How To Best Care For A Sick Person In Your Home
Whether it's one of your children, a parent, a relative or even a friend, caring for a sick person in your home tells something good about you. It says that you have either a strong sense of compassion, a deep sense of responsibility, or both of those things combined with many other exemplary traits. You certainly don't have to be a doctor or a nurse to care for somebody who is ill. Here are some ideas that might help you to best care for a sick person in your home.
Assess The Situation - Whether you are planning ahead or whether your patient came to you without warning, think about what your responsibilities are.
- Do you have other family members in your home? Don't forget they still need your attention.
- If you do have family members in your home, can they help with your new responsibilities of caring for a sick person?
- Do you need to hire assisted living professionals to help you? Who will cover that cost?
- Ask other friends and family members to visit your patient. New faces and new conversation are a help to both you and your patient.
Set Up A Special Room - Whether it's your own family member's bedroom, a guest room or the family room, make sure it's conducive to easier care.
- Is the patient's confinement a short, temporary one? That obviously makes things much easier.
- Make the room as comfortable as you can. For example, if there's a way you could put a TV in the room, this would be a great distraction for your patient.
- Ask yourself how your patient will reach you when he or she needs you. Maybe all you need is a bell or the use of a cell phone. Otherwise, consider even a child's monitor system that you can hear well.
- Remembering special dietary needs, have a basket of treats handy. Granola bars and fruit are two good choices.
Consider Medical Equipment - You may need to buy or rent medical equipment (Tower Medical Systems is one great source) to help in the care of your patient.
- Think about renting or buying a hospital bed. Just being able to easily change the patient's position can be a tremendous help.
- Consider buying a specialty table like the ones used in hospitals. Because they are affordable, buying the table might be a good choice.
- You can easily move it from place to place. It can be used as a bedside table to hold things like books and drinks. Then it can be turned totally in front of the patient for him or her to more easily eat meals.
- Another great thing about having a medical specialty table is that it can be moved from room to room. When your patient is able to sit, the table can be moved in front of a chair, or even to another room where he or she can join other family members.
Remember to take care of yourself. Eat well, get plenty of sleep and go for outings. After all, if you're not well, how are you going to take care of somebody else?
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