When a doctor tells an adult child that their elderly parent needs round the clock care the child's first though might be to place their parent in a nursing home. This isn't necessarily a bad idea. A majority of the nations nursing homes hire competent and caring employees, there is normally a nurse on duty, the patients receive their medications in a timely fashion, and nursing homes provide their patients with the opportunity to interact with other patients.
On the other hand there is the option of hiring a home nurse. Many home nurses care for their patients for a few hours a week or even on a daily basis. They come into the home at an appointed time and make sure that the patient is in good health, taking their medication, and following the doctors orders. However in cases where round the clock care is required, there are home nurses who will move into the patient's spare bedroom where they can keep a watchful eye on their patients at all times.
It is not unusual for the family to decide that a home nurse is the option they prefer to take, this is especially true when is doubtful that the patient has long to live. The next problem is finding a home nurse to move into the patient's home.
The first thing the family needs to know is that, when round the clock care is required, more then one home nurse will be needed. Most of the times a family has to hire multiple nurses that then arrange to work in shifts. By working on a rotation nurses are able to stay alert and watchful while they are with their patient. Working in shifts also allows the nurses an opportunity to have a private life where they can take a break from their medical duties.
Where can you find a batch of home nurses that are capable of tending to your elderly parent's medical needs?
One of the people who can make a few suggestions about where you can start looking for reliable home nurses is your parent's physician. The doctor should be able to make a few recommendations of nurses and nursing agencies that can match your parent up with a group of reliable and personable nurses that you can confidently welcome into your home.
If your parent's physician has predicted that it is doubtful that your parent will live past a certain point you can contact your state's hospice. They will be able to help you make arrangements for your parent's care and can help you find reliable home nurses.
Check and see if there are any nursing agencies in your immediate area. If you are unable to locate a nursing agency that specializes in home nurses in your local area, you might try contacting a nursing agency that specializes in travel nurses.
If, for whatever reason, the nurses that you hire do not work out, contact the agency immediately. Be friendly and polite when you explain your families reason's for requesting a replacement.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Worried about future, VA sends nurses to universities — to teach
The Veterans Affairs Department is worried about the nation’s nursing population — not to mention its future hiring prospects.
So far, despite a nursing shortage that has hurt many of the nation’s hospitals, VA says it has filled all of the 43,500 nursing positions it needs today, and is replacing the roughly 4,300 nurses who retire or leave each year.
But the shortage has spread to the universities needed to train new nurses, jeopardizing VA’s future work force.
Because of a lack of qualified faculty to teach them, more than 38,400 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing schools in 2006, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Eventually, VA said, that will only exacerbate the already-tough competition to hire good nurses.
So VA is stepping in to help. Last fall, VA began loaning some of its best nurses to the University of Florida, San Diego State University, the University of Utah and Connecticut’s Fairfield University to teach nursing classes for at least one-quarter of their workweek.
With VA’s help, those four universities were able to accept about 1,000 students last fall who otherwise would have been turned away, said Michael Hager, VA’s assistant secretary for human resources and administration.
And that’s just the beginning. VA plans to expand its Nursing Academy program to four other schools this fall and four more in fall 2009.
Other agencies facing a shortage of qualified people to fill mission-critical jobs, such as engineers and accountants, should follow VA’s example, experts said.
“They’re not doing this just because it’s nice to do,” said John Palguta, vice president of the Partnership for Public Service, which promotes employment in the public sector. “Not only are VA nurses in a position to influence a student’s thinking about places to work, they can identify the best talent among the student body” and recruit them.
Hager said there’s no way to guarantee that someone taking a class from a VA nurse will take a job with the department, but he expects the effort will improve VA’s chances of recruitment. Nursing students often visit their mentors’ hospitals for real-world experience, and Hager said students will be more inclined to join VA after becoming familiar with department facilities.
But even if students don’t take jobs with VA, the department isn’t considering its nurses’ time wasted. Hager said VA has a vested interest in helping restore the health of the nursing population and the schools on which it relies.
“We want to develop a pipeline of talent [and] ensure a viable, educated work force,” Hager said.
While some federal employees already teach university classes on their own time, Palguta and Hager were unaware of agencies besides VA that have officially partnered with universities and loaned employees out to serve as faculty.
Palguta said that since most new federal employees learn about their jobs through word of mouth, putting experienced feds behind a lectern would be a good way to recruit college students about to enter the work force.
The pilot program will last five years and cost $40 million. VA is still receiving proposals from nursing schools that wish to participate in the program’s second round, and will choose four schools by June 4.
VA said hospitals nationwide now cannot fill 118,000 vacant nursing positions, and all 50 states expect nursing shortages by 2015.
VA is also trying to extend the reach of nurses it already has on staff. VA announced March 11 that it is creating a new VA Travel Nurse Corps, which aims to create a pool of nurses who can quickly travel around the country for temporary assignments.
“If we need X number of nurses in a particular location due to a buildup, or an unforeseen demand that emerged overnight, we can take care of that need,” Hager said.
The three-year pilot program now enlists about 30 Phoenix nurses, but Hager hopes to increase participation to 100 by the end of the test.
VA hopes that by sending its corps of nurses to deal with emergency staffing shortages, it will keep its standards of patient care up. VA also hopes the program will decrease turnover.
It wants traveling nurses to relieve other nurses who might otherwise work long hours dealing with crises, get burned out and leave.
The Travel Nurse Corps will also work with a new Rural Health Care Advisory Committee on improving service for veterans in rural areas.
