Having a knee or hip replacement involves quite the recovery period. While the amount of pain varies from patient to patient, muscles have been cut into, and joints have been repaired, so your movements will be restricted for a good amount of time. And while its important to keep the joint moving, walking and going up or down stairs will be quite difficult for a while.

For a person that lives with family, this is not much of a problem. Family members can help you get around, and care for you during your recovery. Put for an individual who lives alone, it would be too difficult for them to care for themselves during this recovery period.

For these people, there are skilled care nursing facilities. What is skilled nursing facility care? A skill nursing care facility is a place where individuals recovering from surgeries like this can go and stay for the duration of their recovery. There are trained medical professionals on staff that can care for them and keep them company during their recovery period.

All the basics will be provided, like a bed and food, etc. But the staff at the skilled nursing care facility will also be able to help the patient with tasks related to recovery, or tasks that they are unable to complete themselves, as a result of their recovery. For example, bathing can be a difficult task, but the nurses on hand can help the patient bathe.

There will also be physical therapy services provided, to help the patient get back on their feet as soon as possible, so that they can go home and go back to their daily lives.

If a patient is not interested in staying at a skilled nursing care facility after their surgery, there is another option: skilled nursing care at home. Skilled nursing in home care provides all the same care, except the medical professional comes to your home to administer it, rather than you staying at a facility. It’s all a matter of preference.

The bottom line is, after surgeries such as these the recovering patient can not be expected to take care of themselves. If there are no loved ones to help care for the patient during their recovery, then a stay at a skilled nursing care facility might be best. The trained medical professionals will have any recovering patient in great shape and back home in no time. More research here.