How to Care for a Patient at Home

• Step 1

  Educate yourself. Learn about the patient's illness, learn its complications and understand how the patient is being treated. Ask the patient's doctor for any helpful brochures or other reading material about the disease. The American Cancer Society, for example, has a comprehensive home-care guide featuring treatments and explanations of dozens of complications.

• Step 2

  Learn the treatment. Depending on the patient's illness, treatment may require prescription medication, specialized medical devices (such as oxygen or an IV drip), at-home appointments and regular trips to a doctor or therapist.

• Step 3

  Learn about the prescriptions. Know what each medicine does and when the patient should take them. Learn whether the pills should be taken with food or water, and know about potentially harmful drug interactions. Certain over-the-counter medications shouldn't be taken with certain prescription medications.

• Step 4

  Know the patient's diet. Certain conditions require specialized diets. Know how the patient must eat, and learn to use a home feeding tube if necessary. Make yourself familiar with any dietary supplements, and know about forbidden foods. Know when and how much the patient should eat.

• Step 5

  Know the patient's schedule. Schedule regular trips to the doctor's office, home visits from therapists and other parts of the patient's day-to-day routine.

• Step 6

  Know the patient's abilities and limitations. Ask the doctor what the patient can do, what the patient must do and what the patient should not do. Encourage the patient's capabilities, enforce the demands (certain surgeries, for example, require patients to get up and walk a bit each day) and do not allow what is forbidden.

• Step 7

  Know emergency procedures and contact information. For example, if the patient is awaiting a transplant and receives notification of an organ donor, know who to call and where to go. Keep handy the main and after-hours numbers of primary-care doctors and specialists.

• 4
• Be available. Home care is a job with plenty of demands and responsibilities, and its hours are unpredictable. Medical emergencies happen around the clock, so be ready to respond at any hour--especially if you're a live-in caregiver. Keep yourself healthy. Ample sleep helps you concentrate and feel well instead of worn. A run-down caregiver can make mistakes and even bring illness into the home.
• Be available. Home care is a job with plenty of demands and responsibilities, and its hours are unpredictable. Medical emergencies happen around the clock, so be ready to respond at any hour--especially if you're a live-in caregiver.
• Keep yourself healthy. Ample sleep helps you concentrate and feel well instead of worn. A run-down caregiver can make mistakes and even bring illness into the home.

References & Resources

• American Medical Association/American Academy of Home Care Physicians: Medical Management
• American Cancer Society: Caring for the Patient with Cancer at Home: A Guide for Patients and Families