How Pediatric Home Care Nurses Can Help Patients Gain Independence

As a Pediatric Home Care Nurse, you can support and empower your medically fragile patients as they overcome challenges and build confidence to gain independence.

What Challenges do Medically Fragile Patients Face with Independence? 

Medically fragile patients require ongoing medical support and supervision to ensure their well-being. They can also face limitations in mobility and communication due to their condition, which can further impact their ability to be independent. Medically fragile children may require assistance with daily activities like mobility, feeding, and personal care. 

What is a Pediatric Nurse’s Role in a Patient’s Independence?

Pediatric Home Care Nurses play a large role in helping promote a patient’s independence. By blending clinical care with developmental support, education, and advocacy, nurses can help medically fragile children gain independence in their daily lives.

The Best Strategies to Enhance Independence

Encourage Children to Participate in Daily Living Skills

Patients can participate in daily activities like bathing/showering, dressing, grooming, eating, or walking/climbing stairs. This can help strengthen gross and fine motor skills, support balance, coordination, and strength, and help build confidence. 

Promote Communication and Decision-Making

When children can express their needs and discomforts, they are actively participating in their care and reducing their reliance on family members to answer for them. Plus, children who feel heard and can make their own choices are more likely to feel respected and less isolated. Pediatric Home Care Nurses can promote communication and decision-making by encouraging a child to speak, signal with their hands, or use a communication device when they need help.  

Set Goals with Child and Family

Children and families who are involved in setting goals are more invested in accomplishing them. As a Pediatric Home Care Nurse, you can break down new skills into manageable goals to show that even gradual progress is another step toward independence. Here are some examples that nurses can set for children:

• Brushing teeth with little or no assistance
• Choosing clothes for the day with little or no assistance
• Sitting at the dinner table with little or no assistance 
• Transferring from bed to wheelchair with partial support

Create a Safe and Supportive Environment

Physically safe environments are clutter-free, include accessible equipment, and always have trained healthcare professionals or caregivers on hand. In these safe spaces, children can feel free to try new tasks, like taking a couple of steps with a walker without worrying about bumping into anything or getting hurt. In supportive environments, nurses and caregivers are patient, understanding, and offer positive reinforcement, so medically fragile children feel comfortable enough to express any pain and fears.   

*It’s important to note that children have different abilities and limitations based on their condition, and require individualized approaches to foster their independence. 

Nurses help patients take meaningful steps toward independence through fostering skills, confidence, and self-advocacy. At Thrive SPC, now a part of Aveanna Healthcare, our Pediatric Home Care Nurses provide medical care and become a child’s advocate, giving them skills so they have the potential to live as autonomously as possible. To discover more, head to https://www.thrivespc.com/about-us/.