On Hiring Caregivers

If you’re looking for a private duty caregiver or if you want to work as one, here are some key characteristics that make a caregiver really good at the job. There are a lot of things that we look for in care providers or caregivers but the 5 C’s on this list will just about sum up everything that will make a caregiver as efficient as he or she can be.

1. Competent

The competence of a private duty caregiver isn’t measured just by educational achievement or what was learned inside the classroom or during the training. It is also measured by experiences earned and skills acquired by practicing in the field. All these will contribute to helping the client or patient live a life with less physical or emotional burden. Licensed caregivers, those who have acquired proper certification and practical nurses are often the choice of many families depending on the patients’ needs.

2. Critical Care Expert

Most patients or clients have special medical conditions. Regardless of the patient’s age, caregivers should have adequate critical care knowledge or expertise. This prepares caregivers during emergency situations or allows them to work accordingly when their patients need intensive care. Knowledge of first aid and the CPR procedure among many others are essential for a caregiver. These skills not only give a caregiver’s resume a plus point but also provide assurance and the feeling of security to family members.

3. Communicates Effectively

Good communication skills are also important for a caregiver to maintain his or her relationship with the patient. Communication doesn’t only entail knowledge of a certain language but also involves how one expresses herself in a way that is easily understood by the other person. We all have to understand that patients, especially those with conditions like Alzheimer’s, have trouble understanding or are emotionally sensitive. This is the reason why caregivers should know how to talk to or speak with the patient without intimidating or offending the latter.

4. Compassionate

Taking care of someone who’s not a friend or family is honestly a difficult thing. But if a private duty caregiver provides genuine care and not treat the task merely as a source of income, then better results will follow. One can still work professionally and at the same time be compassionate enough about the patient’s situation. To have a deep sense of awareness of your patient’s suffering and to somehow have that desire to relieve it is a good thing. It will not only help you do the job well but will also make the patient feel better.

5. Copes Well

Caregiving is not a profession that only requires proper knowledge and training. To stay in this career, a caregiver must be able to cope well with stress and with difficult patients. As a caregiver, one should also know how to adjust to uphold your patient’s rights and privacy. There are also times that you’ll experience pressure from family members or verbal abuse from patients. In times like these, a private duty caregiver must have a lot of patience and a strong commitment to the job. As stressful as being a care provider may sound, it is also one of the most rewarding especially when the patient and the family appreciate what you do.

Let’s admit that we are humans and we are not robots. Therefore, we get exhausted or tired and we won't be able to do everything on our own. When you have a senior at home or a loved one who has a condition that needs constant care and at the same time a family and a job on the side, I tell you, you'll need help. You won’t be able to attend to all your responsibilities without battling stress and breaking down whenever you’re almost fed up. So, I’d like to let you know that the best help you can get is that from a private home caregiver . Why?

Hiring private home caregivers allow for the flexibility of responsibilities that clients would like them to have compared to those in nursing homes. There are a lot of tasks that private care providers can do. They can provide life assistance services like bathing, grooming, dressing, etc. Caregivers who have undergone medical trainings can also provide medical assistance like first aid, checking vital signs like blood pressure and they can ensure that patients are taking the right medications in the right amounts. The best thing about this is that we can actually customize their tasks according to what we need as clients or what the patient needs. Just make sure that the tasks are clear right before the carer starts to work to prevent any misunderstanding. It is also advisable to have everything in paper to make sure everything is well accounted for.

Secondly, let’s face the truth that we can’t always be at home with our elderly loved ones. We need to attend to our own responsibilities, own families, own jobs and the list just goes on. And during these busy times, private home caregivers can actually be our loved ones’ companions. It will be good to have them around so that our seniors will have someone to chat with, watch the TV with or someone who can be with them everyday to diminish the feelings of loneliness and boredom.

Aside from the fact that it’s really sad to leave our seniors unaccompanied at home, we also need to remember that they need someone who can be with them in case of an emergency. We’ll never know when will an accident or a medical mishap occur and we need to be ready for that. Having a private home caregiver ensures that our loved ones will not be left uncared for and unattended thus ensuring their safety.

Another reality is that sometimes, even if we are at home, something just suddenly comes up. We can receive a call from a friend or a colleague and we just have to leave the house again for hours. So who’s the best person to call in cases like this? Of course, it’s your private home caregiver ! I know that there are specific working days specified when they sign contracts with clients. But then again, they’re always our options. If we ask them if they can be on duty even if it’s not scheduled and they decline, then find another person who can be there at the moment or better yet, don’t leave the house. But knowing how understanding most caregivers are, most of them might actually show up and help. We just need to make sure that we can pay them extra when this sort of thing happens.

Lastly, private home caregivers are trained and certified. They have excellent nursing skills that qualify them in assisting patients at home. Most of them are either Registered Nurses or Licensed Practical Nurses while some have taken vocational caregiving courses. We can all be rest assured that they know what they are doing and that we can entrust our loved ones’ lives to them. Before practicing in the field, they have undergone classroom lectures and several written and practical examinations that evaluated their performances. If they have passed, then that means they are capable enough to be practicing in the field. So again, make sure that your private home caregivers have licenses duly recognized and released by authorized agencies before hiring them.

At one point in our lives, we’ll realize that even if taking care of an elderly family member is an act of love, it is also very exhausting at the same time. It’s a responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Caregiving requires time, patience and understanding to be able to carry out tasks efficiently.

When we get stressed out because of this responsibility, we might need to reflect and ask ourselves if we can still take care of our seniors in the long run. They are sensitive and gets easily upset that throwing a fit in front of them due to stress is really a no-no. Seeing that we are irritated and stressed out will just invite negative thoughts from them and that will definitely not help their condition. Fortunately, there are private caregivers whom we can rely on in times like this.

Private caregivers are trained professionals whom we can hire to provide medical or supervisory assistance to people of different ages and different physical conditions. And yes, they are also skilled in providing care to our elders. They have superb nursing skills that make it possible for their “carees” or patients to continue living in their homes. These care providers can actually stay or live with their patients, of course depending on the demands of the clients.

Hiring a private caregiver is a good thing in many ways. Aside from the advantages that patients get because of the live-at-home- setup, there are also other good points that are noteworthy when we hire private care providers. First of all, we can customize or specify what tasks they should be responsible for. This depends on what our loved ones need and what their conditions are. Of course, care provided for elderly patients are different than care provided for those with Alzheimer’s or any other medical condition that needs constant monitoring.

Another thing to remember is that private caregivers are not only people who can provide assistance and care to our seniors. They also serve as our loved ones’ company or friends. They can make life a lot more worthwhile because when we’re not around, they’re the people who can interact and chat with our elderly. In other words, they can substitute as the patients’ friends and family. Although some people want a professional, work-only patient-caregiver relationship, I believe that it is also beneficial in some areas for caregivers to at least get a bit closer to their patients. Our seniors need all the love they can get anyways.

Lastly, we can rely and trust on our caregivers. They are trained and skilled in what they do. And this, again, is another benefit that our seniors can get. Since carers know what they are doing, we can be sure that they won’t let anything bad happen to our loved ones. In case mishaps occur, we can expect that caregivers will know what to do next. Unlike us, who didn’t have any caregiving or nursing training, they can easily help our seniors dress up, bathe, or move to another chair or bed without hurting them. We might have less knowledge in first aid or emergency know-how compared to these professionals. So again, it is a good thing to hire private caregivers . We won’t only have people who can assist and take care of our beloved seniors but they can also make life easier for the entire family.