The Many Hats of Home Health
In a prior article (found here) I describe 3 enormous reasons why home health is the ideal setting for any clinician. This article will go a bit more in depth into the good, bad, ugly, and disgusting aspects of the setting my wife and I have grown to love.
As any clinician knows, there are far more nuances to patient care than are ever taught in school. In the home health setting those nuances are amplified and the volume cranked up…to 11.
Being accepted into ones home during a time of crisis is incredibly elucidating of the human condition. We quickly find ourselves engulfed in the idiosyncrasies and clutter physical and metaphysical) of a complete stranger, and are tasked with providing them with a tangible service.
We are motivators, instructors, facilitators, and listeners. We are companions, friends, counselors. Sounding boards, problem solvers, and story tellers.
We teach people to stand on long fatigued legs and flex long atrophied muscles. To walk. To roll over in bed and see a loved ones sleeping face. To squat over a toilet again.
We fill pill bottles, re-program coffee machines, hang pictures, poop scoop dog doo. Drill holes for train sets, change clock batteries, and turn music pages so tired fingers can find familiar keys again.
We check vital signs, mobilize, exercise, sympathize, strategize, and try to energize. We help tired eyes shave a face clean and smooth, and tired arms carry bags of groceries.
We find lost wallets, lost remotes, lost glasses, and hack computers for lost passwords (only once).
We move catheter bags, dodge vomit, wipe serosanguinous drainage, wipe blood, and wipe tears (not butts). And catch long sticky strings of snot running down the face of a cancer fighter battling the unbeatable.
We hold hands and gait belts. We hug and console, celebrate and grieve, cheer and admonish.
And we listen. We listen to tall tales and blatant lies. We listen to stories of love Hollywood could never dream up and to unsuppressed grief over love recently and tragically lost. To triumphant war stories and fishing stories. And to heartwarming stories that reverberate inside of us long after we move on.
As home health clinicians we are welcomed into a sort of unfiltered authenticity that pervades the lives of our patients. It is our job, often our calling, to embrace the rawness behind everyday life and to step past the vaguarities and flimsy facades society sets in place, to meet clients in their moment of need. Funny, disturbing, uplifting or sad, we come to serve. Regardless of what form that may take.
Written by Stephen Stockhausen
Call for comments: Let us know what you think! Have you worked in home health care? Love it or hate it, we want to hear about it!
