Is Working in Recuperative Care Right for You?
It’s difficult to heal from an injury or illness if you don’t have a home or safe place to live. Solving this problem is the mission of recuperative care (also known as respite care) — a new care model that houses and supports patients who are recovering from a hospital stay. If you’re passionate about improving long-term health outcomes for people experiencing economic hardships, this could be the role for you.
Did you know that medical care only accounts for 10–20% of health outcomes? Economic status and social support have much larger effects on health and well-being. In fact, housing is one of the core determinants of health, and people who don’t have access to housing are at far greater risk of death and illness. Having a safe space to rest, sleep, and relax is essential for living a healthy life.
Unhoused patients are increasingly dependent on acute care services, such as hospital emergency departments, for their medical care. This makes discharging these patients a challenge for clinicians and other staff. It’s a moral injury to have to send people back to the streets, where you know they don’t have access to the care and stability they need. Recuperative and respite care facilities help fill this void, reducing unsafe discharges and readmissions by meeting basic needs.
What Is Recuperative Care?
A recuperative facility aims to support and house people as they recover from a hospital stay. These facilities function much like hotels, but also include holistic services to provide guests with the help they need during and after their stay. Recuperative housing models typically include an interprofessional team, such as:
- Case managers
- Community health workers
- Mental health counselors
- Public health nurses
- Social workers
- Trained volunteers
Respite facilities and their staff are typically paid for through government grants, in partnerships with discharging hospitals. Guests pay little to nothing, so that they can focus on healing and accessing resources. Together, these team members help guests access care and resources that help them recover.
Typical services offered in these facilities include:
- Assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs)
- Coordinating transportation to medical appointments
- Connecting guests to other online services, such as mental health and substance use disorder support
- Support with acquiring benefits and housing
- Case management programs
What you might notice about this list is that it doesn’t include direct medical care. While some facilities offer basic nursing services, many don’t. As a nurse in a respite care facility, you likely won’t be performing the same duties as you would in acute medicine. Guests that require medical services typically arrange for home health nurses.
Who’s Eligible to Stay in Recuperative Care?
Eligibility differs by state, but anyone can refer a person to respite care. These are the general requirements to stay in a respite facility:
- People who live alone with no support
- People who have housing insecurity, or housing that could jeopardize their health and safety
- People who are at risk of hospitalization, or are post-hospitalization
Reasons that could exclude a guest from respite care include:
- Active suicidal ideation, significant cognitive impairment, or being a danger to self
- Needing ADL support that goes beyond what the facility can offer
- Bowel or bladder incontinence
- Active tuberculosis, C. diff, or MRSA infection or other highly contagious illness
- Active detox from substances or alcohol
Recuperative Care and the Community
While programs like this sound expensive, they can actually be a cost-saving resource for the community. Houseless people typically stay in the hospital for twice as long as the average patient because of barriers to discharge. Many end up back in the hospital within 30 days. Respite care facilities can help reduce readmission rates by up to 50%, and the average nightly cost of housing patients in a facility is $250, compared to $3,300 in a hospital.
Another benefit to these programs is that they connect individuals with resources they didn’t have access to before their hospital stay. In Los Angeles, three quarters of respite care guests are not listed in social services databases. During their stay, staff enter their information into these systems, where they can be connected to mental health, primary care, housing, and social services.
What Does a Recuperative or Respite Care Nurse Do?
Nurses that work in recuperative and respite care are most similar to community and public health nurses, but they may also provide clinical services. It depends on the facility. Here are some of the skills you’ll need in a day as a respite care nurse:
- Initial assessments for physical, behavioral, and economic needs
- Vaccination and immunization schedule management
- Arranging services with interdisciplinary team members
- Patient education and communication
- Medication counseling and support
- Care planning
- Wound care
- Diabetes management
Could You Be a Recuperative or Respite Care Nurse?
Working in respite care requires more than clinical skills. Here are some of the soft skills you’ll need in this role:
How to Become a Recuperative Care Nurse: 3 Steps
If you bring compassion, empathy, and therapeutic communication, you’d make a great respite care nurse. To work in this role, you can complete these steps:
Step 1: Nursing School
Nursing school is the first step in entering any nursing specialty. Recuperative facilities often hire both licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs). Being an RN vs. LPN opens you up to work in a broader range of settings and specialties, but an LPN program is faster. If you’re thinking about an RN license, you’ll choose between an ADN vs. a BSN program. Whichever path you choose, nursing school prepares you with the basic skills of nursing care.
Step 2: Pass Your Board Exam
Once you’ve graduated nursing school, you can apply for licensure and take the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX). LPNs will take the practical nurse version of the exam, while RNs take their own version. The NCLEX is an adaptive exam, meaning the number of questions you’ll answer depends on how you answer them. Learn about preparing for the NCLEX.
Step 3: Gain Experience in Respite Care
Once you’re licensed, congratulations! You’re now qualified to work in entry level roles in respite care, skilled nursing facilities, hospitals, and other settings. Many nurses choose to work in acute care roles in the first years of practice, because you’ll gain critical thinking and clinical skills caring for a broad range of patients. But you might also choose to directly enter respite care if that’s where you want to help patients.
Thinking About Working in Recuperative Care or Elsewhere?
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