Ambulatory nursing job opportunities may include a home health services nurse.
Ambulatory nursing is a career option for licensed and registered nursing assistants who prefer to care for people who are not currently admitted to a hospital. With this type of nursing career, nurses focus on providing short-term care to people who are recovering from illness or injury, end-of-life care for terminally ill patients, or helping hospitalized patients who are near death. to be discharged from the hospital. . Here are some examples of outpatient nursing positions that may be a viable option for many nurses.
Ambulatory nursing can help someone adjust to using a wheelchair.
One of the most basic of all ambulatory nursing job opportunities is in the field of home health services. Here, the nurse becomes a full-time employee of a home health agency and is given a list of clients to visit their homes on a regular basis. It is not uncommon for a home health nurse to visit each patient three to five times a week. According to the regulations that apply locally, the nurse helps the patient to take the medication prescribed by a doctor, monitors the patient’s vital signs and communicates with the doctors if something seems to be preventing the patient’s recovery.
Private Duty Nursing is a form of ambulatory nursing.
Ambulatory nursing in a hospice facility is very similar to home care, with one important distinction. Hospice is generally concerned with providing end-of-life care for terminally ill patients. In this setting, the ambulatory nurse seeks to help the patient feel as comfortable as possible, performing routine medical tasks, handling medication administration, and even working with physicians to fill prescriptions for the patient. Ambulatory nursing in a hospice facility isn’t for everyone, but it can be a very rewarding job for nurses who want to help make a patient’s final days as smooth and comfortable as possible.
An ambulatory nurse can work with the patient’s doctor and pharmacist to ensure prescriptions are filled.
Another form of ambulatory nursing is known as private duty nursing. With this type of nursing position, the nurse is assigned to a specific patient. For a certain number of hours a day, the nurse attends to the needs of the patient in her care. This often includes changing dressings, monitoring vital signs, administering medications, and generally working with other health care providers to enable the homebound patient to enjoy the best quality of life possible. Unlike hospice or nursing home employment, a staffing agency may assign a private duty nurse or enter into a direct contract with the patient or family of the nurse.
Ambulatory nursing opportunities can be found in health clinics and other private care settings.
There are other types of ambulatory nursing opportunities found in health clinics and other private care settings. In general, nurses working in these situations provide care for patients who do not require hospitalization. As with all types of nursing situations, working in ambulatory nursing requires a license from the appropriate agency and jurisdiction.