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Home Health Nursing In Nigeria 

I was inspired by C.E Robinson a retired nurse practitioner and fellow blogger to write this post. Most people don’t know that home health care exists in Nigeria. Home health nursing just like in any other country is the care of patients in the comfort of their homes.

Home care nursing is also known as Domiciliary care. Domiciliary care involves care of elderly and dementia patients, hospice care, post operative care, care of recuperating patients and those with disabilities etc in their homes.

Although home care nursing is well established in developed countries like United States, United Kingdom and Canada etc, it is still a new and developing phenomenon in Nigeria.

There are different home health agencies in Nigeria, though still few in number, are mostly located in Lagos, Nigeria.

My perspectives

  • Professionalism: In Nigeria,some people view home care nurses as unprofessional because 75% or more of nurses in Nigeria work in an hospital and Nigerians have the mindset that nurses only work in hospital. Also, the fact that you work in a patient house sounds unacceptable to some.
  • Agency: Home care nursing also varies from agency to agency. In Nigeria, your shift might be 3 days on and 3 days off duty or 1 week on and 1 week off depending on the agency you are working with.
  • Emotional attachment: Working as a home care nurse you grow an emotional attachment to your patients because you get to see and spend time with them often unlike hospitals where patient get discharged early.

  • Patience: As a home care nurse in Nigeria, you have to be very patient because some patients and relatives can be so unappreciative no matter how hard you work. Some use abusive words and can even attempt to be physically aggressive. There also those who are uncooperative owing to the fact that you are caring for them in their house. There are appreciative and respectful ones though who appreciate every little deed you do.
  • Experience: Most time, the experience you get working as a home health in Nigeria isn’t as much as what you get working in an hospital.
  • Cost: Those that go for domiciliary care in Nigeria are usually well to do people who can afford the cost.
  • Companionship: Elderly patients often feel lonely, home health nurses provide companionship to such patients by interacting with them. They also give psychological, spiritual and emotional support more than other nurses.
  • Sense of humour: If you have a good sense of humour, it will help you in coping as a home health nurse. For me, instead of getting angry at what a patient said, I will just change it into a polite joke. 

    If you have an elderly person whose needs are beyond your capacity, I will suggest you get a home care nurse that will be responsible for him/her. It will also be nice if home health agencies are in all states in Nigeria.

     What is your opinion on Home Health Nursing? Please drop your comment in the comment section and share. Thanks for reading.

    57 comments

    3. domiciliary care is the best especially when given by a Registered Nurse and depending on the condition. just as you have highlighted it’s has its own challenges but the patient get the very best and also the Nurse in return gets job satisfaction.

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    4. It is d best care given to elderly in the comfort of their home, which I believe speed recovery. The client ability is rated and put into consideration . it is also individualize care and it is establish step by step.Above all it is done with the presence of their love ones.

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    7. I didn’t know home care exists in Nigeria. Thanks for this info. I have always thought Nigeria is behind in caring for the elderly, except for relatives. This post is an eye opener.
      Keep up the good work!

      Liked by 1 person

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    8. I am currently studying Social Work at a University in Australia. I work consistently alongside nurses, so this post interested me a great deal! Great perspective, and overall a very interesting post! 🙂

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    11. Wowwwww!!! I am a Certified Nurse in German and I am from Nigeria. So many time my colleagues has asked me if we have the home care in Nigeria, I always tell them no 😮😮😮, I never knew we now have home care now in Nigeria. This is really a very beautiful development in Nigeria🙌🙌🙌🙌

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    13. My guess is that only the rich can afford home health care provider by registered nurses in Nigeria. How do the agencies that recruit the nurses get funded? Do they get patronage from managed health care companies and health insurance companies?This is a nice post. Thanks for sharing.

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      • Home health care can can be quite expensive for an average Nigerian…. The agencies get paid by the patient or his or her relatives. They get patronage from health care companies… Also, they get referrals from previous patients they’ve cared for.
        Thanks for stopping by.

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    14. Wow! It is interesting to know that home health care exists in Nigeria now. That’s a good development. I’m glad I got to read it here. This was an eye opener for me and I can say that my knowledge base has increased with this new reality. Thank you for sharing. This was a great post. 🙂

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    17. Thanks for the enlightenment,now I understand better but my question is how sustainable is it knowing fully well dat it takes a well established org to go into it.or better still can it be done single handedly with backups

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    23. This is a quite interesting post. I have been bothered with the wide gap that exists between hospital care and home care in Nigeria. Most patients are often reluctant keeping hospital appointments for obvious reasons. However, with home health care, a lot could be achieved in terms of follow-up, hospice, rehabilitation services and geriatric care. I am an Orthopaedic nurse with a lot of experience, I hope to venture into home nursing care in the near future with emphasis on the spinal cord injured.

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