Nursing Home: From 2 Different Sources
See “high dependency care facility”.
a residential facility that provides nursing supervision and limited medical care to individuals who do not require hospitalization.
Almost two centuries old, it is a system of medicine in which the treatment of disease (symptom pictures) depends on the administration of minute doses (attenuations) of substances that would, in larger doses, produce the same symptoms as the disease being treated. Homeopaths don’t like that “disease” word, preferring to match symptoms, not diagnostic labels. Although by no means harmless, homeopathic doses are devoid of drug toxicity. Many practitioners these days prefer high, almost mythic potencies, sometimes resorting to a virtual “laying on of hands” to attain the alleged remedy. When M.D.s used homeopathy frequently (turn of the century), there were violent battles between low potency advocates and the high potency charismatics. Some preferred low potencies or even mother tinctures (herbs!), which I find quite reasonable (naturally), such as Boericke. Others sought ever higher and higher potencies, tantamount to dropping an Arnica petal in Lake Superior in September and extracting a drop of water at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River the following April. Kent and Clarke were such homeopaths. Philosophically, to me, we are all surrounded in a subtle tide of unimaginably complex pollutants and organochemical recombinants...all low and middle potency homeopathic attenuations...our milieu itself is Mother Nosode...how can we be expected to respond to elegant but unimaginably subtle influences when our very bones radiate a low-potency gray noise. If you have no idea what I am talking about, just consider it a family argument.... homeopathy
The normal physiological process which ensures that the body’s internal systems, such as its metabolism, blood pressure and body temperature, maintain an equilibrium whatever the conditions of the outside environment. For example, the body temperature remains at around 37 °C (98.4 °F) in a cold or a hot climate.... homeostasis
The nursing of a patient suffering from an infectious disease in such a way that the risk of their passing on the disease to others is reduced. Thus, precautions are taken to ensure that all infective matter – such as stools, urine, sputum, discharge from wounds, and anything that may be contaminated by such infective matter (e.g. nurses’ uniforms, bedding and towels) – is so treated that it will not convey the infection. (See NURSING.)... barrier nursing
A person or a service providing practical help in the home, such as household chores, to support an older person with disabilities to remain living in his/her own home.... home help
A residence which offers housing and personal care services to a number of residents. Services (such as meals, supervision and transportation) are usually provided by the owner or manager. Usually 24-hour professional health care is not provided on site. See also “assisted living facility”.... adult care home / residential facility
See “adult care home”.... board and care home
A residential facility that provides accommodation and offers a range of care and support services. Care homes may provide a limited number of services to support low dependency or may provide a wide range of services to cater for the continuum from low to high dependency care. See “assisted living facility”; “high dependency care facility”.... care home
See APPENDIX 7: STATUTORY ORGANISATIONS.... council for nursing and midwifery
A house in which people have their own rooms but there are communal facilities. Staff may live in to offer support.... group home
Domicile of an individual.... home
See “adaptation”.... home adaptation
See “community-based care”.... home and community-based services; home and community care programme
See “residential care”; “assisted living facility”; “high dependency care facility”.... home for the aged
A public or private organization that provides home health services supervised by a licensed health professional in a person’s home, either directly or through arrangements with other organizations.... home health agency (hha) / home health care agency
A person who, under the supervision of a home health or social service agency, assists an older, ill or disabled person with household chores, bathing, personal care and other daily living needs. See also “community-based service”.... home health aide
See “domiciliary care”.... home health care / home care
An organization offering advice and practical assistance to older people who need to repair, improve or adapt their homes.... home improvement agency
Equipment, such as hospital beds, wheelchairs and prosthetics, provided by an agency and used at home.... home medical equipment
Professional visits in the home.... home visits
Schemes providing nursing care, personal care or practical help for older people who have returned home after a stay in hospital.... home-from-hospital / hospital after-care schemes
Generally unable to leave the house, or only for a short time.... homebound / housebound
A home help service for meal preparation, shopping, light housekeeping, money management, personal hygiene and grooming, and laundry.... homemaker service
(American) A tomboyish woman Homar, Homir, Homyr, Homur, Homor... homer
A scheme whereby a householder offers a bedroom and a share of the home’s facilities and pays a small contribution to someone in exchange for services.... homeshare
Home-based specialist medical care used to shorten hospital stays or prevent hospital admission.... hospital-at-home scheme
A service provided in the home by a home health agency or a residential services agency. It may be provided by personal care attendants or home health aides hired privately and informally, or through staff agencies or registries.... in home health service
Care provided in geriatric centres and acute hospitals to older persons who are in need of limited medical care and who are awaiting nursing home placement.... interim nursing home care
Housing built to be adaptable to people’s changing needs, thus avoiding the need for expensive and disruptive adaptations.... lifetime home
Nurses are the largest single group of sta? working in the health service. There are more than 330,000 quali?ed nursing posts in NHS trusts and primary care across the UK. Would-be registered nurses (RNs) do either a three-year diploma programme or a four-year degree. An increasing number of nurses are now acquiring degrees, either as their initial quali?cation or by studying part-time later in their career. This has led to an often heated debate over the nature of nursing and whether there is now too much emphasis on academic theory at the expense of hands-on care.
