Re: Nurse consultant in Elder Care
Hi Robb,
The jobdescription you gave is exactly what I am doing right now and I love it. I have been a nurse for over 30 years and lost my office/ surgery type job due to my boss retiring. I knew I could no longer handle the hospital or clinical type nursing , but I had a love for elderly care and have been taking care of my aging parents the past 6 years. I contacted an agency that does comprehensive adult and geriatric care management, they weren't even hiring, but gave me a part time job and it has been great. I am learning the different agencies and resources in the area and working with elder care lawyers, hospice, psychologists, neurologists and social workers. Two of us go out on the initial assessment, I do the medical part and the geriatric counselor does the mental and social evaluation. Sometimes it is a one time consult, other times we end up being the client advocate and help in coordinating care, especially if a family does not live in our area and need help with their parents. I have no added background in geriatric nursing , but have learned about the problems and concerns while going through it with my parents.
This is an excellent new area for nurses, and I know it will be growing in the future. Nurses are paid well for doing assessments and can set up their own schedule. It helps to study up on dementia, parkinsons, depression etc and the meds used in these dx. I got my contact by going through a senior resource catalog that I got at the hospital. I looked up websites and just sent an email to the one I liked and got an interview!
Hope this helps. Let me know what you think.
Nursing News