Differences between a nursing home and a care home

There are many different types of care homes, and it can be difficult to understand the difference between them. If you are determining which is best for your loved one, this article should help you to understand the difference between a nursing home and a care home.

Care Homes

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Care Home vs Nursing Home Summary

What is a care home?

A care home is a long-term residential care facility for people with disabilities or chronic illnesses. Care homes provide 24-hour care and support for residents, including help with activities of daily living, health care, and social and recreational activities.

What is a nursing home?

A nursing home is where people can live and receive medical care and assistance with activities of daily living from trained nurses or doctors. Nursing homes are also sometimes called skilled nursing facilities.

What are the main differences between care homes and nursing homes?

You can think of a Nursing home as a care home with the addition of:

• Nurses are on staff 24 hours a day, and doctors can be called quickly
• A nursing home will have specialist equipment to help people with complex needs, including hoists, transfer equipment and beds to help those with severe mobility problems.
• A nursing home has the facilities to support those with more intensive needs than the basic personal care that a care home provides.

While a care home will provide excellent support for someone with less dependency, when a job gets especially complex, involving specialist medication administration, ventilators or other needs, it becomes a requirement to have these tasks carried out by a trained nurse who can monitor patients more closely.

Which is best for my loved one?

For several reasons, a nursing home might be better than a care home for your family member.

Intensive Care

First, nursing homes are typically staffed with more medical professionals than care homes, which can benefit your family member with complex medical needs.

Future Needs

If you are concerned that your loved one might need more intensive care soon, selecting a nursing home means you won’t need to make a potentially disruptive move further along your journey. If your loved one is suffering from Dementia, this can be especially important.

Condition Specific Facilities

Suppose your loved one is suffering from a particular condition such as dementia. In that case, a dementia-specific nursing home may provide a higher quality of care than a care home catering to various conditions.

What is the price difference?

While it’s unwise to give specific prices since they vary so much from region to region and over time, it’s fair to say that a nursing home is approximately 25% more expensive due to the more experienced staff, specialist equipment and insurance costs.

If you want to speak to a few care homes and get some quotes, consider looking at https://www.carehome.co.uk/ as your best bet.

What are the alternatives?

While either a care home or a nursing home can provide excellent quality care, it might be worth considering your other alternatives. A very popular alternative is live-in care? This type of care is where a carer or nurse lives in a spare room in your house to help your loved one live as much of a normal life as possible.

You can start with more of a basic carer and work up to full nurses.

If your loved one is suffering from dementia, being in their own home surrounded by their things can help them feel calmer.