09/04/2025

President's Message

The need for home-based care is greater now than ever before and will continue to grow. There are two main reasons for the rise in home care.  One reason is the expansion of healthcare programs into the home. Hospitals and surgical centers are safely sending patients home from surgical recovery units without overnight hospital stays. Patients may receive daily in-person or telehealth visits from their surgeons to provide medical care and support the highly skilled home-based nurses. In addition, public health programs are expanding maternal-infant, mental health, and wellness programs in the home to prevent illness and hospitalization.

A second reason home-based care is expanding is that populations who have historically benefited from nursing care in the home are increasing. Terms used in some countries, such as super-aging, indicate that populations over age 65 are growing. While for many populations, healthy aging has extended middle age through the 60s, the number of octogenarians through centenarians who live at home is rapidly increasing. Home-based nurses help older adults remain independent, stay healthier longer, and have a better quality of life.

IHCNO is dedicated to helping nurses thrive in home-based care. We bring together seasoned and novice nurses to learn from each other and to develop and share resources to guide quality care. Examples in this newsletter of opportunities to be your best professional self are the update on the in-person conference in London in 2026 and the call for submissions for the Marilyn D. Harris $5,000 research award.

A new project I am sharing with you is the request by Springer Nature Publishing for a book about home-based nursing care. The way this came about was when Marilyn Harris and I pitched the idea of a book written by home care nurses for home care nurses to a Springer representative at the International Council of Nurses congress in Vienna in April. The book content will be beneficial to clinicians, preceptors, educators, researchers, and legal authorities who regulate nursing practice. The publishers were interested, and we submitted a proposal outlining the unique knowledge and skills of this nursing specialty, recommendations for education and clinical experience of prelicensure students and practicing nurses, examples of technology in home care, and types of home care nursing worldwide. Going forward, we will need expert nurses to author chapters and serve as peer reviewers. Please consider how you might contribute. We will share more about this project in the coming months.

Susan Hinck
IHCNO President