Nursing is changing rapidly, and today’s nurses are expected to take on an extended role – often performing tasks which were once the sole preserve of doctors, such as diagnosing, prescribing drugs and admitting and discharging patients.
There are four main branches of nursing: adult, child, mental health and learning disability. Student nurses qualify in one of these areas and then apply to go on the nursing register. This is held by nursing’s regulatory body, the Council for Nursing and Midwifery. Nurses are expected to abide by the Council’s Code of Professional Conduct. The organisation’s main role is protecting the public and it is responsible for monitoring standards and dealing with allegations of misconduct. There are more than 637,000 quali?ed nurses on the Council’s register, and this is the main pool from which the NHS and other employers recruit.
The criticisms about nurses’ education being too academic, and persisting problems of recruitment of nurses into the NHS, were among factors prompting a strategic government review of the status, training, pay and career opportunities for nurses and other health professionals. The new model emphasises the practical aspects of the education programme with a better response to the needs of patients and the NHS. It also o?ers nurses a more ?exible career path and education linked more closely with practice development and research, so as to provide greater scope for continuing professional education and development.
About 60 per cent of RNs work in NHS hospitals and community trusts. But an increasing number are choosing to work elsewhere, either in the private sector or in jobs such as school nursing, occupational health or for NHS Direct, the nurse-led telephone helpline. Others have dropped out of nursing altogether. The health service is facing a shortage of quali?ed nurses and many trust employers have resorted to overseas recruitment drives. The government has launched a major nurse recruitment and retention campaign and is promoting family-friendly employment practices to lure those with a nursing quali?cation currently working outside the NHS back into the workforce. Nursing is a mainly female profession and a third of nurses work part-time.
Nurses’ pay has for long compared unfavourably with other professional employment opportunities, despite being determined by an independent Pay Review Body. With the recruitment of nurses a perennial problem, the government’s strategy, Making a Di?erence, is to set up a new pay system o?ering greater ?exibility and opportunities for nurses and other health-service sta?. In 2005, a newly quali?ed sta? nurse earned around £16,000 a year, while one of the new grade of consultant nurses could command an annual salary of between £27,000 and £42,000. Nurse consultants were introduced in spring 2000 as a means of allowing nurses to progress up the career ladder while maintaining a clinical role.
The nurse of today is increasingly likely to be part of a multidisciplinary team, working alongside a range of other professionals from doctors and physiotherapists to social workers and teachers. A further sign of the times is that many registered nurses are being asked to act in a supervisory role, delegating tasks to nonregistered nurses working as health-care assistants and auxiliaries. In recognition of the latter’s increasing role, the Royal College of Nursing, the main professional association and trade union for nurses, has now agreed to extend membership to health-care assistants with a Scottish/National Vocational Quali?cation at level three.
Midwifery Midwives (see MIDWIFE) are practitioners who o?er advice and support to women before, during and after pregnancy. They are regulated by the Council for Nursing and Midwifery (formerly the UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting). Registered nurses can take an 18month course to become a midwife, and there is also a three-year programme for those who wish to enter the profession directly. Midwifery courses lead to a diploma or degree-level quali?cation. Most midwives work for the NHS and, as with nursing, there are problems recruiting and retaining sta?.
Health visiting Health visitors are registered nurses who work in the community with a range of groups including families, the homeless and older people. They focus on preventing ill-health and o?er advice on a range of topics from diet to child behavioural problems. They are employed by health trusts, primary-care groups and primary-care trusts.... nursing
Licensed facility that provides skilled nursing care and rehabilitation services to functionally disabled, injured or sick individuals.... nursing facility
Data recorded by nurses concerning the nursing care given to the patient, including judgement of the patient’s progress.... nursing record
See APPENDIX 8: PROFESSIONAL ORGANISATIONS.... royal college of nursing (rcn)
Daily nursing and rehabilitative care that can only be performed by, or under the supervision of, skilled nursing personnel.... skilled nursing care
Nursing homes that are certified to provide a fairly intensive level of care, including skilled nursing care.... skilled nursing facility
Nursing care needs that require the advanced and specialized clinical skills and knowledge of a registered nurse.... specialized nursing care needs
the UK government’s chief nursing adviser, who is responsible for providing an expert professional contribution and advice on nursing, midwifery, and health visiting matters to ministers and senior officials. There are separate Chief Nursing Officers appointed to advise the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.... chief nursing officer
(CRHT) (in psychiatry) a multidisciplinary team in psychiatric services specialized in the treatment of severely mentally ill patients in their home environment. An additional remit of CRHTs is to try and avoid acute hospital admissions.... crisis resolution and home treatment team
see community midwife.... home delivery
(homoeo-) combining form denoting similar; like.... homeo
see domiciliary consultation.... home visit
(NMC) a statutory body that regulates the nursing and midwifery professions in the public interest. See nurse.... nursing and midwifery council
Health Encyclopedia