What do psych home health nurses do?

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Specializes in acute care then Home health.

Just out of curiosity. What do psych nurses do in home health? Is it primarily assessments? I would think that patients would be responsible for taking there own meds. Please enlighten.

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

Our psych nurses assist with coping skills, identifying triggers, teaching caregivers, evaluate effectiveness of meds and make recommendations to the PCP or psychiatrist, listening and therapeutic communication, boundary setting, mini-mental status exam to evaluate for dementia and probably a lot more that I can't think of at the moment.

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Specializes in acute care then Home health.

thanks. I'm new to private duty with a medical patient, but my father-in-law who is a psychologist and I were both wondering what psych nurses do in the home health setting. Do they do mostly follow-ups after discharge or are the home visits usually long term?

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

That depends on the patient's needs and the payer source. If Medicare, then they still have to meet all the usual Medicare requirements of homebound, skilled need, under doctor's care, reasonable and necessary, etc.

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