Health visiting is a branch of health care that focuses on providing health care and nursing services to individuals in their homes. This specialty aims to provide medical support and nursing care to people who need health care but are unable to visit hospitals or clinics regularly, such as the elderly, patients with chronic diseases, and patients recovering after surgical operations.

Health visiting specialist job areas:
Health status assessment:

• Routine checks: such as measuring blood pressure, pulse rate, and temperature.
• Comprehensive assessment: Assess the patient’s overall health status and determine care needs.

Medication management:

• Preparing and dispensing medications: Ensuring that prescribed medications are taken at the specified times.
• Monitor for side effects: Monitor for any side effects or interactions with medications and inform your doctor.

Post-operative care:

• Wound follow-up: cleaning, changing dressings, and wound care.
• Recovery Monitoring: Monitoring the patient’s condition to ensure they recover well.

Chronic disease care:

• Managing chronic diseases: such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease through customized treatment plans.
• Health education: Providing education and guidance on how to manage chronic diseases.

Palliative care:

• End-of-life care: Providing care to patients with incurable diseases to ensure their comfort and quality of life.
• Emotional support: Providing emotional and psychological support to patients and their families.

Health education and awareness:

• Healthy lifestyle education: counseling about nutrition, physical activity, and stress management.
• Raising awareness of the importance of periodic examinations: Encouraging patients to perform periodic examinations for early detection of diseases.

Providing support to families and caregivers:

• Training and guidance: Teaching family members how to provide basic care to the patient.
• Psychological support: Providing counseling and psychological support to family caregivers.

Basic skills in the health visiting specialty:

• Clinical assessment: the ability to accurately assess the patient’s health condition and determine his or her needs.
• Direct Care: Providing basic health care including medication administration and wound care.
• Effective Communication: Ability to communicate effectively with patients, their families, and members of the medical team.
• Empathy and Caring: Providing psychological and emotional support to patients and their families.
• Time Management: Ability to manage time effectively to ensure timely delivery of care.

Challenges in the field of health visiting:

• Working in diverse environments: adapting to different working conditions in patients’ homes.
• Dealing with critical cases: Dealing with emergency and sudden health cases.
• Stress management: maintaining psychological balance when dealing with critically ill patients.

Professional development in health visiting:

• Continuing Education: Maintain updated knowledge through advanced training courses and certifications.
• Specialization in specific areas: such as palliative care or chronic disease management.
• Advancing into Management Positions: Assume leadership positions in home health care services.

work fields:

• Hospitals and clinics: which provide home care services.
  Home health agencies: which provide health care services in homes.
• Non-governmental organizations: which provide health care to underserved communities.
• Community health centers: which provide home care services to community patients.

The Health Visiting specialty plays a vital role in providing comprehensive health care and psychological support to patients in their homes, which helps improve their quality of life and enables them to remain in a familiar and comfortable environment.