After nearly ten years working in home health, I’ve learned that being organized and prepared is key to working smarter, not harder. Read on to see my recommendations for the best gear for home health therapists and nurses.
Outline:
- Making the most of meals.
- Gear for your vehicle.
- Getting organized.
- Tools for working in homes.
- Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts.
Making the most of meals
Fueling our bodies is important as we drive around from house to house all day. I make it a point to have a real meal for lunch. For a hot meal, I bring homemade soup, stew, or other left-over from dinner, which I keep hot in a good soup thermos. My other favorites are a salad or wrap stuffed with veggies, olives, goat cheese, etc. Have a long drive? You can even cook your meal along the way.
Here are some ideas to keep you fed and hydrated:
A wide-mouth thermos* to keep your food hot.
A leak-proof thermos* to keep your drinks hot or cold for hours.
An insulated lunch bag* to keep your cold food cold. (Toss in an ice pack for extra insurance, especially in hot weather.)
Leak-proof condiment containers* (which I love for salad dressing).
If you’d like to re-heat or cook food while you’re driving, this mini portable oven* is designed to work in vehicles with a 12-volt plug.
And finally, if you’re looking for recipes, here’s a cookbook for meals to go.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Gear for your vehicle
Here are some essentials for comfort and safety.
A steering wheel tray* makes eating and working in the car much more comfortable. The steering wheel tray that I bought is no longer available, but this one looks almost identical.
I like extra lumbar support, this adjustable self-inflating lumbar pillow* is great. I tucked it behind my waterproof seat protector*, so it stays in place and out of sight.
I carry this portable air compressor* in my trunk for emergencies. If I’d known there are combination air compressors and jump starters*, I would have bought one of those instead.
If snow is a possibility, you may want to carry a small shovel*. This comes in handy in deep snowfall when visiting houses that haven’t shoveled yet.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Getting organized
I use an hourly planner* to map out my preferred schedule, updating it as I schedule my patients. I also use it to keep track of all my to-do’s. I wrote an article about how to use your planner to lighten your workload.
My rolling bag* is a life-saver for my back! This bag has multiple pockets and separate sections to keep your clean and “dirty” materials separate. The handle doubles as a coat rack if I’m in a home with no convenient place to hang my coat. I wrote an article about how I organize my work bag.
Home health therapists and nurses have to carry a lot of supplies. Finding the right combination of organizers and bins can make it easy to find things quickly. Here are a couple of examples:
Here’s a hanging organizer*.
I have one of these large bins* in my trunk for PPE, medicine boxes, CTAR balls, voice amplifier, straws, and so much more.
I have two smaller boxes* like the one below. One is dedicated to therapy materials and home health forms, while the other is dedicated to emergency car equipment and an extra raincoat.
Add a low-profile under-the-bed bin* in your trunk to hold your home health bag (leave the lid at home).
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Tools for working in the home
Home health therapists and nurses often work with people who are hard of hearing or have a soft voice. I’ve been using this voice amplifier* for more than three years. It comes with a head mounted mic, but I bought this lapel mic *when we had to wear face shields. Good communication is key to successful outcomes for our patients!
This telescoping stool* is light-weight and comes with a cushion. It expands to regular sitting height, for those homes that don’t offer you a good chair. You could even use it to hold your laptop in a pinch.
A simple, hand-held mirror* is useful for seeing the bottoms of people’s feet. Speech-language pathologists may also use a mirror in therapy.
For nurses especially, a head lamp is great for changing catheters or doing wound care when lighting is not great in the home. (Thanks to my sister, a home health nurse, for this tip!)
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts
- Useful tools to help people with cognitive impairment.
- Organize the materials you carry to save time as a home health SLP.
- Use your planner to lighten your home health workload.
Featured image by Angelos Georgiou from Pexels, found on Canva.com.
Lisa earned her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Maryland, College Park and her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of California, San Diego.
She participated in research studies with the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the University of Maryland in the areas of aphasia, Parkinson’s Disease, epilepsy, and fluency disorders.
Lisa has been working as a medical speech-language pathologist since 2008. She has a strong passion for evidence-based assessment and therapy, having earned five ASHA Awards for Professional Participation in Continuing Education.
She launched EatSpeakThink.com in June 2018 to help other clinicians be more successful working in home health, as well as to provide strategies and resources to people living with problems eating, speaking, or thinking.
Be First to Comment