Our
book should be of help to those who want to set up nursing care at home for a
patient coming directly from the hospital or from a nursing home or
rehabilitation facility that has served as an intermediate step. The patient
has a severe and possibly chronic medical condition requiring skilled nursing
care.
Basically, your choices are carrying out
nursing care at home or putting the individual into a facility already set up
to provide nursing care, such as a hospice, a nursing home, a long-term-care
facility, but probably not an assisted-living community, as we are assuming
that skilled nursing care will be required. We describe what we have learned by
caring for two patients at home and what we have gleaned from our other
experience and from the medical and nursing literature.
NURSING CARE
AT HOME
“In
the United States, about 40 million people provide unpaid care to an ill or
disabled adult. One quarter of those caregivers have been in their roles for
five years or longer. And these loving helpers often go it alone. Only half of family
caregivers say they get unpaid help from another family member or friend.”
(AARP, 2015)
Nursing care at home
can range from around-the-clock nursing for someone with a critical condition
to regular or even intermittent visits by a nurse to care for someone who
continues to live in the home almost exclusively.
Many people would
prefer for themselves or their loved ones the option of nursing care at home
rather than having to go live in a separate facility. Depending on the details of the situation,
this can be significantly more, but sometimes less, expensive than being in a
nursing facility. This option requires management, the primary focus of this
book.
PROBLEMS
The patient in question
is being released from the hospital under the condition that the next stop is
either a nursing home, a hospice, or a suitably equipped home, yours. You have
decided to take on the responsibility of having the patient at home. Now what?
SOLUTIONS
We will show you how
to plan for the patient’s homecoming, select where the patient will
be cared for, and determine who will provide what care when,
and how and with what equipment and material.
THE AUTHORS
Douglas Winslow Cooper,
PhD,
is a writer, editor, and retired environmental scientist, who for over a
decade has helped to manage continuous, at-home, skilled nursing care of his
wife, Tina Su Cooper, quadriplegic and ventilator-dependent due to multiple
sclerosis. For several years, he also managed the skilled nursing care at
home of his nearly-100-year-old mother, bedridden, virtually quadriplegic,
ventilator-dependent, medicated and fed through a gastric tube, and on a
pacemaker.
Douglas earned his A.B., with honors, in
physics at Cornell, served at the U.S. Army biological warfare laboratories at
Ft. Detrick, MD, returned to school and obtained his M.S. degree in physics at
Penn State and his Ph.D. in engineering from Harvard. His professional life
centered on environmental issues.
He served as an Associate Professor at the
Harvard Graduate School of Public Health, was Director of the Environmental
Health Management Program, and subsequently conducted environmental studies as
a Research Staff Member at IBM ’s
Yorktown Heights, NY, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., Research Center.
Dr. Cooper was the author or co-author
of more than 100 technical articles published in refereed journals and was
elected Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Sciences. He now does freelance
writing, book coaching/partnering, and editing. He wrote Ting and I: A
Memoir of Love, Courage, and Devotion, co-authored three other memoirs,
coached for and edited three other non-fiction books. Most recently, he
co-authored SOLVED! Curing Your Medical Insurance Problems, and Frustrated with Life? You Are Not
Alone! and wrote Write Your Book with Me. He continues to
work with would-be authors.
Contact information:
Douglas Winslow Cooper, PhD, LLC
264 East Drive, Walden, NY
douglas@tingandi.com
Diane R. Beggin, RN: Originally hoping to
become a veterinarian, but unable to finance achieving that goal, Diane R.
Beggin’s earliest professional career was in the financial industry. She started working in a Dean Witter Reynolds
branch office (now Morgan Stanley) in California and later transferred to
the World Trade Center in New York, where she became a vice-president in
operations. While a manager, she
found that organizational skills and development of intra-departmental
documentation proved vital.
Diane “retired” from
this successful career to raise a family.
When her children were young, she returned to school for a career in
nursing. After graduating with her RN
from Orange County Community College (SUNY Orange), winning the Spirit of
Nursing Award from the Army Nurse Corps, and being recognized for her officer
roles in the Nursing Club and Phi Theta Kappa, Diane began her career as a
Professional Register Nurse [RN] directly in the critical care unit.
A disabling injury
prevented her from continuing in hospital-based nursing. Soon afterward, in the
fall of 2004, Diane began working for Dr. Cooper to assist in the skilled
nursing care in their home of his wife, who was expected to survive only a few
months, but who has survived for twelve more years.
Over these past twelve years, Diane has
continued to work both part-time for the Coopers and in other nursing venues. Diane,
as head nurse for Dr. Cooper, has used her training and experience to establish
the documentation and protocols used in the daily practice of caring for two
quadriplegic, ventilator–dependent patients in the home. She also completes the quarterly physician
orders and extensive semi-annual insurance reports detailing the clinical
status for Mrs. Tina Cooper to justify her continued medical insurance
benefits.
Diane Beggin has
collaborated in the preparation and writing of this book in hopes that it will
prove of value to others seeking to manage nursing care in the home. She is
currently available for consulting on such matters.
Contact information:
Diane R. Beggin, RN
40 Sycamore Drive
Montgomery, NY 12549
http://managenursingcareathome.com
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