I’m also in the unusual position to have nursing services at home for my three-and-a-half year old daughter (a special Medicaid waver program due to my daughter’s significant health care needs). In-home nursing care is actually my preference. Being able to keep our family physically, emotionally, and socially together with nursing services in-home has been a huge blessing.

Our training is very rigid…5 days for every module…exam everyday.

I will be on my first month tomorrow, and so far so good…

I think, it is not per sè a bad thing if you let your parents live in a nursing home, at least once they’re not able to fend for themselves anymore. Nowadays, if you have to work full-time you just don’t have the time to properly care for an elderly, and possibly sick, person. So they are much better looked after – on a day-to-day basis – in a proper nursing home. What I find really sad is the fact that some people just send their parents to a nursing home and then visit them maybe twice a year. Now that is unloving and disrespectful.
That said, when my maternal grandparents both became ill and had to be cared for almost round the clock, my aunt (who inherited their house) kept them at home where they could live out their last years in familiar surroundings. The rest of the family came by once or twice a week to visit them. That was surely nice for us, and also for the old people, but I don’t really think my aunt knew beforehand what she was in for, especially when my grandpa became very sick at the end. I love my parents very much, but I don’t know if I could do that for them…