Home Sweet Home
As an experienced nurse, I thought I was as ready as I could be to provide home care for my parents. That’s until Mum came home from the hospital, and my family and I needed to provide 24/7 care for her. Despite years of nursing experience, I discovered that we were, at best, only half prepared for the challenges and that working in a makeshift environment with family is radically different from hospital nursing. It took a while to establish a good routine; we learned and adapted along the way, as well as using what we already had at home to make things easier.
When my Dad came home a year later, requiring even more intense care, we –once again- thought we were ready, but even then we found there were still lessons to learn; we had to source more equipment for things like wound dressing, catheter care, and nutrition and had to rearrange the house further to make it all fit.
That’s why I am writing this now, to pass on these lessons. I hope they can save you time, effort, and stress and help you be more prepared to care for your loved one.
