The home care service was established in the summer of 2014. It provides spiritual nurturing, psychological support, and everyday assistance for bedridden elderly patients who have difficulty taking care of themselves properly. The team consists of lay brothers and sisters with nursing skills. They are like-minded people whose desire is to help others.
They visit their patients regularly. Their typical duties consist of taking care of their patients' hygiene, helping them to take needed medications, cleaning their homes, and even teaching the patients' relatives how to take care of their ill loved ones properly.
The nurses have all the special equipment their patients might need. We also assist financially vulnerable patients with purchasing necessities such as diapers, wipes, soaps, creams and other products.
Apart from those routine tasks, our Convent's Service also provides mental and spiritual support. A lot of elderly patients suffer from loneliness. Our nurses will listen to the patients, talk to them, read them a book, give them advice. Sometimes a simple conversation can make a remarkable difference.
As Christians, we also bring Christ into the patients' lives. Many of them have their hearts open to God. Jesus Christ is the ultimate Doctor, so we talk to the patients about God, tell them about Eternal Life. If a patient wishes, the nurse can invite one of our Convent's priests to come, so that the patient can confess and receive Holy Communion.
Being a home care nurse is not an easy thing to do. Many lay brothers and sisters have daytime jobs and families to support, making it even harder to come and help every day. Yet our nurses are following our Savior's footsteps, who did not deny help to any person who asked for it. We are also inspired by our patron saint Elisabeth Romanov. Her prayers for our nurses give them the strength to continue their difficult ministry.
