The key to successful home care is planning. Problems have to be anticipated. Changes might have to be made in the way your home is organized. You might have to buy or rent special equipment and work out the routines necessary for proper care. All this may seem like a lot of work, maybe even too much of a burden. Yet a comfortable and workable home care environment can be devised. And it can be a helpful step to recovery.
Discharge Planning Once you, your doctor and others make the decision to go home, you should be able to call on the services of a discharge planner. This planner—who may be a medical social worker, public health nurse or discharge coordinator—will help define your needs and match them with the resources available in your community.
Training Depending on the hospital, you, your family and any other potential caregivers might be able to enroll in the home care training programs now provided by many hospitals. These programs are usually taught by nurses and home care planners and vary in length.
The first part of the program may be devoted to making sure that home care really is practical and appropriate for you and your family. The rest of the program may combine personal and/or videotape instruction with teaching in the hospital, followed by your practicing the skills to be used at home. The home health nurse will be able to reinforce or complete the training you receive in the hospital.
