What makes a successful homecare nurse?

| posted: 22-06-2022
What makes a successful homecare nurse?

A home care nurse job requires a unique set of characteristics. There is understandably a sizeable overlap between the skills needed for home care nursing and hospital nursing, however home care nurse jobs demand some particular capabilities that are specific to the role.

 

Communication

Strong communication skills can have a positive impact on making your patients feel valued, reassured and involved in their care. Treating patients one-on-one means that you will be spending a considerable amount of time with your patients and their families. Communication is the key to ensuring that you build a good relationship. You will be educating the patient and their family about elements of self-care, and helping to build their confidence to do so. This in turn can prevent unnecessary re-hospitalisations and allows patients and their families to feel more independent.

 

You may be communicating with people who aren’t able to speak or fully express themselves. A home care nurse job not only requires you to communicate with patients and their families but also with other healthcare professionals such as doctors, as an intermediary on behalf of the patient. This patient advocacy ensures the best standard of care for the patient, and allows the relevant parties to feel involved with care and support planning, assessments and reviews.

 

Compassion

Compassion is perhaps the most fundamental soft skills in nursing. Home care nurses need patience and empathy when dealing with patients, families and caregivers. A home care nurse job will give you the opportunity to work with a vast range of people, from all backgrounds. It’s important to be respectful and understanding, particularly given that home care nurses will be working in patients’ homes. A key part of your home care nurse job is allowing patients to feel dignified, even at their most vulnerable. 

 

Autonomy

Being a home care nurse means you’ll need to be confident working alone, taking charge of coordination of care and managing your own time and caseloads. It can be daunting to make decisions on your own, but you’ll have the support of a supervisor or other healthcare professionals if required. Lack of supervision and working on your own can feel isolating, but over time you will develop relationships with patients and their families - and no two days will be the same.

 

 

Technical Skill

The most important aspect of taking on a home care nurse job is confidence in your own technical nursing skills. You must prioritise patient safety, including undertaking critical assessments and reviews of their home environment. Detecting warning signs and symptoms can avoid unnecessary trips back into hospital, and allow you to make changes to patient care accordingly. A home care nurse job will require you to use your technical skills, such as wound care, injections, IV monitoring, tube feeding, catheter and tracheostomy care and administering medicines. 

 

Becoming a home care nurse offers a varied, challenging and rewarding career opportunity. Thinking of leaving the ward environment? Speak to one of our expert healthcare recruitment consultants today to find your new nursing job.