood and sugar levels can be taken and recorded. The intake of food and drink as well as the outflow of same can be measured in a way that is helpful for analysis and managing care going forward.

These nurses are not just valuable in the hospital, however, and more care is needed in the home when the patient leaves. Family members often can not devote all the time that is needed for these tasks and the professional nurse can do this as this will be their only job. Family members will have to be taught how to bathe the patient, especially if they can not get to the bathtub.

The private nurse will have had to undergo course courses in basis health studies as well as nursing practices to begin their career as a nurse. This is followed by, usually, study and training rounds at a teaching hospital. Many of them will have been to four years of college and certified as a registered nurse, yet not joined any hospital staff.

Private nurses of all specialties will need to be well informed about their patients. They will also need to become personally aware of their moods and eccentricities. This is important as many of those changes can indicate something that tests will not show. The family benefits from this as they do not have the time to do this even if they are trained to do so.

The professional you hire should have knowledge about a lot of different situations that will arise. The need for spinal injury or catastrophic injury care is all too real in these situations. Ventilators will need to be dealt with as well as insulin pumps and seizure control methods. These are all on this very short list of needed knowledge and skill sets.

When looking for a private nurse, you should contact one of the many agencies that deal with this. Find out how long they have been in business and talk with several of their nurses to see which one is your best choice. The individual should have the knowledge your loved one needs help with and a few others that are associated with the age of that patient. Certification of the nurse and the agency should not be negotiable.

Saving time and trouble, for you and your family, is what this is all about. The first task, of course, is to make sure your loved one is well looked after. If that can be done by you, that is the optimum situation. This is not the case in many families and a professional nurse is a very careful way of making sure every one has the peace of mind they need in this situation.




About the Author: