Who Do You Need? Differences Between Health Care Professionals

Published on January 26, 2017, 4:54 pm
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Learning about home care service can be confusing. Familiarizing yourself with medical jargon, treatments, and the multiple health care professionals, all while dealing with an already busy schedule, can become overwhelming.

To help clear up some of the confusion, we at Edison Home Health Care have put together a short guide below to help you become familiar with some of our health care professionals and their individual functions.

Nurses 

Registered nurses are assigned to each and every patient. Nurses not only administer treatments to patients and provide guidance to home health aides, but they also supervise and monitor the other professionals in charge of the patient’s day-to-day care. Nurses are also available for scheduled home visits. This way the patient does not need to travel to their appointments, which can be painful, difficult, or labor intensive. Nurses are on call 24 hours a day to home care questions or to provide treatment if needed. 

Home Health Aides

Home health aides (HHA) offer the perfect solution when a parent or loved one wishes to remain in their own home but requires basic routine assistance. Home health aides provide much-needed companionship to patients along with a wide range of services. They will assist with activities of daily living (ADL’s) such as meal preparation, feeding, bathing, dressing, and light housekeeping. While they cannot prescribe medication or treatments, HHAs can assist in a patient’s therapy and remind the patient to take any medications. They also keep notes on the patient’s progress and will report any concerns or incidents to a nurse or another appropriate home health care professionals. 

Physical Therapists

Physical therapy is a crucial, yet often overlooked, aspect to improve the quality of life of seniors and those living with a disability. Physical therapists can help patients gain and maintain maximum mobility. Patients requiring equipment such as a wheelchair or walker will also learn the proper way to use these items from a qualified therapist. Learning how to reuse and strengthen muscles after an injury not only helps the patient remain mobile, it will also help prevent accidents in the future. 

Personal Assistants

Patients that receive home health services typically have some sort physical limitations. Whether these limitations are temporary or permanent, senior patientswill often require assistance with ADL’s. The CDPAP program offers personal assistants are available to help patients with tasks and provide a clean and safe environment. 

Edison Home Health Care has an extensive array of professionalsavailable to ensure every patient receives exceptional individualized care. If you have any questions concerning the services they offer, or about their team of health care professionals, feel free to contact them today and a patient representative can help you with all of your needs.

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