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I am going to be the bad person here! She has 24/7 care paid for by the taxpayers and you are complaining that you have to help care for your Mom. Get over yourself, learn to help care for YOUR Mom. I am so tired of people complaining when they are using taxpayer money!
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We experienced this after my mother had a double mastectomy at 78. I was horrified to learn that she would be sent home with drains coming out of her body that we were trained to drain and measure. I couldn’t believe it! What if she had no family? At the time, the whole family just sucked it up and did it (brothers, sisters, and even one grandson). We were all afraid to do it wrong. And my mother had several excellent health insurance policies in addition to Medicare. I didn’t know that we could refuse.
      That was almost ten years ago, and I have heard that hospitals are now incurring fines if a patient is sent home and then lands back in the hospital within a short period of time due to being released too early or without proper in-home care.
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I absolutely love this question. The answer also to me is a resounding NO, you're not supposed to. This has gotten crazy out here, for them to expect that. Like people said here, why are they there? And what sense does it make for someone who doesn't have any experience doing health...to do health care? One goes to school for years in the medical field. Just last week with my 93 y.o. grandmother in the hospital due to a heart condition; on her behalf, I asked a nurse to help her go to the bathroom. She blinked at me (I somehow knew she would, this is what's going on now). Though she wheeled her there and helped her, I found her down the hall waiting for this nurse. I wheeled her back to the bed (this was in the emergency room at the time) and then the nurse suddenly appeared; I asked her to help her into the bed. The nurse goes, "If you loved her, you would help her". I sternly replied, "That's YOUR job. And it's also exactly why I WON'T move her; because I love her and don't want to end up hurting her! Don't try that guilt trip on me"! So, she did it. I explained to my grandmother later where I was coming from, and even she said, 'you know how some of them are'. I believe the health care industry is just trying to cut back so deeply, they are putting families on the 'hook'. But then, that's obvious!
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My daughter is an RN wound care nurse. I worked for a Visiting Nurse facility and our RN nurses did wound care. One reason...because Medicare wouldn't pay for wound care. We were a nonprofit facility taking care of people without insurance or Medicare didn't cover. Hospitals sent people home expecting them to care for their own wounds. We had one man who lived alone and he was expected to care for a wound in the middle of his back.
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Stick to your no, my sister had bedsores and hospice dealt with them. Tell this nurse that you would be happy to replace their services with a company that actually did what they got paid for. I had to pull that trigger and let me tell you, it made a huge difference, no more nonsense or long delays. I'm not sure but maybe they don't get paid if you fire the hospice. Best of luck.
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Xinabess,
Any place (hospital, home health, etc.) will put the responsibility of patient care on the patient's family. Don't accept it!

I used to be a visiting nurse. I had a patient who needed daily dressing changes. The lady was told she had to have her husband do her wound care. She flat out refused. She didn't trust that he would do it right and she didn't want him to see it. She "won" and Medicare paid for the visiting nurse daily. There was something about her not being able to drive to a facility to have nurses do the wound care there. Your mom would qualify in that area. (That was in San Diego, California area.)

Stick to your guns. Refuse. And if you have to change back to the other situation-do so.

In trying to save money, I think we've gone too far.

As far as I know, an unlicensed medical person can NOT do dressing changes. Only a nurse (LVN or RN) may do wound care.
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I called and left a message. If necessary, I will transfer her back to non-hospice care so she can get the 3x week wound nurse. This makes no sense at all. Is the idea that if she's on hospice, you just let her wound progress and let her die of the infection unless a family member is available?? Obviously, our aides have way more experience with wound care than I do.

In the past, a nurse has shown our aides how to tend to the wound, not me. In fact, the nurses who did the hospice intake (not the same as the new 1x week nurse) showed the aide what to do. No mention of me dealing with this at all. I would do a much worse job anyway, especially since I refuse to look at her naked in her current state and she would not want me to see her either.

She doesn't need daily care, just 3 x a week. And I can't be there that often.

Argh. If it's not one thing, it's another!
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The whole point of Hospice is to support people who are dying and their caregivers, if they are giving you less support than you were getting before then maybe you should reconsider - or perhaps look for a different agency.
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So the aide is technically not allowed to clean bed sores, but is allowed to train someone to do it?
And the someone could have less medical training than the aide but is required to perform the task?
Sounds illogical.
What if you're not living there like Barb said, or you are sick or you're disabled (just to make a point), will they just leave the task undone then?
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Everything I've read about hospice (and any visiting nursing care) is that they will not be available daily, one of the expectations of care in the community is that family picks up the slack. CNAs are not allowed to do wound care unless they have taken an extra wound care course and are certified. That said, anything is possible if you have enough resources, perhaps you can hire a certified wound care nurse.
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Do they perhaps mistakenly think you live there?

Hospice is paid for by Medicare. Is the VNS nurse covered through Medicaid? It doesn't feel to me that your mom should be getting less care now.

Hoping someone will come along and have a good answer for you, Xina.
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