Real Home Nurses: Part 1

It was on a cold winter evening, amid a group of jovial people who had gathered to celebrate a birthday party, when I was first introduced to Eunice Miano. Since we both didn’t know many people at the party, we were happy to get more acquainted with each other. So, we sat together and chatted the night away.  Little did I know that this friendly, nice lady would one day be the source of great inspiration that would make me learn a great deal: Majority of people care about the welfare of others, but only the brave will go against all odds to do something about it!!

Eunice, a certified oncology nurse who mostly deals with cancer patients, together with Racheal Okumu, a certified interdisciplinary surgery nurse, have taken up the challenge of contributing to the development of Kenya’s home health care sector. Although some home health care services already exist in Kenya, there is still a huge gap, with their accessibility only limited to a very small section of the population.

Home health care services allow adults to receive day-to-day help with the personal care they need, preserving their dignity and maintaining a good quality of life.

The services also help quicken recovery process of patients as they get assistance in following prescribed medication from doctors. Some patients may know what illness they are suffering from, but don’t understand it well enough to correctly follow prescriptions, especially if the medication is complex, therefore increasing their number of visits to the doctor. A trained caregiver ensures that patients are properly enlightened about their condition. During her visits to Kenya, Eunice would often get asked questions regarding the treatment of certain illnesses. Of course, for her, as a professional health and medical nurse, the questions were easy to answer, but it dawned on her that some patients genuinely lack the necessary awareness about their condition, which may lead to a slower recovery. This was one of the things that triggered her interest in solving the problem.

Just like everywhere else, most Kenyans juggle the many daily demands of work, home and family. If you add the responsibility of taking care of a sick or aging loved one, it can become overwhelming. Moreover, it is a common phenomenal to have family members living thousands of miles away from one another. Scientific studies have shown that the demands and pressure of providing care can result in caregiver burnout—a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. It occurs when family caregivers do not get the necessary help they need and are trying to do more than they are able to, hence the need for medically trained personnel.

Equipped with quality professional training in Germany, where both Eunice and Racheal work and live, and with over eight years of experience, these two amazing women founded a home health care start-up in early 2018 and have since been working tirelessly on streamlining the specifics and structure of the project. They are set to officially launch the company in Kenya in 2019!

Real Home Nurses is a company that specializes in providing professional home health care to the sick and elderly, while ensuring that patients are as comfortable as possible and most of all, treated with kindness and love. Eunice and Racheal have already engaged a group of well-trained, certified and registered nurses and caregivers in Kenya to help them archive their goal, which is to help and support people at their weakest and most vulnerable moments. The company offers the following services:

Aged Care: This consists of an extensive range of services to assist elderly people to remain independent at home. Aged Care service aims to ensure that the elderly receive support and quality care when they need it.

Palliativ Care:  Specially-trained nurses, who work together with a patient’s doctor, provide an extra layer of support. The focus is on providing relief from the symptoms, pain, physical and mental stress at any stage of illness. The main goal is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and their family.

Home Care: This involves providing supportive care to patients with special needs. The service is client-based and is aligned according to the patient’s preference. There are four levels of support through the Package Program, with Level 1 being basic care, and Level 4 being the high-level care need.

Rehabilitation Care; Post-Operative Care: Specially-trained nurses offer quality care to discharged patients who have undergone an operation or have suffered from an illness.

The company also plans to hold Seminars to help affected families acquire the basic know-how of how to deal with the unpleasant situation of having a sick loved one at home.

For more details, please visit https://realhomenurses.com/

Amazed at how one can have a full-time job and still get time to not only think about the well-being of others, but actually invest a lot of time, resources and energy, just to put a smile on someone’s face, I couldn’t help but ask; why?

“I like giving back to the community….”  “I want to create something that will solve a problem…” “I don’t want to see anyone lacking….”. These are some of the responses Eunice would give me every now and then when I ask her how she does it. Eunice made me understand that at Real Home Nurses, it involves more than just about giving medical treatment to a patient, one must also be both mentally and emotionally invested. “The health of my patients is a major priority to me,” added Eunice. At their current jobs, Eunice and Racheal have spent a lot of time talking to their patients, sharing in their pain, their joy, their struggles, comforting them. They have celebrated when their patients win their battles and have also had to gather a lot of strength and courage when their patients lose. It is this level of commitment and love for what they do that gave them the strength to push their project, despite challenges.

Eunice and Racheal’s journey has made me realize something. It is one thing to be a good nurse who properly does her job and administers the required treatment to patients. It is another thing to genuinely love your patients and truly care for them! That requires something way higher than professional expertise, it requires passion! Something that only a few possess, regardless in whichever profession one may be in.

Illness is everyone’s nightmare, and worse if you have to watch a loved one suffer through hell. You feel helpless, like you are in some deep black hole with no hope of getting out. Having a helping hand from a loving, caring and professional caregiver makes the journey more bearable and a little less painful.

I know, we have heard of horror stories about nurses mistreating patients, but today I choose to celebrate the kind hearted and loving nurses like Eunice and Racheal ,who go out of their way to give their patients the best care. The nurses who give their heart and soul in helping their patients.

Cheers to the beginning of a great project. I cannot wait to do a follow-up of Real House Nurses when it hits the ground. As to Eunice and Racheal, it was an honor sharing in your journey. You have hearts of gold, keep up the great job, keep on touching hearts and spreading the love. You are pure inspiration!

The Brains Behind the Project

From Left to right: Eunice Miano and Racheal Okumu. Both are senior directors and founders of Real Home Nurses.

Author : Philly Yambo Makora

Email : psmakora@gmail.com

Facebook :Philly Susan Yambo

Instagram :@psmakora