Seniors who are battling cancer and undergoing treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy can benefit from having skilled nursing care at home. Being at home is often a comfort to seniors who are going through difficult cancer treatments, which come with their own range of side effects that can be debilitating or disabling for seniors. Having skilled nursing care at home provides seniors with the medical assistance they need to handle the side effects of chemotherapy like extreme nausea, extreme fatigue, dizziness, and more.
Medical Monitoring
When seniors are going through chemo or other difficult treatments for cancer, their immune systems become suppressed by the treatments. That can leave them vulnerable to infections, viruses, and other illnesses. If their nausea causes extreme vomiting, that can also lead to a serious medical crisis. So, it’s important that your senior loved one is medically monitored by a skilled nursing professional while at home. That way, if they show any signs of needing immediate medical intervention, the nurse can make sure they get the care they need. Having a skilled nursing professional spot signs of infection or other problems as soon as possible can save a senior’s life in extreme cases.
Medication Management
Seniors who are going through cancer treatment typically take a lot of medications that have to be taken exactly according to directions. A skilled nurse can make sure that seniors are taking the medications they need to take when they need to take them. They can monitor your senior parent for any bad side effects. If side effects or reactions with other drugs do occur your senior parent will be able to get advice and help from their doctor right away with the intervention from the skilled nurse.
Assistance With Bathing And Hygiene Tasks
Often seniors who are being treated for cancer lack the strength to do things like take a shower or get dressed. Skilled nursing can help your senior parent get to the shower, get clean, wash their hair, brush their teeth, and get dressed. They can also help your senior loved one get to the bathroom or help them clean up if they vomit as the result of the treatment or the medications that they’re taking.
Assistance With Medical Equipment
Another thing that a nurse can do for your senior loved one at home is make sure that they have access to any medical equipment that they need. A skilled nurse can check oxygen tanks and other medical equipment to make sure it’s all functioning correctly and that your senior loved one is using the equipment correctly. If there needs to be any changes made to setting or dosages the nurse can do that. Your senior loved one won’t have to go to the doctor’s office to make sure that the equipment they depend on is set up correctly and working the way it should.