The short answer
- Yes, but a live-in nurse is not a live-in carerA registered nurse can lawfully do things a carer cannot: give injections, run medication through a drip, assess and dress complex wounds, and insert or change a catheter.
- Much of what people call nursing can go to a trained carerPEG feeds, stoma and catheter bag changes, and hoisting can be delegated to an experienced carer once the community nursing team has trained and signed them off in writing.
- Always check a nurse’s registration yourselfAn introduction platform, PrimeCarers included, checks identity, right to work and a DBS. It does not check professional qualifications, so search the public register before agreeing to anything clinical.
- It costs more, and NHS funding can sometimes cover itA registered nurse costs more to arrange than a live-in carer. Where the need is mainly health rather than savings, NHS Continuing Healthcare can pay for a live-in nursing package in full.
PrimeCarers introduces families to self-employed carers for personal care, companionship and live-in care. It does not introduce registered nurses, so this guide points you to the right route rather than PrimeCarers' own search.
The short answer
Yes, but a live-in nurse is a different arrangement from live-in care
Live-in nurses exist in the UK, and for a smaller number of families they are the right answer. A live-in nurse does the same day-to-day job as a live-in carer, being there through the day and night, but is also a registered nurse, checkable on the public register, who can lawfully carry out clinical tasks the law reserves from a carer. That distinction, rather than experience or price alone, is what decides whether a family needs a nurse or a carer.
Live-in carer
What most families arrange, including everyone on PrimeCarers
Checked by
Identity, right to work, an enhanced DBS on the Update Service, and an online interview
Can do
- Personal care: washing, dressing, continence, meals
- Medication reminders and handing over a dosette box
- Delegated clinical tasks once trained and signed off in writing by a nurse, such as PEG feeds, stoma bag changes or hoisting
Not without a nurse
- Injections and IV medication
- Assessing or dressing complex wounds
- Inserting or changing a catheter
Usually self-employed, engaged directly by the family
Live-in nurse
For needs that are mainly clinical, not personal care
Checked by
Registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, checkable on the public register
Can do
- Everything a carer does, plus
- Injections, IV medication and syringe drivers
- Assessing and dressing complex or infected wounds
- Inserting or changing a catheter
A specialist live-in nursing agency, or a self-employed registered nurse engaged directly
Families are usually pointed towards a live-in nurse after a hospital discharge with a line, drain or wound that needs ongoing clinical review, where medication needs regular adjustment, or where a condition is likely to need frequent, unpredictable clinical decisions rather than steady personal care. If your relative's needs are closer to help with washing, dressing, meals and company, with some clinical tasks that a nurse can train a carer to do, live-in care through a self-employed carer is usually the better fit, and considerably nearer to what carer rates cost than nurse rates.
What only a nurse can do
What only a nurse can do, and what a trained carer can take on instead
Many of the tasks families assume need a nurse can, in fact, be delegated to an experienced carer once a nurse has trained them for that specific task and signed it off in writing. A smaller group of tasks always stay with a nurse. Knowing which is which is usually more useful than the label 'nursing' on its own.
| Always stays with a nurse | Can go to a trained carer, once signed off | |
|---|---|---|
| Injections and IV medication | All IV care, and most injections | Insulin pens, once trained |
| Wound care | Assessing and dressing complex or infected wounds | Simple dressings |
| Catheters and tubes | Inserting or changing a catheter | Emptying bags, hygiene and PEG feeds once trained |
| Medication | Prescribing, and changing a dose | Reminding, handing over a dosette box, measuring doses once trained and assessed |
| Observations | Deciding what a reading means | Taking blood pressure, temperature and blood sugar |
Injections and IV medication
- Always stays with a nurse
- All IV care, and most injections
- Can go to a trained carer, once signed off
- Insulin pens, once trained
Wound care
- Always stays with a nurse
- Assessing and dressing complex or infected wounds
- Can go to a trained carer, once signed off
- Simple dressings
Catheters and tubes
- Always stays with a nurse
- Inserting or changing a catheter
- Can go to a trained carer, once signed off
- Emptying bags, hygiene and PEG feeds once trained
Medication
- Always stays with a nurse
- Prescribing, and changing a dose
- Can go to a trained carer, once signed off
- Reminding, handing over a dosette box, measuring doses once trained and assessed
Observations
- Always stays with a nurse
- Deciding what a reading means
- Can go to a trained carer, once signed off
- Taking blood pressure, temperature and blood sugar
Based on NICE guideline NG67 on managing medicines for adults receiving social care in the community, and Skills for Care's principles for delegated healthcare activities.
