Please share your home care nursing tips/tricks with others

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I thought it would be helpful if we shared our tips/tricks for staying sane in home care with others. For example, How do you keep your paperwork organized? How do you keep your lunch cold?, How do you prepare for the weather? How do you organize your supplies, etc. Any tips for dealing with non-compliant patients? I'll start..

1. If you are taking supplies from the office use the "Noahs Ark" technique and always take two. That way if there are problems with the first one your covered. (I know this may not be allowed anymore).

2. My agency is on computers and I keep a word document with phrases/skills that I can copy and paste into documents. Saves time!

3. I bought a car desk online and this helps keeping the paperwork organized and not having items falling all over the car.

NEXT...

Specializes in Home Health.

My tip is carry your own seat. I have a folding camping stool with a compartment underneath it. I carry my vs equipment in that compartment and then I always have my own chair to sit on when the home is less than inviting. ;)

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Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.

That. Is. GENIUS!

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Specializes in Home Health, MS, Oncology, Case Manageme.

I agree that a notebook is invaluable. I have a steno type pad in my car and I write my mileage, visit times, phone numbers, notes etc. That way I don't have post its all over the place and I can look back and see exactly what I did on a particular day.

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Specializes in Home Health, MS, Oncology, Case Manageme.

I see a lot of elderly patients and its hard for them to remember to take their meds or check their blood sugars, etc. So I carry a black marker and tape with me. I make paper signs for them and tape them where they will see them. I write phrases like "Did you take your meds today?" and "Check your blood sugar before breakfast". This visual reminder seems to help with compliance.

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Love this thread, so many great tips.

Mine here, won't be nearly as useful as the other posts,

but,

I once had a HH pt, who occasionally woke up in the night, to get up, but, was now too weak to stand on her own. We tried a bed alarm, but, was small pt who often rolled off her own bed alarm, causing all kinds of nightshift drama. A vest wasn't really necessary, as the person was otherwise oriented, just when first waking up, she couldn't remember she was now too weak to get OOB by herself now, and she had some skin issues that made a vest less than ideal for her. Her caregiver slept in same room, and the patient did NOT move real fast.

This pt ALWAYS got OOB on same side of bed, always. Never ever got out of other side, only got out of bed on the left side of bed. We put a lightweight metal pan on left side of FOB,

and two of an upside down, large rectangular metal cake pan on the floor on that side. (we used two to make sure we had big enough target)

Whenever the patient swung her legs to sit up, she'd knock that small pan off of the bed, causing it to fall onto the larger metal pan on the floor,

making loud bang noise which woke up her caregiver to assist her to sit up.

There's better things to use, and this idea would not work for a fast moving patient,

but

this worked for that one patient,

anyway, was kind of clever i thought.

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Most nurses already know this, but, some of us use SHAVING CREAM cuz nothing butnothing helps remove DRIED ON poop better than shaving cream, imo.

Especially kind to do for the patient, if the skin in that area is super tender, apply some NON-MENTHOL shaving cream to some DRIED ON poop and WA-LA!! The previously dried on poop just gently wipes off easy and painlessly, no scrubbing or heavy, excessively-repetitious rubbing req'd. It's also great for any poop clean ups, but for dried-on poop, shaving cream can't be beat, it's great.

And yes, this actually works better and is LESS PAINFUL than water, or soap and water, or anything else i've ever tried.

Imo, shaving cream should also be sold as "Dried on Poop remover", ha ha!!

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i also fell in love with rolling suitcases and/or backpacks to lug my supplies around in.

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THis si awesome,..I am new to Home EHalth and a NEw Nurse..please help..i am learning how to fill out the evaulaiton forms..the ticking of the boxes seems simple enough but what type fo notes do i put in..what format..i am lost..help..if anyone has like a word file of phrases that would eb awesome if you cna post or emial it to [email protected]

Also looking for help with SOC;s i have one next week and have not done one before..not much training porvided here..either

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THis si awesome,..I am new to Home EHalth and a NEw Nurse..please help..i am learning how to fill out the evaulaiton forms..the ticking of the boxes seems simple enough but what type fo notes do i put in..what format..i am lost..help..if anyone has like a word file of phrases that would eb awesome if you cna post or emial it to [email protected]

Also looking for help with SOC;s i have one next week and have not done one before..not much training porvided here..either

Since the paperwork you fill out for SOC can be important to having the care covered by medicare, insurance, etc,

it seems reasonable to ask your employer to have you mentored for this task. Ask if you can observe/be taught how this is done, by another employee who IS well versed in this. What each org wants done for SOC can vary from one org to another, so it's reasonable to ask to be shown how your new org wants SOC paperwork done.

If you say nothing, the employer might be assuming you are comfortable and do know how to do this. Ask your employer for training on this.

Your questions might make a good thread of it's own, not sure who all will see your questions tucked into page 2 of this here thread, not sure.

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THis si awesome,..I am new to Home EHalth and a NEw Nurse..please help..i am learning how to fill out the evaulaiton forms..the ticking of the boxes seems simple enough but what type fo notes do i put in..what format..i am lost..help..if anyone has like a word file of phrases that would eb awesome if you cna post or emial it to [email protected]

Also looking for help with SOC;s i have one next week and have not done one before..not much training porvided here..either

To Cyoung07,

not sure if you saw this here post, but, it might be just what you are looking for:

https://allnurses.com/home-health-nursing/here-example-clincal-808070.html#post7116705

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