Residential Homes and Care Homes with Nursing

For elderly people at the later stages of life it is a very difficult decision to ask for help and making that step to move into a residential care home or nursing home. To make sure you are making the right decision it is essential to realise what kinds of care and care home facilities are available to you, and what kind of home will be the best for you or your loved one.

Residential Care Homes

A residential care home should provide all the care they would receive if they where still at home being cared for by a family member, covering areas of personal caring such helping with bathing, washing, going to the toilet, getting dressed, preparing food, eating and drinking. Health Care Assistants in this type of care home are required to be at least NVQ level trained. Residential care homes are not always permitted to look after a resident if they have nursing needs, should this arise while someone is in a residential care home then a full a assessment would need to take place by either a GP, Social Services or Health Authority to decide on whether the person requires admission to a care home with nursing. When choosing a residential care home it is important to take in to account your specific needs and also what needs you may have in the future, some residential homes have nursing care within their group of homes so if you needed nursing care in the future you may be able to stay within their care with little disruption and going through the stress of moving to a new home.

Care Homes with Nursing

Care homes with nursing fulfill all of the caring provided in a residential home with the added benefits of being cared for by trained fully qualified registered nurses, who are able to provide the higher level of medical care needed 24 hour a day. Personal caring within a nursing home will include help with getting up and going to bed, eating, drinking, dressing, washing and going to the toilet. Nursing tasks will include dressings, injections and with the administration or supervision of medication. In a Care home for nursing there is always a qualified nurse on duty. Some nursing homes will have a proportion of beds only registered for personal care, and the remainder for nursing care, while in other homes all beds will be registered for nursing.