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Caring at home

VON nurses keep providing critical care amid COVID-19 to patients at home

DAVID MACDONALD

Providing high-quality care is something that nurses and health-care professionals always strive for. And amid the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic, nurses will go above and beyond to provide the best care possible, including at patients’ homes.

Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) Canada and its staff of 750 nurses and 700 community care assistants provide care to around 7,500 clients across Nova Scotia. Much of the care VON staff provide is for clients who live at home and need extra support, whether convalescing from surgery, living with longterm health conditions or need help with daily tasks.

VON district executive director for Nova Scotia Elizabeth Macdonald says this at-home care is important to clients and their families.

“Clients prefer to receive nursing care in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes,” she says. “And clients’ caregivers can care for their loved ones with supportive services — like VON or other home support — in place, which reduces caregiver burnout.”

Carol Curley, VON regional executive director for Nova Scotia northeast zones, says providing home-based supports also benefits the healthcare

system as a whole as it saves money, prevents unnecessary hospital admissions and emergency room visits and eliminates the transition to long-term care.

But while providing highquality care has always been important, it’s become more crucial due to the pandemic. Curley says providing these services to patients at home or in a clinic environment reduces the need to travel into facility-based care, where risks are higher.

Macdonald says this is an essential step in keeping beds open at hospitals.

“It’s important we’re able to continue to provide at-home care — to prevent our hospitals from being overrun and to reduce the potential risk of COVID-19 exposure for our clients,” she says.

VON has adjusted its service delivery due to COVID19 public health protocols. All employees and volunteers screen themselves for symptoms daily and need to be symptom-free, or cleared by Public Health, to be able to go to work.

Macdonald says the safety and health of VON clients, staff and volunteers is its top priority.

“We now have to screen our clients and visitors prior to visiting them,” she says. “Our nurses also wear personal protective equipment during their visits.”

Macdonald says it’s especially important now to continue building up the connection between clients and nurses, as people become more isolated than before during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The visiting nurse is often the only source of human connection for people, so now more than ever we are providing not only the physical aspects of care but the psychosocial and emotional supports as well,” she says.

VON Canada has enhanced other services during the pandemic, including services connected to food security. This includes doubling the number of meals served through its Meals on Wheels program, now at about 1,600 meals per week across the province, and grocery shopping for clients who can’t shop on their own.

The nursing agency also offers virtual wellness check-ins and has modified its transportation programs to ensure clients can continue attending essential medical appointments.

Macdonald and Curley both say it’s important to acknowledge the stress and difficulty that comes with new concepts like social distancing and other protocols. Like patients, VON nurses too feel impacts of social isolation.

Both agree there is a growing need to support VON staff with all resources possible to help them manage their own fears and isolation while they continue to provide critical care and support to VON clients.

But, overall, they say nurses have been very adaptable and focused on how to help their clients.

“They have done an incredible job adjusting to the ‘new normal’ of their work every day,” says Macdonald. “The ongoing realities of COVID19 can be very tiring, but I can honestly say that our nurses are amazing and have been especially so during these unprecedented times.”

“The ongoing realities of COVID-19 can be very tiring, but I can honestly say that our nurses are amazing and have been especially so during these unprecedented times.”

Elizabeth Macdonald

VON district executive director, Nova Scotia

NATIONAL NURSING WEEK 2021

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2021-05-08T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-08T07:00:00.0000000Z

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