Are you responsible for taking care of aging parents or other relatives who cannot care for themselves? If so, you aren’t alone. Increasingly, baby boomers find themselves having to juggle full-time careers and busy personal lives with providing care for elderly loved ones. Of course, nursing home placement is an option for some. However, a number of people refuse to place their family members in a skilled nursing care facility due to a belief that such places are generally unsafe or foster neglect. This widespread opinion does not correspond with the actual experience of many residents of skilled care nursing facilities, however, most of which foster a sense of community while providing residents with numerous activities and opportunities for social interaction.
For many patients, nursing homes often create relatively seamless transitions by allowing married couples to maintain cohabitation, offering extended visiting hours, and encouraging residents to engage in hobbies and interests. There are a great many skilled nursing care facilities that have consistently earned high nursing home ratings from health care agencies. As well, these health care agencies can instruct individuals on how to choose a nursing home that will best serve their loved one.
A number of people only have a vague notion of what is skilled nursing facility. The definition of a skilled nursing care facility is a residential health care community that provides services to individuals for whom long term care is required, and for whom help with daily living activities is a necessity. Besides acute care, residents of nursing homes often partake in physical, occupational, and other rehabilitative therapies. Not all nursing home patients are elderly; there are younger patients living in nursing homes who need a high level of care due to an accident or illness. Typically, residential care facilities offer on call health care 24 hours per day.
Nursing home placement works for many people, but it not the only option for those requiring consistent care-taking. In home skilled nursing care is an excellent choice for a large potion of the aging population. In home skilled nursing care is a particularly good strategy for senior citizens with declining functionality who are still capable of some degree of independence. The services offered by in home skilled nursing care organizations include basic health assessments like blood pressure and other vital sign measurement, as well as monitoring the blood sugar for those patients with diabetes. So too do visiting RNs employed by institutions offering in home skilled nursing care change wound dressings, administer medications–including intravenous meds and injections. In home nursing care RNs place and manage catheters, record and report changes in function or symptomatology, and provide health related education to patients and their loved ones. Some in home skilled nursing care workers even serve as companions for the elderly to maintain social skills. During a patient’s final days, in home skilled nursing care focuses on palliative treatment.
In home skilled nursing care is an excellent alternative to nursing home placement for a number of elderly people. Many caregivers swear by in home skilled nursing care as the best first line treatment modality. Thus, it is definitely worth looking into the possibility of in home skilled nursing care for your aging loved one. Find out more here: www.croftoncrc.com