Take Care Provides Mentorship for Nursing Students
Home health nursing is a complex nursing specialty – and it’s our specialty at Take Care Private Duty Home Health Care.
Home health care requires an integrated approach, including nutrition, safety, pharmacology, and medical management for all of a client’s conditions. Due to the holistic nature of this type of care, it’s a great environment for experienced nurses to mentor nursing students in the field. (Especially when working with a company like Take Care, a local, nurse-founded and operated agency!)
Here are a few reasons learning “on the job” alongside experienced in-home nurses can make a difference in training the next generation of nurses:
Hands-On Experience
Most importantly, this type of mentorship in home health care gets nursing students out of the classroom and creates opportunities to gain hands-on experience caring for clients in real-world settings. There is a great benefit to working one-on-one with patients - or two-on-one with patients in our case since students would always be assisting seasoned Take Care’s nurses. “Shadow shifts” can allow mentees the chance to begin utilizing knowledge learned in school while continuing to understand how it applies in the real world with guidance from the Take Care team. Spoiler alert: Nothing is ever as simple as it is in the textbooks! There are often family dynamics to navigate and logistical arrangements for the delivery of medical equipment, medications, and even groceries. In the home, our nurses serve as subject matter experts for all questions, supported by 24/7 guidance available through our clinical supervisors.
Focus on Patient Care
In the healthcare industry, some talk about patient-centered care. At Take Care, it’s all we know and always how we operate. We hope our focus on client care as absolutely paramount will be memorable and noticeable during each nursing student’s experience. “Personalized care” is so accurate since we are constantly meeting the needs and preferences of a unique person. This can be a nice complement to the important care provided in acute care settings and hospitals where many nurses begin their careers. Working in home health allows nurses to make a meaningful difference to clients battling a variety of medical conditions concurrently, to healing from an elective surgery such as a facelift or caring for an elderly patient in their final days. No matter the need for care, home health care allows for your care plan to be personalized.
Variety of Venues & Medical Specialties
Interestingly enough, the “setting” for home health care isn’t always what we think of as a traditional “home!” Take Care nurses also support clients living in a planned residence, hotel, assisted living facility, skilled nursing facility, or at a rehabilitation hospital while individuals are recovering from an accident, surgery, heart attack, or stroke. We also regularly collaborate with clients’ entire interdisciplinary medical teams – Primary Care Physicians (PCP), Specialists (Endocrinologists, Cardiologists, Oncologists, or other doctors), physical, occupational, and speech therapists, dietitians, and pharmacy teams.
(Through Take Care Advisor, we also help connect the dots among providers for clients and bridge communication with family members or other loved ones. Our Geriatric Care Management service is also a great resource for nursing students to learn more about during their time at Take Care.)
Flexibility
Another benefit to learning, training and working in home health care can be the flexibility of scheduling. This flexibility can be beneficial for nursing students who have other commitments or need to balance work and school. (The same goes for many of our regular staff members!)
The Take Care team welcomes the opportunity to engage with nursing students looking for the wide range of experiences home health care provides. If you have any questions about working in home health as part of your career, or would like to connect your nursing college with our clinical supervisors to explore future partnerships, please reach out to Clinical Services Administrator Dr. Carolyn L Farrell, EdD, MBA, BS, RN, at 941.927.2292.