When it comes to carer roles in home and aged care, there can be some confusion about what services are provided by a nurse rather than a personal carer or lifestyle support assistant (LSA).
Envigor Registered Nurse Marian talks about her role in home care and how she works with the different types of aged care workers to deliver quality care to clients.
Marian, who works across Envigor community clients as well as those who live in Seasons Aged Care communities says that as a Registered Nurse (RN) her role is integral to the delivery of clinical care and assessing the client’s care needs.
“We assess the client depending on their needs to see whether they need support such as social support, personal hygiene and wound care. We assess the needs of the client and we report back to the care manager with our review and from there we put out a care plan for the client and schedule them for visits and nursing care,” says Marian.
When it comes to the day and day provision of care, Marian says that’s where the LSAs do the bulk of the care.
“The LSAs spend a lot more time with the client so they get to see them from the time they wake up until they go to bed. They attend to all their needs from preparing and assisting them with their meals through to showers, getting them up, taking them to appointments and social visits, so they spend a lot of time with the client.
“One of the important things to know is that we work together – we’ve got to have very good communication between us.”
This communication is especially important when it comes to dealing with changes in health.
“When the LSAs see that a client is declining or they see something’s different, they let us (the RNs) know and they’re very good at doing that.
“When we’re notified, we follow up on that and we attend to the concerns that have been flagged, whether that’s the client just doesn’t look well or they’ve got a cough and then we go in and do the clinical review where we do a set of observations, see where the client’s vital signs are sitting and we make the call whether to call an ambulance or a doctor or if we just need to monitor the client. So, the RN role is more clinical and LSAs are more everyday living support.”
Other nursing roles you may hear about are Enrolled Nurses (ENs) and Endorsed Enrolled Nurses (EENs). Marian says EENs are playing a growing role in aged care and home care environments.
“Nowadays you’re going to see a lot more EENs as the ENs are now medically endorsed, so that means they can give medications whereas at one time they couldn’t. So, it’s just broadened their scope of practice. An RN can delegate to an EEN and an EEN can delegate to an LSA if they were working together.”
For Marion, being an RN in aged care is a fulfilling and important role.
“For me personally it’s about giving back to the older generation, recognising that they’ve lived a full life, have got so much experience and knowledge and they’ve paved the way to bring us to where we are today.
“It’s a way to give back to society – for what they’ve given to us. To be compassionate and empathetic, I think all those things are really important – together with the nursing and clinical side you’ve got to have a heart that cares and wants to do the best you can for them.”