Home Care Program parent praises NurseNet as an easy way to find available nurses in your area

The search for in-home nurses can be exhausting for many families of loved ones with complex medical needs.

Home Care Program parent Shekia Wright understands this challenge.

She recently tried NurseNet to find available nurses for her 1-year-old son, Kaharri Pittman (pictured above). He has a tracheostomy and relies on a ventilator to breathe.

Shekia set up a NurseNet account and entered Kaharri’s nursing needs.

She quickly found two available matches from two different nursing agencies. Overall, she was impressed with how easy NurseNet is to use.

“It was easy to set up the account and easy to find available nurses,” Shekia said. “I would recommend NurseNet to any families looking for nursing.”

NurseNet is a new tool that makes it easier for families to find the in-home nursing care their child needs. We created NurseNet to be an online resource that connects families with available in-home nursing providers throughout Illinois.

Families can use NurseNet to share their nursing needs. Nursing agencies that are enrolled with the Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC) can see this information and contact families if they have available nurses who match the child’s care needs.

Nursing agencies can also use NurseNet to share information about where nurses are available.

This information can help families find suitable nursing care. It can also help nursing agencies identify opportunities to serve families.

How NurseNet Helps Families

• Easy Access: NurseNet is available 24/7, giving you the flexibility to search for nursing providers at your convenience.
• Comprehensive Listings: The tool includes a wide range of in-home nursing providers across the state, ensuring you have multiple options to choose from.
• Direct Connection: You can contact nursing providers directly through NurseNet, making the process of securing care for your child quicker and more straightforward.

How to Get Started

We encourage you to visit our NurseNet page and explore this new tool. There you’ll find guides and how-to videos to help you get started. 

If you have problems accessing NurseNet, please send an email to dsccexternalhelp@uic.edu.  

You can also talk to your DSCC Care Coordinator to help you get started. Your Care Coordinator can assist with the sign-up process during your next home visit.

We understand how important it is to have reliable, skilled nursing care for your child. We believe NurseNet will significantly improve your ability to find the support you need!

NurseNet helps Home Care Program families connect with nursing agencies to find available nurses in your area.

Finding in-home nurses can be challenging for many families caring for children and adults with complex medical needs.

We’ve created a new tool to help you find and connect with available nursing agencies in your area.

NurseNet aims to bridge the gap between Illinois families who need nursing and home health nursing agencies with available nurses. 

Families of individuals enrolled in the Home Care Program can use NurseNet to share their nursing needs. Nursing agencies that are enrolled with the Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC) can share information about where nurses are available. 

This information can help your family find suitable nursing care. It can also help nursing agencies identify opportunities to serve families. 

Anyone can use NurseNet to search for general nursing opportunities across the state. 

The search is set up for families and nursing agencies to find and share what they need easily. As a family enrolled in the Home Care Program, you can log in to NurseNet and enter your nursing needs. 

Nursing agencies can see this information and contact your family within NurseNet if they have a potential nursing opportunity in your area that matches your child’s care needs. You can also use NurseNet to see where nursing opportunities are available throughout Illinois. 

Nursing agencies enrolled with DSCC can log in to NurseNet and enter all areas of the state where they have nurses available. Nursing agencies can also see where families have nursing needs and connect with those families to provide nursing care.  

Visit the NurseNet page on our website to learn about how NurseNet can help both families and nursing agencies. You can also find helpful videos and guides on how to use NurseNet.

We understand the search for in-home nursing can be frustrating and overwhelming. That’s why we created this tool to help you share your nursing needs and connect with nursing agencies with available nurses.

We are excited to offer this tool to help provide nursing connections to our participant families enrolled in the Home Care Program!

A new licensure process for nursing agencies will help provide more options for children and adults in need of in-home nursing care

The nationwide nursing shortage has affected many Illinois families in need of in-home shift nursing care for their children with complex medical needs.

There is a constant demand for more in-home nursing care options in all parts of the state, both rural and urban.

The University of Illinois Chicago’s Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC) has partnered with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to help meet this need and give families more nursing care options.

DSCC worked with IDPH to change how our enrolled nursing agencies are licensed to serve Illinois counties. Nursing agencies can now be licensed to serve all of Illinois instead of only individual counties.

This change should make it easier for nursing agencies to serve more parts of the state.

Before this change, nursing agencies could only operate within their approved service county area. Nursing agencies had to request approval for each county they wanted to serve.

This process made it difficult for nursing agencies to expand coverage to areas in need. Our participants who receive in-home shift nursing through the Home Care Program could only receive services from nursing agencies licensed for their specific county.

Now all nursing agencies who are licensed and enrolled with DSCC in good standing may serve all Home Care participants in any part of the state.

This broader statewide approach to nursing agency licenses will offer more available nursing options to our participant families.

Please note that each nursing agency must decide if it wants to expand its service area to other parts of the state. This decision is based on nursing staff availability.

We are thankful for IDPH’s partnership to help meet this important need for our participants and their families!