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How to prepare for your homecare shift

There’s no doubt that being a homecare nurse is a fulfilling career. As a homecare nurse, you will go to work each day knowing you will make a difference in your patients’ lives.

Just like nurses working in a hospital setting, homecare nurses can expect to perform a wide variety of job duties, including taking vital signs, helping patients with mobility issues, cleaning wounds, administering medication and drawing blood.

Home health nurses also need to report back to their employers and keep their patients’ medical records up to date, so maintaining accurate paperwork is as much a part of the job for homecare nurses as it is for RNs staffing a hospital or clinic.

Important factors to consider before going into a shift

Time keeping

Make sure you’ve got the full address of the care home or patients house and that you’ve looked it up beforehand. Whether you use Google maps, Apple maps or any other platform – always ensure you know where you are going and how long it takes to get there.

Bear in mind the time of day and traffic disturbances along the way. It will make a bad first impression if you rock up late to your nursing shift.

Care plans

Make sure you’ve got the right name of the client, their care plan, and that you’ve actually read the care plan. Going in prepared will make you look confident and also put the patient at ease.

Supplies

Make sure you’ve got enough supplies with you for the duration of your shift. This means taking your own tea, coffee, sugar, milk and food – you can’t expect those things to be provided to you. Having all your belongings in a personal bag will help so that everything is in one place and can be stored away securely. Make sure your phone is charged and that you have data – you shouldn’t be asking the client for a charger or place to recharge your phone.

Appearance

Always dress appropriately and ensure your personal hygiene is of good standard. Homecare nurses work quite intimately with patients, and it wouldn’t be appealing having a dirty armpit or bad breath in the patients face.

Mindset

Going in with the right attitude/frame of mind will always make your shift more bearable. Be sure to leave all your personal issues at home and remember your purpose. Be respectful and remember your values as a Greenstaff nurse; resilient, reliable, dedicated, trusted, caring and experienced.

Record keeping

Notes should be taken at least every hour – timed and written in black pen. If this needs to be done digitally, make sure you are logged in before you enter the property.

A reminder that these notes could form part of a court case against you, and they need to be factual, not opinionated. Keep it clear and concise, and remember if it wasn’t documented, it wasn’t done!

Access

At Greenstaff Medical, we’ve made it easy for you - putting all the information in one place. Access is our internal app that nurses need to download once a job is confirmed. Setting up is easy and is individual to each nurses’ phone. Although not all packages are required to use the app, it is a great way to track where you check in, time of arrival and departure.

The right care, right now

Greenstaff Medical are committed to maintaining and improving quality of care and patient outcomes, which means professional boundaries must be maintained at all times. We appreciate you build a relationship with your clients, but you must remember you are there in a professional capacity.

Our Carers and Nurses are singularly dedicated, deeply compassionate and highly skilled in the requirements needed for safe care delivery. Each client or patient that we support is enabled to live their life the way they wish to, whilst receiving the right care, right now.

If you are interested in a role in homecare, browse through our available jobs or register your CV and we’ll give you a call back.