Nurses That Serve Patients in Their Homes

¶ … Lois Gerber emphasizes the duties and responsibilities of community health nurses in homes. And Gerber also explains the flexibility and freedom that community health nurses have within the context of their service. When a professional healthcare professional is providing services away from the authoritarian environment of a hospital or clinic, that nurse who serves in a home setting needs to be strong on self-motivation, "self-reliance," and must be "adaptable" and a strong self-starter (Gerber, 2012).

This paper reviews the details of what skills and experiences a community nurse must have in order to be effective. What a Community Nurse Must Know and Offer in terms of Services A community nurse's obligations and resources are unique in that the nurse has far more autonomy, and far more "control over" the situation in a home healthcare environment, Gerber explains on page 19.

The training that a community nurse has gone through it vitally important because in a patient's home the nurse has to rely on experience and training, since there is no supervising nurse or doctor to give instructions.

What medications are most appropriate for the home-based patient? What special diet is appropriate, and what exercise routines should be followed to maximize the benefits for the patient? These are very important questions to be answered and resolved, because care in the home "…is more holistic" and interventions are up to the nurse in charge of the home care. The cultural values and beliefs of a patient when being cared for in the home are very important for the nurse to relate to and be sensitive to, Gerber explains (19).

It must always be remembered that a community health nurse is a guest in the patient's home, so a "nonjudgmental approach" in addition to "effective communication and organizational skills are essential" (Gerber, 19). The community nurse might be assigned to a shopping mall to provide screening for the elderly, and that of course is vastly different from serving a patient (client) in the patient's home.

Typically, the home healthcare provided by a nurse means the nurse will visit the patient in the home for up to six times per day, Gerber explains. And not all patients are in need of serious measure for their health; some, as Gerber explains on page 19, are simply paying for "health screenings…and healthy living practices" (or wellness issues) (19).

But not all community nurses make home visits; some are working in a county or city health department dealing with urgent and routine problems that arise from time to time, such as: a) "providing mass prophylaxis to manage biochemical threats"; b) "large-scale" food poisoning events; c) natural disasters (such as earthquakes which have occurred recently in Nepal); d) environmental health hazards; and e) disease prevention (Gerber, 20). There is a five-step process that all community health nurses must go through.

Assessment of patients' healthcare needs is predicated on having strong listening and interviewing skills; that is, the nurse must be skilled in cultural skills as well as "everyday life skills" (Gerber, 20). Another step is the ability to make accurate diagnoses of patients and healthcare situations; if a family is eating unhealthy foods on a daily basis, the nurse makes a diagnosis of that problem and works with the family. A third.