
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.