Using qualified nurses for private elderly care

smallzoo2

This is a general question first. Is there any reason legal or otherwise that a qualified Nurse could not be employed for the odd day to look after an elderly patient. A lot of Nurses work part-time and I was thinking of paying for one occasionally just to look after my elderly mum, most of the time just chatting and making her cups of tea etc but of course helping her to the toilet etc
cheers

Mojisola

Why would you want to pay a qualified nurse to do this?

It's what carers do every day of the year.

smallzoo2

Purely because she has some health issues and it was to supplement the use of carers not to replace them...I am a carer myself 

If someone could answer the question rather than the motive that would be great even though I understand why its was asked

maman

I can't think of a reason why a nurse couldn't do that especially one that was a bank nurse or recently retired or some other reason looking for part time work. I suppose it's a bit like a supply teacher or one who takes on tutoring.

I suppose there might be insurance/employment issues to consider? What if the nurse made a health decision that went wrong? 🤔

Just something to consider I'm not a nurse. Perhaps approach an agency. 

sassyblue

I thought I thought the same for my dad but where do you look? what do you do when they are ill or need a holiday? Are they insured? Are they actually a good enough nurse, if so why aren’t they already working and how do you check their credentials, their history? 

it’s not as easy as you think.

sheramber

When  my mother needed over night  car we employed a nurse through an agency.

She stayed overnight and went to  bed but was available if my mother needed her. Sometimes it wa just to sit with her as she could not sleep.

We paid by the hour- one rate for when the nurse was sleeping and a higher rate for any hours that she was attending to my mother.

it was money well spent for us.

TBagpuss

There is no reason you couldn't do this. However, as others have said, you would need to be clear about what you were employing them to do (e.g. are you employing a carer who happens to be a nurse, or are you employing then *as* a nurse)  and make sure that they have appropriate insurance etc.
I would expect that it is possible to hire a nurse for home nursing via an agency but would expect the cost to be higher than for a less qualified care assistant . 

smallzoo2

Thanks a lot for all the answers..I'm very grateful

74jax

We employed a nurse via macmillian (not a macmillian nurse but they had resources to help us find care we wanted). She retired from NHS early but kept up training and said she could make the same money on much less hours.

Initially it was through the night, then she came in an hour or so through the week.

We would never have paid her to just chat, use the commode and make cups of tea though. We paid for extra half hours with carers for that.

We wanted the nurse for more medical requirements than we were happy for carers to do.