Understanding nursing care at home

A licensed nurse — either a registered nurse (RN) or a licensed practical nurse (LPN). Everyone who comes to your home is a licensed nurse employed by us, not a contractor or an aide.

Before anyone works a shift on their own, they are shown your routine, your equipment and what normal looks like for the person they are caring for.

They follow the written plan of care that your doctor ordered. In practice that usually means watching for changes, giving medications on schedule, looking after any medical equipment, and stepping in if something needs attention.

They also write down what they see, so the next nurse and your doctor know how the day or night went.

Not as a service on its own. We provide skilled nursing, which is a different thing from personal care, homemaking or companionship.

A nurse will of course help the person they are caring for stay comfortable and clean during a shift. But if what your family mainly needs is help with bathing, dressing, meals or cleaning, a personal care or homemaking agency is the right fit, and we will say so rather than take the work on.

Yes. Private duty nursing is shift work, and shifts can be days, evenings, overnights or weekends.

Which of those we can actually fill depends on the nurses available near you. We will tell you honestly what coverage looks like in your area before you plan around it.

Yes, when a doctor has ordered them. Our nurses give scheduled and as-needed medications, including ones given through a feeding tube or an IV, and record each one.

What a particular nurse can give depends on their license and the written plan of care.

Yes. Nursing care at home is ordered by a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant, and the people paying for it review that order before care starts.

You do not need to have it all arranged before you call us. Ring us and we will explain what is usually needed and who to ask.

It depends on two things: how quickly the order and approval come through, and whether we have a nurse free near you with the right skills.

We would rather give you a realistic date than an optimistic one. If we cannot start when you need us, we will say so early enough for you to try someone else.

Call us. Families' needs move around — appointments, school, hospital stays, a week away — and schedules are meant to follow that.

The more notice you can give, the more likely we are to cover the change, but tell us either way.

Tell us, and tell us early. It is a normal thing to happen and it is much easier to fix at week two than at month six.

You will not be making trouble by raising it. A nurse who is not a good match for your household is a scheduling problem for us to solve, not something you should put up with.

If it is a medical emergency, call 911 first. Always.

For anything else, call our office number. Ask us during your first conversation exactly who answers outside business hours and how quickly, and hold us to the answer.

Yes, and most families do. Nursing hours are there to carry the part that needs a licensed nurse, and to let you sleep, work and spend time with everyone else in the house.

You know the person better than any nurse will on day one. We expect our nurses to ask you, listen, and write down what you tell them.

School, therapy and ordinary family life are the point of care at home, not something it has to interrupt.

Where nursing is also provided at school, the two need to be working from the same plan of care rather than side by side. Tell us about school hours early so the schedule is built around them.

Call us, or email our intake team with a short, non-clinical description of what you are looking for. There is no form to fill in.

We will arrange a conversation to understand the situation, explain what would be involved, and tell you honestly whether we are able to help — including the staffing realities in your area.

Please do not send medical records, diagnoses or detailed health history by email or fax. We will tell you how to share clinical information securely when the time comes.

Only what is needed to start a conversation: your name, how to reach you, your general area, and a sentence or two about what kind of support you are looking for.

This website collects nothing — there are no forms. Email and fax are ordinary business channels, not a secure clinical system, so please keep diagnoses, medical records, medication lists and detailed health history out of them. We will give you a secure route for that information once we are talking.

A nurse coming into your home is a significant change for a family, and it usually takes a few weeks to settle.

Expect an initial assessment, a written plan of care, an orientation period in which nurses learn your child's routines and baseline, and ongoing documentation of what the nurse observes on each shift. Expect to be asked a lot of questions early on — your knowledge of your child is part of the clinical picture.

Our service area is listed on the Contact page. Availability within that area still depends on whether we have nursing staff near you with the right skills for the care required.

If you are outside the area, tell us anyway — we would rather point you toward another agency than leave you without a next step.

Private duty nursing is skilled nursing care provided in the home by a registered nurse (RN) or licensed practical nurse (LPN) over an extended shift, rather than in short visits.

It is intended for people whose medical needs require ongoing nursing attention — monitoring, intervention and clinical judgment — throughout part or all of the day or night.

Home health, or intermittent skilled nursing, is a short visit for a specific clinical task — a wound care change, a medication set-up, an assessment — after which the nurse leaves.

Private duty nursing is shift-based. The nurse stays for a block of hours to provide continuous skilled care. The two services are authorized, documented and funded differently.

Skilled nursing is provided by licensed nurses and involves clinical assessment, medication administration, management of medical technology, and escalation to the ordering provider.

Non-medical home care — bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, companionship — is provided by unlicensed caregivers. It is valuable and often essential, but it is a different service and is not nursing. We describe our nursing services as nursing, and we will tell you plainly when what you are describing is a non-medical need.

In Minnesota Health Care Programs, the service that was historically called private duty nursing (PDN) is now called home care nursing (HCN). Federal regulation still uses the older term, and many families, hospitals and commercial insurers continue to say 'private duty nursing'.

They refer to the same kind of extended-hour skilled nursing at home. Which term appears on your paperwork depends on which payer is involved.

Extended-hour nursing at home is ordered by a physician, advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant, and then reviewed by the payer before care starts.

Under Minnesota Health Care Programs, home care nursing requires a provider order and prior authorization, and an assessment is completed as part of the request. Commercial insurance plans run their own review and have their own forms and timelines.

The number of approved hours is set by the payer, not by the agency. We can explain what the process generally looks like and what is usually needed for it.

Cost depends on the payer, the authorized hours and the level of nursing required, so there is no single rate we can publish honestly.

Contact us with your situation and we will tell you what we can about how services are typically funded, and what your next step would be with your payer. We will not guess at coverage on your behalf.

Consistency is what we aim for, because a nurse who knows a person's baseline notices change sooner.

We will not promise it unconditionally. Nurse availability is the central constraint in home care across Minnesota, and any agency that guarantees perfect continuity is overpromising. We would rather tell you what coverage realistically looks like in your area before you commit.

We hire registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) who hold a current, unencumbered Minnesota license, or a multistate license that is valid for practice in Minnesota.

Specific requirements for each role — experience, skills and schedule — are listed on the individual job posting.

Home care is a different environment from a hospital floor: you are the only clinician in the room, and your assessment skills carry more weight.

Whether a particular role suits a nurse new to home care depends on the role and the care involved. Each posting states what it requires. If you are interested but unsure, apply and tell us where you are coming from.