Skilled nursing care services are a vital component in helping your mom recover from a health issue like a stroke. To better understand how skilled nursing care helps, it’s important to understand what skilled nurses can do.
IVs and Injections Administered by Skilled Nursing Care
Your mom may need to have regular injections or IV medications until she can swallow without choking. In many situations, she’d need to stay in a rehabilitation community or nursing home to have skilled nurses on-site to administer those IV medications and injections.
With skilled nursing care, all of those medications are administered in her home. She won’t have to get into the car to go to a clinic. Her IV line can be set up in her home and medications are administered while she sleeps or sits and watches TV or a movie.
Medication Administration and Management
Your mom will have a variety of medications to take. Blood thinners are one of them. She needs to take those pills on time to prevent another stroke. She may be given antidepressants if she is depressed.
If she has other health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease, she’ll have medications for those health issues, too. About two out of five adults aged 65 or older take at least five prescription medications per day, and that’s not counting supplements like vitamin D or fish oil. It’s not unusual if your mom has more than five.
At-Home Therapy Sessions
Your mom will need therapy following her stroke. Physical therapy is just one of them as she builds strength and regains the use of her affected arm and leg. She’s also going to work with a speech therapist to regain speech or find other ways to communicate her needs.
Occupational therapy is another important therapeutic service. Your mom’s life is going to change after her stroke. She may always need a walker to get around her home. She needs to work with an occupational therapist to learn how to use her walker while completing daily routines like taking a shower, using the toilet, or cooking a meal.
Wound/Incision Care
During your mom’s stroke, she fell and hit her head, shoulder, or another area of her body. She ended up with a gash that was stitched and bandaged. Bandage changes need to occur as directed. Someone also needs to clean the area and make sure it’s healing properly.
Wound care is another vital service offered by skilled nurses. They have the training to diagnose when an infection is present. If antibiotics are needed to treat an infection, her nurse can do it at her home and not force her to return to the hospital.
Health Assessments Performed by Skilled Nursing Care
Each day, someone needs to check your mom’s blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and oxygen levels. If she has diabetes, her sugar levels must also be carefully monitored. These health assessments may be too much for you to handle, but a skilled nurse can take care of them and report findings to your mom’s doctors.
Now that you know more about skilled nursing care services, it’s time to schedule visits with skilled nurses. Your mom has the medical support she needs while she recovers, and you know she’s getting the best possible care without having to be in a nursing home.
Sources: https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/older-people%E2%80%99s-health-issues/aging-and-medications/aging-and-medications