A Guide For Omaha Families: Is Home Health Nursing The Right Choice?

Serving your loved one’s needs as a caregiver is a wonderful act of love, as well as a full-time job. Many families with a person who requires care must often consider multiple factors when deciding how this person’s needs will be met. Where will the loved one be most safe and comfortable? Is anyone in the family in a position to take on a caregiver role? Is a care facility or outside help something the family can afford?

Home health nursing is an option that can make a significantly positive difference for families, especially for the primary caregiver. 

What is home health and what are its benefits? How can you know if this is the right choice for your loved one? This article serves as a guide to understanding home health nursing, what factors you will want to consider, and how to begin the process.

What is Home Health?

Home health service is exactly as it sounds—health care at home! With home health nursing, those in need of medical assistance are visited by a specialist who can perform a variety of technical services, including those dealing with cardiology, neurological conditions, respiratory needs, and more.

Questions to Ask Yourself

If you have already created a care regimen and adjusted to life as a caregiver, making any changes by bringing in outside assistance can feel overwhelming or unnecessary. That’s why we recommend taking the time to consider how things are going. Ask yourself a few of the following key questions.

Are Your Loved One’s Needs Increasing? 

If you’ve been the caregiver for some time, you might not realize right away that your role has intensified over time. The gradual increase of tasks and responsibilities can make it easy to continue piling on more work without really noticing. When you’re already so wrapped up in caring for this person, what difference does it make to add one more thing? It can also seem simpler to keep doing everything yourself rather than bringing new, unfamiliar people into the mix.

More importantly, do the needs of your loved one require more complex care? Caregiving and home nursing do have overlapping duties, but have vastly varying responsibilities. Are the patient’s needs temporary due to post-surgical recovery? Are chronic or recurring conditions or diseases debilitating enough to involve a specialist? If so, a skilled nurse or home health specialist with the education, experience, and certifications is the recommended route for your loved one.

Is Being a Caregiver Causing Burnout?

What is caregiver burnout?

Caregiver burnout is a common experience among people who are responsible for taking care of a loved one. When a caregiver feels guilty for taking time for themselves, does not receive the help they need, or overexertes their efforts, they may reach a state of exhaustion physically, emotionally, and mentally. This can also appear in a change in attitude. Once generous and caring with their energy, a caregiver experiencing burnout can shift toward negativity, resentment, and apathy. Burnout often appears as fatigue, stress, anxiety, and depression.

Burnout can become more likely especially if the needs of the patient require procedures that cannot be performed by a family member. Attempting to do so without the proper expertise could not only be hazardous to the patient in the short term, but hinder their ability to recover over time. Caregivers should always leave more complex care to specialists who can accurately monitor and provide for the patient.

How to Know When You are Experiencing Burnout:

Caregiver burnout can sometimes come on so gradually that it seems unnoticeable. Take a moment to notice if you are experiencing any of these signs:

• Withdrawal from friends and family
• Losing interest in activities you used to enjoy
• Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and sadness
• Appetite or weight changes
• Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
• Getting sick more frequently
• Thoughts of hurting yourself or the person you care for
• Physical and emotional exhaustion
• Feeling irritable

How to Approach Home Health Nursing With Your Loved One

You might be thinking that home health nursing is an option you’d like to pursue, but how will your loved one respond to the idea? Many families are hesitant to bring up the idea out of fear that the person needing assistance will react negatively. 

Make sure you approach the subject in a sensitive, respectful way. Many people are surprised to find out their loved one is readily supportive of the idea. Still, for others, this idea might take some getting used to. Let’s take this one step at a time.

Explain to your loved one of the coming necessity of more complex care. Specialists take years of education to properly conduct on-site rehabilitation methods to properly handle post-debilitating health concerns. Unlicensed and inexperienced caregivers aren’t equipped to provide neurological care, rehabilitation therapy, cardiology care, and more, without jeopardizing the recovery of the patient. 

Allowing specialists to adequately monitor a patient is the most caring step you can take. Do your best to explain this to them, and reaffirm your choices are only looking out for their best interests. If you have thoughts of guilt or inadequacy, reach out to one of our specialists to discuss yours and your loved ones best course of action.

The Complexities of Home Health Care

After arduous care at a hospital or clinic, patient’s long for normalcy in the comfort of their own home. These situations are why Home Nursing with Heart has become so commonly recommended by health professionals and families throughout the region. Regardless of the complexity of care, short or long term needs, or ongoing procedures required for the patient, our specialists will ensure the care for each is provided in the comfort of their own home for proper continuum of care.

Explain the Benefits of Home Health

Take some time to explain home health and its benefits. 

More comfort and independence

With home health care, the person needing assistance is able to remain at home rather than traveling to a hospital or clinic to receive the ongoing care they’d need. The comforts and familiarity of home are preferred by many and allow for maximized independence with daily living. 

Family caregivers find relief

Home health aides often help with bathing, dressing, and other day-to-day tasks if the patient is unable to do these basic tasks post-surgery. The care provided by home health services helps lighten the load for the family caregivers by providing ongoing care after debilitating health concerns. Additionally, home health providers provide education and resources to guide the family in providing proper care and knowing about valuable resources.

A way to save money

Live-in healthcare facilities, nursing homes, and otherwise unnecessary trips to the hospital are costly expenses. Home health services help mitigate these high costs and have the potential to delay the need for extensive care options. Home health care can be covered by Medicare in many situations, including many private insurance plans as well. If you would like more information regarding insurance coverage, contact a Home Nursing with Heart staff member for more details.

Focused, individualized care

When your loved one receives home health care, their treatment is enhanced by the tailored one-on-one attention provided to them. This is not only an ideal way to receive care compared to a busy facility or hospital, but it also allows for establishing trust and a positive rapport between the patient and caregiver. 

Consider their feelings

Despite the benefits, your loved one may still have mixed feelings about professional home health care services. Allow them to express their feelings and listen to them. Make sure they feel heard and assure them that you are only interested in what’s best for them. This avoids continued trips away from home for constant medical attention while keeping them comforted in their own home.

Bring it up with their doctor

If your loved one still needs convincing, it’s a good idea to bring their doctor into the conversation. Patients are often more willing to take the advice of a doctor over a family member. Their doctor is most likely familiar with the benefits of home health care as well as the exceedingly high demands on family caregivers. The doctor may have a more effective way of articulating why home health care is a good idea. 

Home Health Nursing for the Omaha Area

In this guide, we’ve talked about home health care services and how to know if it is right for you and your loved one. We’ve gone over how to recognize the signs of caregiver burnout and the ways home health care can allow you to regain your energy and mental health without compromising the well-being of your loved one. We hope this has been helpful for you to assess your unique situation. 

You can provide care for your loved one in the Omaha area with the expertise and dedicated service of Home Nursing With Heart. If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about home health, please don’t hesitate to contact us.