Case study shows value of home care visits
Case study shows value of home care visits
Valley Home Care in Paramus, NJ, has begun an asthma program for children that is aimed at reducing their hospital, emergency room, and physician visits.
The home care involvement can have a profound impact on how a family copes and manages their child’s disease, as shown in the following case study: "We had one case where the doctor felt the family just needed some support," says Marianne E. Vafiadou, RN, BSN, pediatric asthma nurse.
"The mother is a health care worker, and the doctor said the child hadn’t had many episodes. But when he does, the mother panics and needs support," she says.
When Vafiadou visited the home, she discovered the child actually was having many asthma episodes, although the mother — out of embarrassment — wasn’t notifying the physician about all of them.
Plus, the mother had her own health problems, including stress related to her child’s illness, and she often missed work because of it.
Vafiadou’s initial evaluation showed that the house was small and too cluttered, especially in the child’s bedroom. One closet was overflowing, so the family had removed its door. Vafiadou recommended they clean out the closet and replace the door because the closet dust could be exacerbating the child’s asthma.
Don’t forget to look at entire family
Then Vafiadou asked the asthma team’s social worker to pay the family a visit and help them find some community resources, including a food cooperative where the mother could receive free food in exchange for her volunteer work. The social worker encouraged the family to become involved with asthma family support groups and to find further educational support.
Since the asthma team takes a look at the entire family situation, Vafiadou also noticed that another child in the family had become lost in the shuffle. She found a volunteer to come into the home once a week to play with the child for a couple of hours.
The asthma team’s nutritionist also visited the home to help the family deal with the child’s food allergies. And finally, after four nursing visits and one visit by the social worker and nutritionist, the child’s asthma was stabilized.
Vafiadou continued to monitor the child’s progress through phone calls. In the year prior to the home care team’s involvement, the child had been taken to the doctor’s office 15 times for emergency visits. Since the home care visits started, the child has had no emergency physician visits, Vafiadou says.
[For more information, contact: Rose Marie Ranuro, MSN, RNC, PNP, Director of Maternal and Child Health, Valley Home Care, 15 Essex Road, Paramus, NJ, 07652. Phone: (201) 291-6241. Fax: (201) 291-6203.
Or contact: Marianne E. Vafiadou, RN, BSN, Pediatric Asthma Nurse, Valley Home Care, 15 Essex Road, Paramus, NJ, 07652. Phone: (201) 291-6000. Fax: (201) 291-6203.]
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