Pediatric Skilled Nursing
Nursing care for medically complex children, delivered at home instead of in a hospital room.
Overview
What This Service Includes
Pediatric skilled nursing brings clinical care into the place a child already knows. A nurse supports the medical needs a child lives with every day — breathing support, feeding, medications, monitoring — while the family keeps its own rhythm, its own kitchen and its own bedtime. Care follows the child's physician orders and plan of care, and it is built around one child rather than a ward.
- Nursing care provided in the family's home rather than in a hospital or facility.
- Care that follows the child's physician orders and individual plan of care.
- Support for the medical needs a child lives with daily, such as breathing equipment, feeding, medications and monitoring.
- An approach that treats the family as part of the care team, not as visitors to it.
Who it is for
Who This May Help
Situations where families often ask about this kind of care. None of them establishes that a child needs it — that comes from their physician.
- Some children come home from a hospital or NICU stay still needing clinical care each day.
- A child may have medical needs that continue well beyond a short recovery period.
- Some families manage equipment, medications or feeding routines that call for nursing knowledge.
- A child may have a condition that can change quickly and needs watching by someone trained to notice.
- Some parents carry the full weight of clinical care alone and may benefit from a nurse alongside them.
Care at home
Common Tasks and Support Provided
What care may involve day to day, always following your child’s physician-ordered plan of care.
- Watching how a child is doing across the day and noting changes that matter.
- Supporting the equipment and routines a child depends on, in line with their plan of care.
- Giving medications and feedings as ordered by the child's physician.
- Keeping clear records so the child's medical team sees what is happening at home.
- Teaching and working alongside parents so families feel steadier in their own home.
Getting started
How In-Home Care Works
You do not need paperwork ready, and you do not need to know whether your child qualifies before you call.
- 1
You reach out
Call us, or request a screening online. You do not need paperwork ready, and you do not need to know whether your child qualifies.
- 2
We talk with you
A member of our team talks through your child's needs, your Medicaid situation, where you are in Georgia, and whether your child currently has a provider.
- 3
Nurse intake
If it looks like we may be able to help, a nurse meets with you and your family to complete the intake documentation together.
- 4
Submission to Medicaid
The GAPP request is submitted for review. This is the point at which the decision moves to Georgia Medicaid.
- 5
The decision, then care
Georgia Medicaid reviews the request. If services are approved, we work with you to begin care at home.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes nursing care at home different from care in a hospital?
The clinical work is still clinical work, but the setting changes everything around it. A child sleeps in their own bed, siblings are nearby, and the routine belongs to the family rather than to a unit. Care is built around one child and their plan of care instead of a schedule shared across many patients.
Do we have to stop being the ones who care for our child?
No. Parents stay the experts on their own child, and most families remain deeply involved in daily care. A nurse is there to support the clinical side and to share the load, not to take a family's place in it.
How is it decided what the nurse actually does each day?
Care follows the child's physician orders and written plan of care. That plan is developed with the child's medical team and is updated as the child's needs change, so what happens at home stays tied to what the physician has ordered.
What should we have ready when we first reach out?
Anything that describes your child's current medical picture helps — recent hospital or discharge paperwork, the name of the physician following your child, a list of medications and equipment, and any orders you already have. If you do not have all of it, that is fine; we can talk through what is missing.
Related guides and resources
- A Parent's Guide to Cerebral Palsy in Children
A lifelong difference in how the brain sends movement signals, affecting posture, balance and muscle tone.
- A Parent's Guide to Epilepsy & Seizure Disorders in Children
A tendency toward recurring seizures, which changes how a family plans sleep, safety and every ordinary outing.
- Your Guide to the Georgia Pediatric Program
What GAPP is, who it serves, how requests are reviewed, and how to start a conversation.
- The Parent Caregiver Pathway
What the parent caregiver route involves, and why it is not available to every family.
About this information
This page is general information for families, written in plain language by the WeLIVE Healthcare team. It is not medical advice and does not replace the judgment of your child’s physician, who knows your child. Always talk with your child’s care team about their specific needs.
Let's Build the Right Care Plan for Your Child.
Tell us a little about your child and our team will follow up to talk through what this care could look like at home.
Requesting a screening is not an application for Medicaid and does not determine eligibility.