Nursing assessment for bowel regime

[Penn]

Somebody in the UK will probably have to do help me with this question.

I employ carers privately. I've been doing it for many many years now. In fact, two of my carers have been with me for over 25 years. So I think it's fair to say that they know how to look after me properly. A couple of years ago the district nurses insisted that they have an assessment when inserting suppositories. I went along with it at the time but as you can probably imagine it's not the sort of procedure that you really want to have done in front of an audience. Anyway, they contacted me today to say that the nurses have to come in again to do a six-month assessment. I'm absolutely bouncing off the walls with rage. I don't see why this has to be done again. They told me that if I don't agree to the assessment then my girls will not be allowed to do it and I will have to have the nurse come in. I find this insulting and if this is not abusing my human rights then I don't know what would.I employ three carers. So I would have to repeat this process three times for each carer.

Has anyone else experienced the same sort of thing happening to them?

[SCI-Nurse]

I don't know about the system in the UK, but in the USA, in my state (California) caregiver hours must be re-certified by a social worker (not a nurse) every 6 months. They do not certify the skills performed by the caregiver...that is up to the person receiving the care services. An exception to this is in the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, where paid PCA bowel and bladder skills must be certified by a health care provider, but this is only required at the beginning of employment, and at my center, we did the certification based on the Veteran's report of having trained and supervised the caregiver's specific skills, rather than requiring a demonstration.

(KLD)