The Setting, II: The Patient’s Home

Abstract

One obvious difference between the patient’s home environment and the hospital or long-term institution is that the basic purpose of the institution is to give care to sick people. Its activities, whether carried out well or poorly, are centered on this purpose and geared to its fulfillment. In one’s home, however, illness is the exception rather than the rule. Consequently, the nurse who works in the home setting is likely to have to improvise a great deal in order to provide patient care in the existing environment.