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You are here: The Difference between a Nurse and a Carer

The Difference between a Nurse and a Carer

You may not be sure if you require the care of a Registered Nurse or a Care Assistant, so to make things a little clearer we have provided below some information on what each of these can offer.

What can a Registered Nurse do for me?

Care that requires a registered nurse to specifically undertake the task can include:

In your own home

• Vaccination program.
• IVF program.
• Dependency detoxification.
• Home dialysis.
• Dementia care support to relieve the main carer.

Away from your home

• International escorts.
• Holiday escort.

Management and delivery of clinical care related to your medical condition or illness. This could be an acute episode (pre or post operative care) or assistance with long term chronic conditions and includes:

• Medication administration whether orally, topically or via injection.
• Enteral feeding (Naso gastric or Gastrostomy).
• Continence care (urinary catheter care or supra pubic catheter).
• Prevention and management of pressure sores.
• Wound management and application of dressings.
• Breathing related (ventilator or tracheostomy care).

What can a Care Assistant do for me?

• Meal preparation and shopping.
• Assistance with bathing, hair washing, shaving, grooming, dressing.
• Assistance with mobility, standby assistance with aids, pushing wheelchair, hoist transfers, exercises.
• Continence care, management of incontinence, catheter care.
• Assessment of skin integrity, managing prevention and treatment of pressure areas.
• Domestic cleaning, including laundry.
• Escorts on social outings or to appointments.
• Companionship.
• Reading, writing and communicating for you.
• Medication prompting.

Our health care assistants are able to perform more skilled tasks if they are trained by a specialist in the field such as:

• Management of Enteral feeding (feeding via non-oral routes).
• Venepuncture.
• Medication administration (not including injections).
• Tracheostomy care.
• Renal care.
• Management of a Bi-pap/C-pap.

To find out more about care in the comfort of your own home, please contact our dedicated care at home team on 0800 694 4555 or you can request or download a free brochure.