Home nurses provide nursing care to the elderly, sick, and disabled patients. They also look after patients who want to spend some quality time with their family before they depart from this world. There also care for patients who are not physically fit to visit treatment facilities and have been advised complete bed rest to recover from major surgeries. In all these situations, services of home nurses become vital as family members cannot look alone after the patient due to their jobs or other commitments. Selecting a home nurse is a very sensitive issue. It is a process that needs plenty of time and consideration. It involves interviewing and doing some background checks on your candidates.

Choosing a home nurse

Communication skills

A good nurse must be able to understand what you tell him or her and should also be good in relaying vital information and know exactly when to do so. You can find out a candidate’s level of communication skills from his references.

The personality of the home nurse

Some families prefer a home nurse who is quiet, demure and low-key. Others want someone with a strong and take charge personality. While others prefer someone in the middle. Your family should determine this carefully and use it as one of the criteria for choosing the right nurse.

Character

Desirable attributes of a home nurse are dependable, intelligent, trustworthy, compassionate, caring, responsible, on- time, friendly, clean, reliable, and much more. You can know whether your caregiver has these traits by calling their references and by observing how they react and answer during the interview.

Service fees

Before hiring a caregiver, you should already set how much your family would like to spend each week on a care provider. You should be very clear with how much exactly you can spend and be reasonable with your expectations. Price may not necessarily define the quality of a home nurse that you’re hiring, but it will help you narrow down your choices and the skills that your caregiver may have.

Chemistry

Although the chemistry between two individuals may be tough to determine, we can always know this by our initial gut feeling. Being fond of the person during your first meeting may indicate your good relationship in the future, although it’s not a guarantee. We can only hope for the best.

Credentials

You should ensure that the nurse is certified so as to ensure he or she is qualified to be a caregiver. You can do this by calling the references.