Nurse or support worker? Choosing the right NDIS support
"Do I need a nurse, or a support worker?" It's one of the most common questions we get from NDIS participants, families and support coordinators. The honest answer is: often both, doing different jobs. Here's how to work out what's right for you.
What a support worker does
Support workers help with everyday life: personal care, meals, household tasks, getting out into the community, and following routines in your support plan. A good support worker is reliable, respectful and knows you well. Most NDIS support is delivered this way, funded from Core Supports.
What changes with high intensity support
Some daily activities carry more clinical risk. The NDIS calls these high intensity daily personal activities. They include complex bowel care, urinary catheter care, tracheostomy and ventilator support, severe dysphagia (swallowing difficulties), subcutaneous injections and complex wound care.
Trained support workers can deliver many of these, but only when:
- A qualified health practitioner oversees your support plan
- Each worker is trained for your needs and equipment, and assessed as competent
- The provider is registered for high intensity supports
What a Registered Nurse does
A Registered Nurse (RN) can assess your health, make clinical judgements, and do tasks that should stay with a nurse. Examples include:
- Changing indwelling and suprapubic catheters
- Assessing and planning care for complex wounds
- Writing and reviewing high intensity support plans
- Training and signing off support workers
- Monitoring chronic conditions and medications, and liaising with your GP and specialists
- Responding when something changes and deciding what needs to happen next
Nursing for disability-related health supports can be funded from your Core or Capacity Building budget, depending on your plan.
A quick guide
| Your situation | Usually the best fit |
|---|---|
| Help with showering, meals, cleaning, outings | Support worker |
| A daily catheter or bowel routine, a tracheostomy, or a mealtime plan for dysphagia | Trained high intensity support worker, with RN oversight |
| Catheter changes, complex wound assessment, a new or changing health condition | Registered Nurse |
| Coming home from hospital with new clinical needs | RN to assess and plan, then a mix of nursing and support work |
Why the mix matters
Using a nurse for everything can use up your plan fast. Using only support workers for complex needs can be unsafe if nobody clinical is watching. The best setups use each for what they do best: support workers for daily routines, nurses for planning, training, clinical tasks and early warning.
How Good Nurse does it
We're a registered NDIS provider for high intensity daily personal activities, run by Registered Nurses. Our RNs assess you, write your plan, train and supervise your workers, and handle the clinical tasks. That way you get consistent daily support with a nurse behind it.
Read more about our high intensity support, or call 1300 457 557 to talk it through.
Talk to a nurse
Free, no-obligation chat with one of our Registered Nurses about NDIS or Support at Home care in Western Sydney.