Palguta said that other agencies could adopt a similar model to improve their surge capabilities for in-demand jobs that cannot be done remotely, jobs such as the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controllers.
While VA is spending most of its energy maintaining its nursing staff, it also wants to beef up its benefits processing staff by about 40 percent, Hager said.
The department wants to hire about 3,000 new adjudicators by the end of fiscal 2009, bringing its processing work force to roughly 10,600.
The increasing numbers of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are one factor driving VA hiring. But VA also wants to cut down on a backlog of 400,000 claims awaiting processing, improve customer service, and process claims faster.
“We’ll be adding lots of automation in the future, but in the meantime, we need more staff to achieve optimum performance,” Hager said.
VA is also ready to hire more nurses over the next two years to deal with possible increases in veterans’ needs due to Iraq and Afghanistan. Hager said it is unclear how many more nurses VA will need to hire, but he expects VA will be able to recruit all the nurses it needs.
Hager said VA’s expanded and improved advertising program and benefits such as student loan repayment programs will help it attract nurses.
“There’s no guarantee on the future, but it’s as strong a platform as you could possibly create to get close,” Hager said. - FederalTimes.com
So far, despite a nursing shortage that has hurt many of the nation’s hospitals, VA says it has filled all of the 43,500 nursing positions it needs today, and is replacing the roughly 4,300 nurses who retire or leave each year.
But the shortage has spread to the universities needed to train new nurses, jeopardizing VA’s future work force.
Because of a lack of qualified faculty to teach them, more than 38,400 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing schools in 2006, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Eventually, VA said, that will only exacerbate the already-tough competition to hire good nurses.
So VA is stepping in to help. Last fall, VA began loaning some of its best nurses to the University of Florida, San Diego State University, the University of Utah and Connecticut’s Fairfield University to teach nursing classes for at least one-quarter of their workweek.
With VA’s help, those four universities were able to accept about 1,000 students last fall who otherwise would have been turned away, said Michael Hager, VA’s assistant secretary for human resources and administration.
And that’s just the beginning. VA plans to expand its Nursing Academy program to four other schools this fall and four more in fall 2009.
Other agencies facing a shortage of qualified people to fill mission-critical jobs, such as engineers and accountants, should follow VA’s example, experts said.
“They’re not doing this just because it’s nice to do,” said John Palguta, vice president of the Partnership for Public Service, which promotes employment in the public sector. “Not only are VA nurses in a position to influence a student’s thinking about places to work, they can identify the best talent among the student body” and recruit them.
Hager said there’s no way to guarantee that someone taking a class from a VA nurse will take a job with the department, but he expects the effort will improve VA’s chances of recruitment. Nursing students often visit their mentors’ hospitals for real-world experience, and Hager said students will be more inclined to join VA after becoming familiar with department facilities.
But even if students don’t take jobs with VA, the department isn’t considering its nurses’ time wasted. Hager said VA has a vested interest in helping restore the health of the nursing population and the schools on which it relies.
“We want to develop a pipeline of talent [and] ensure a viable, educated work force,” Hager said.
While some federal employees already teach university classes on their own time, Palguta and Hager were unaware of agencies besides VA that have officially partnered with universities and loaned employees out to serve as faculty.
Palguta said that since most new federal employees learn about their jobs through word of mouth, putting experienced feds behind a lectern would be a good way to recruit college students about to enter the work force.
The pilot program will last five years and cost $40 million. VA is still receiving proposals from nursing schools that wish to participate in the program’s second round, and will choose four schools by June 4.
VA said hospitals nationwide now cannot fill 118,000 vacant nursing positions, and all 50 states expect nursing shortages by 2015.
VA is also trying to extend the reach of nurses it already has on staff. VA announced March 11 that it is creating a new VA Travel Nurse Corps, which aims to create a pool of nurses who can quickly travel around the country for temporary assignments.
“If we need X number of nurses in a particular location due to a buildup, or an unforeseen demand that emerged overnight, we can take care of that need,” Hager said.
The three-year pilot program now enlists about 30 Phoenix nurses, but Hager hopes to increase participation to 100 by the end of the test.
VA hopes that by sending its corps of nurses to deal with emergency staffing shortages, it will keep its standards of patient care up. VA also hopes the program will decrease turnover.
It wants traveling nurses to relieve other nurses who might otherwise work long hours dealing with crises, get burned out and leave.
The Travel Nurse Corps will also work with a new Rural Health Care Advisory Committee on improving service for veterans in rural areas.
Palguta said that other agencies could adopt a similar model to improve their surge capabilities for in-demand jobs that cannot be done remotely, jobs such as the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controllers.
While VA is spending most of its energy maintaining its nursing staff, it also wants to beef up its benefits processing staff by about 40 percent, Hager said.
The department wants to hire about 3,000 new adjudicators by the end of fiscal 2009, bringing its processing work force to roughly 10,600.
The increasing numbers of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are one factor driving VA hiring. But VA also wants to cut down on a backlog of 400,000 claims awaiting processing, improve customer service, and process claims faster.
“We’ll be adding lots of automation in the future, but in the meantime, we need more staff to achieve optimum performance,” Hager said.
VA is also ready to hire more nurses over the next two years to deal with possible increases in veterans’ needs due to Iraq and Afghanistan. Hager said it is unclear how many more nurses VA will need to hire, but he expects VA will be able to recruit all the nurses it needs.
Hager said VA’s expanded and improved advertising program and benefits such as student loan repayment programs will help it attract nurses.
“There’s no guarantee on the future, but it’s as strong a platform as you could possibly create to get close,” Hager said. - FederalTimes.com
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