Crucial Caregiver

Submitted by: Mark Twan

Caregivers are healthcare workers who provide assistance and care to other adults or children, often with special medical needs. The help they provide to their patients is very extensive and it includes health-related functions (e.g. on-time giving of medication and monitoring if vital signs are stable), simple daily activities patients have grown incapable of performing on their own (e.g. bathroom visits, bathing and dressing up) and emotional support (e.g. providing a relatively constant company with whom patients can readily talk to when needed). Sometimes, a caregiver is a family member or a relative of the patient. Most of the times, however, due to inevitable circumstances which render a family member unable to personally provide care to his relative, professionals are rather hired and paid to render these services. The decision of choosing to whom our dearest loved ones is trusted is extremely crucial because it is the life of our beloved that we bestow upon someone else s responsibilities. So we ask: What are the qualities of a good caregiver? and What skills are expected from them?

A caregiver may be a family member or a relative of the patient. There are both agonies and joys in providing this service to a loved one. The sense of fulfillment one achieves by being there for their family is priceless but there are tremendous personal sacrifices one must commit for the other s sake. These responsibilities may eventually take its toll on an individual, subjecting them to stress and potential depression. That s why it is very necessary that one is aware of the help available to them such as support groups whose members will aid them through their difficulty (e.g. Family Caregiver Alliance and Caregivers Support Group) and online medical outlets which provides quality medical equipment and education to customers such as medicalequipmentonsale.com.

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Usually, the personal traits a caregiver must possess depend on what suits the patient best. This is because of the personal touch this service provides. Patients personalities, as expected in all of us, varies extremely that it is important for the caregiver to remain flexible and understanding, depending on what the situation may demand. He should also be empathetic because some patients may build walls in between them. One definite way of breaking these barriers is to penetrate the patient s walls by being one with them in their emotions. Upon realizing how it truly feels being in their shoes, it becomes much easier to relate and identify with them.

Being professionals, they are of course expected to meet the requirements on basic nursing knowledge and skills (e.g. basic first aid, CPR and nasogastric feeding). As mentioned earlier, these patients usually have special medical requirements, often having the need to rely on someone else to perform most of their daily body functions. For example, if they are too unstable or too weak to proceed to the bathroom for defecation or voiding, a commode (a movable toilet) may be required for patient s use. A sensitive assistance must be provided by the caregiver to prevent the patient from feeling humiliated or offended when performing this function. Furthermore, the caregiver must also be always willing to listen to keep a good communication status between him and the patient, so that when the patient voices out an additional assistance needed, the caregiver is ready to respond. For example, if the patient is bound to a wheelchair, he may express complaints or preferences to the type of wheelchair he desires to have. There are various types of wheelchairs such as those with average build (standard wheelchairs), smaller type (lightweight and ultra lightweight wheelchairs) and durable ones ( heavy duty wheelchairs). If the caregiver should bear enough initiative, details on this equipment are on easily accessible websites since multiple online medical outlets offer them such as medicalequipmentonsale.com.

Caregivers are there to assure that the life of patients, no matter how much it was debilitated by their medical conditions, are still lived up to its optimum. It is equally important to ensure that the medical equipment we provide our loved ones are reliable and are according to their preferences, such as their walkers, canes, crutches and others. These can be easily researched and purchased on online shops such as medicalequipmentonsale.com, which provides various categories on tools which will aid your beloved s everyday personal care. In the end, even if we appear to have entrusted their lives over someone else, it is still our essential decisions which largely impact the care they are provided for.

It is recommended to visit Medicalequipmentonsale.com to know more about medical equipment.

About the Author: It is recommended to visit

Medicalequipmentonsale.com

to know more about medical equipment.

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