The term “day nurse” has often been used in reference to professionals who provide home health care. The home health care industry has become a major form of healthcare maintenance. Medical technology has advanced to the point that equipment for chronic conditions such as respiratory problems or cardiac irregularity can be placed in the home. Patients who are facing extended periods of recovery prefer to be at home rather than in a long term care facility. It is this sort of situation where the services of a “day nurse” are called into play.
Today, the person who comes to the home daily to minister to an ailing, frail or disabled individual is more likely to be called a Certified Nursing Assistant, a Licensed Vocational Nurse or a Licensed Practical Nurse. They may well be affiliated with the local Visiting Nurse’s Association. These are the contemporary titles for individuals who have been trained in the care of homebound individuals; these are the professionals that function as today’s day nurses.
The “Day Nurses” from the Visiting Nurses Association
Visiting Nurses Associations are the mainstays of home health care throughout the country. They offer a variety of services designed to meet the needs of almost any situation or degree of debilitation faced by the homebound individual. Here, for example, are the home health care services offered by the Southeast Michigan Visiting Nurses Association:
Skilled nursing (specialties include behavioral health, communicable disease prevention, hospice, cardiac, high tech and wound/ostomy/continence services)
High-tech services (including infusion)
Home health aide (help with personal care)
Nutrition counseling
Pediatric services
Physical and occupational therapy
Speech/language pathology
TeleHomecare for heart failure, hypertension, COPD and diabetes
Medical social work
This assortment of services would naturally be provided by specialists in a number of areas. All of them, however, are engaged in home health care and all of them are part of the Visiting Nurses Association – providing modern medicine’s version of the support brought by the day nurses of previous generations.
Traditional Nursing from Visiting Day Nurses
A Licensed Vocational Nurse is trained to go into the home and support the patient with help for daily functions. These might include preparing food and feeding the patient, if necessary; bathing or helping to bathe the patient and changing linens. This visiting nurse may also help the patient get dressed and up for the day; to the degree that he or she is ambulatory help with a short walk or just a trip to the bathroom.
This sort of service is, in every sense, the kind of support that was envisioned when the term ‘day nurse’ was in use. Additional support today in situations where the patient is a disabled parent might involve helping with children. That might mean getting them out the door to school, preparing a meal for them or even providing transport for them. Visiting Nurses Associations provide a remarkable array of support services.
Regardless of the title, the concept is the same. Whether it is a day nurse, a nurses assistant or an LVN it is the same compassionate support for the afflicted brought into the home, where it is needed the most.
