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Photo: K. Ananthan

At home A bedside assistant round the clock and periodic visits by a physician ensure good geriatric care

Home nurses like her, trained to attend to patients with paralysis, Alzheimer’s and cancer, are sought after for geriatric care. “A lot of people want home nurses. We have 300 applications and only 95 nurses working with us,” informs Radha from Red Cross.

The charges vary according to the agency and the patient. Nurses employed 24/7 for patients with obesity and diabetes earn a monthly income while nurses who treat terminally-ill patients are paid per day. The income varies between Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 9,000 a month.

“Home nurses are a boon,” says Sujatha Chowdhary, a writer. “As much as working couples would want to take care of their parents, there are constraints. My father was bedridden for two months. I could take care of his medicines and food, but we needed a male nurse who could help him have a bath etc.”

If home-cooked food and shelter are perks for nurses, the challenging part is to deal with people and attitudes. Sujatha recalls, “My mother was uncomfortable having a new person at home. She was quite tough on the male nurse. I guess the attendants are trained to be accommodative of care takers’ and patient’s tantrums.”

Once employed, the nurses are on their own. The nodal agency comes to their help as and when the nurses complain of bad treatment meted out to them. They are then recalled and placed elsewhere for work.

“These nurses, called bedside assistants (BSAs), are somewhere in between an aayah and a qualified nurse,” says Parveen Ansar, GM of a hospital that trains youngsters in this area. The idea, she explains, is to meet the needs of the elderly who need minimal nursing care. “The elderly want the comfort of their own home rather than be sent to an old-age home. In some cases, they need help to answer nature call or have a bath. With the nurses around, elders also have someone to talk to when their children are away at work. We train girls from CAP (child and police project) Foundation who have basic school education. They are given provident fund, gratuity and medical insurance.”

A few issues, however, need to be ironed out. Parveen laments, “Some families insist on having nurses from the same religion, caste etc. That becomes tricky,” she says.

K.R. Gangadharan, Parveen’s colleague, adds: “Even those who can afford want to pay very less, thereby compromising on the quality of care that their close ones require. Home care in India is still evolving. ”

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