Home Care, Palliative and Hospice
In the US healthcare space, there are several ways a patient can be taken care of. And in celebration of National Home Care and Hospice Month, let’s look into the three home-based care that nurses can consider for their careers: Home Health, Palliative and Hospice.
Home Health is straightforward care delivered at the patient's home. However, before a patient can even be cared for at home, there are some ground rules that need to be followed including establishing that the patient is homebound. Then the patient gets referred to a home health agency where the care will be managed in coordination with their respective primary physicians. A lot of nursing roles are available in home health agencies, there are case managers, several registered nurses in different units, and therapists.
Palliative care is provided to people who are diagnosed with serious illness and need to be cared for comfort and ease of pain. Basically to have a better quality of life while undergoing any curative treatment. There are several nursing roles involved and mostly very specialize to handle these complex cases.
Hospice is almost the same as Palliative except that patients are already diagnosed to be terminally ill or have a life expectancy of six months at most. Additional care is given in terms of psychosocial and spiritual care to ensure the patients and families are prepared when the time comes.
These facilities are great options for nurses who prefer to have more of a schedule-based work rather than an entire shift. This gives them flexibility on what type of area the nurse wants to focus or specialize on and manage their own schedule.