The full list of what a private carer is and is not allowed to do, including money, restraint and everyday conduct as well as clinical tasks, is set out in what are carers not allowed to do? If your relative's needs sit mostly in the delegated column, complex care at home works through the same principle across twelve common tasks, matching an experienced, trained carer rather than a nurse.
Finding a nurse
How to find a live-in nurse, and check who you're hiring
There are two routes into live-in nursing: a specialist live-in nursing agency, which employs or manages the nurse's clinical work and is registered with the Care Quality Commission for it, or a self-employed registered nurse engaged directly by the family, in much the same way families engage a self-employed live-in carer. Whichever route, a family should not take a claim of registration on trust.
- 1
Check the register yourself
Search the nurse’s name on the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s public register before agreeing to anything. It shows whether they are currently registered to practise, and whether there is a restriction or caution against them. - 2
Ask what checks the agency or platform has already done
An introduction platform checks identity, right to work and runs an enhanced DBS check on the Update Service, and interviews online, the same checks PrimeCarers runs on every carer. None of that is a check on professional registration, so ask directly whether anyone has verified it, or verify it yourself. - 3
Get the nursing plan in writing
Ask for a written plan covering medication, the clinical tasks the nurse will do, and what happens if something goes wrong outside normal hours. - 4
Agree hours, breaks and cover before day one
A nurse cannot be on duty every waking hour any more than a carer can. A nurse employed by an agency is a worker under the Working Time Regulations 1998, with a right to 11 hours’ rest in each 24 hours and a weekly rest period, so ask the agency how breaks and days off are covered. A self-employed live-in carer’s hours work differently, set out in how many hours does a live-in carer work.
The everyday practicalities of somebody living in your relative's home are the same for a nurse as for a carer: where do live-in carers sleep? and does a live-in carer pay rent? cover the sleeping arrangements and the rent question in full, and the same answers apply.
Cost and funding
What a live-in nurse costs, and how NHS funding can help
A registered nurse's time is priced differently from a carer's, and live-in nursing costs more than live-in care. PrimeCarers does not publish a figure for it, since introducing nurses is not what the platform does. Where a relative's needs sit mostly in the delegated column above rather than needing round-the-clock nursing, a trained carer is usually the cheaper route into the same tasks.
£1,260 a week
is where PrimeCarers' complex live-in care starts, for a carer with the training and experience for delegated tasks such as PEG feeds, stoma care and hoisting.
The cost of live-in care sets out the full range by level of need, for comparison against whatever a nursing agency or a self-employed nurse quotes.
Questions
Questions families ask about live-in nurses
A live-in carer helps with washing, dressing, meals, medication reminders and company, and can take on delegated clinical tasks once a nurse has trained and signed them off in writing. A live-in nurse is registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and can also give injections, run IV medication, assess and dress complex wounds, and insert or change a catheter, none of which a carer may do.
No. PrimeCarers introduces families to self-employed carers for personal care and companionship, checked for identity, right to work and an enhanced DBS, and interviewed online. For delegated clinical tasks under a nurse’s written plan, many carers on PrimeCarers can help once trained; for nursing itself, a specialist live-in nursing agency or a self-employed registered nurse is the right route.
No. A live-in nurse comes to live in your relative’s own home. A nursing home is a residential care setting with nurses on its staff. What’s the difference between live-in care and a nursing home? compares the two settings if that is the choice you are weighing.
Search their name on the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s public register. It shows whether they are currently registered to practise as a nurse, and whether there is a restriction, caution or suspension against them. Do this before agreeing to any clinical care, whichever route you have found the nurse through.
Yes, once a nurse has trained them for a specific task and signed it off in writing. PEG feeds, stoma and catheter bag changes, simple dressings and hoisting are commonly delegated this way. Injections, IV medication and inserting a catheter are not. What are carers not allowed to do? sets out the fuller list.
Sometimes. If your relative’s main need is health rather than help with daily living, NHS Continuing Healthcare can fund a full live-in package, including nursing, with no means test. It is assessed against a set of criteria rather than given automatically, so ask for the screening checklist to find out.