Plain-English · Bangalore
Home care terms,
explained simply.
Every term Indian families come across when arranging home care — from NG tubes and PEG to GNM nurses and TPAs — without the jargon.
Reviewed by Sister Mary George, B.Sc Nursing, Care DirectorLast updated May 2026
In one paragraph
59 terms, six categories — caregiver roles and credentials, care types, medical conditions, procedures and equipment, hospital and insurance, and family decision-making. All defined in plain English, reviewed by a B.Sc Nursing Care Director, with links to deeper pages where useful.
Category 01
Caregiver roles & credentials
Who does what at home, and what the qualifications actually mean.
- GNM (General Nursing & Midwifery)
- A 3-year diploma nursing qualification recognised across India. GNM nurses can administer injections, run IVs, dress wounds, and handle most clinical home-care tasks. The most common credential for home nurses in Bangalore.
- B.Sc Nursing
- A 4-year bachelor’s degree in nursing. More academically rigorous than GNM, with broader clinical exposure. Required for senior roles, ICU work, and supervisory positions.
- ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife)
- A 2-year diploma focused primarily on community and maternal health. ANMs typically support GNM nurses rather than handling complex clinical care alone.
- Trained attendant
- A non-nursing caregiver trained in safe physical patient handling — transfers, repositioning, pressure-sore prevention, hygiene for bedridden patients. Right for high-dependency cases that aren’t medically complex. Trained Attendant Services →
- Caretaker
- A general-purpose caregiver focused on daily living — hygiene, meals, mobility, medication reminders, companionship. Cannot perform medical procedures. Caretaker Services →
- Home nurse
- A licensed nurse (GNM or B.Sc) placed at the home to deliver clinical care — wound dressing, IV therapy, vitals, catheter management. Distinct from a caretaker. Home Nursing Services →
- BLS / CPR certified
- Basic Life Support / Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation training. A short certification covering chest compressions, airway management, and AED use. Standard for credible home nurses.
- Critical-care nurse
- A nurse with additional ICU-level training — ventilator handling, tracheostomy care, hemodynamic monitoring. The right level for very high-complexity home cases.
Also: Caregiver · Home aide
Category 02
Care types & arrangements
Different shapes of home care and what they actually deliver.
- Live-in care
- A caregiver lives at the home 24×7 with one weekly off-day and a daily 2-hour rest period. Family provides meals and a bed. Best for alone-living seniors and high-dependency situations. Live-in vs day-shift →
- Day shift / night shift
- A 12-hour caregiver shift either during the day or overnight. Lower cost than live-in when family covers the other half.
- Visit-based nursing
- A nurse visiting the home for specific clinical tasks (wound dressing, IV, port care) for 30–90 minutes, then leaving. Most cost-effective for stable patients with periodic clinical needs.
- Domiciliary hospitalisation
- An insurance-policy clause that lets you receive hospital-grade care at home if your condition would otherwise require admission. Most Indian health insurers offer it with conditions. Insurance & home care →
- Palliative care
- Care focused on comfort, symptom relief and quality of life when curing the underlying disease isn’t the goal. Can be delivered at any stage of a serious illness, not only end-of-life.
- Hospice care
- A specific subset of palliative care for patients with a terminal prognosis (typically months, not years). End-of-life focused.
- Respite care
- Short-term professional care that gives the family caregiver a break — a few hours, a weekend, or a planned holiday. Prevents burnout in long primary-carer situations.
- Step-down care
- Care delivered after acute hospital treatment but before full recovery. Bridges hospital and full independence. Most post-surgery and post-stroke home care is step-down.
- Convalescent care
- Recovery-stage care for patients past the acute phase. Less intense than step-down, focused on rebuilding strength and routine.
Category 03
Medical conditions & symptoms
Clinical terms that turn up in discharge summaries and consultant notes.
- Hemiplegia / hemiparesis
- Weakness (paresis) or paralysis (plegia) on one side of the body, typically after a stroke. Affects safe transfers, balance and walking — needs experienced caregiver handling. Stroke care →
- Aphasia
- Difficulty producing or understanding speech, often after a left-side stroke. The patient’s intelligence is intact — caregivers must adapt communication, not assume cognitive decline.
- Dysphagia
- Difficulty swallowing. Common after stroke, in advanced dementia, and in some cancers. Requires texture-modified food, upright posture during meals, and watching for aspiration.
- Aspiration
- Food, drink or saliva entering the lungs instead of the stomach. Causes aspiration pneumonia, a leading cause of death in dysphagia patients. Why upright feeding posture matters.
- Sundowning
- Late-afternoon and evening agitation, restlessness or paranoia in dementia patients. Managed with consistent lighting, calming routines and avoiding evening overstimulation. Dementia care →
- Pressure sore (decubitus ulcer / bedsore)
- Skin and tissue damage caused by sustained pressure, typically over bony areas in bedridden patients. Staged 1 (red, intact skin) to 4 (deep tissue / bone exposure). Prevented by 2-hourly repositioning. Bedridden care →
- Contracture
- Permanent shortening of muscle or tendon caused by lack of movement. Common in bedridden patients. Prevented by daily range-of-motion exercises.
- TIA (transient ischemic attack)
- A “mini-stroke” — stroke-like symptoms that resolve within 24 hours, usually within an hour. A warning sign that a major stroke may follow; treat as an emergency even if symptoms have passed.
- DVT (deep vein thrombosis)
- A blood clot in a deep leg vein, common after surgery or in bedridden patients. Sudden calf pain or swelling is a red flag — escalate to a doctor immediately.
- Sepsis
- A life-threatening infection-driven inflammatory response. Watch for: fever or low temperature, fast breathing, confusion, very low blood pressure. Requires hospital admission.
- Foot drop
- Inability to lift the front of the foot, causing it to drag during walking. Common after stroke or spinal injury. Splints and physiotherapy help.
- Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)
- A 3–15 score measuring consciousness, used after head injuries and strokes. 15 is fully alert, 8 or below is severe impairment. You may see it on discharge summaries.
Category 04
Procedures & equipment
The clinical equipment and procedures families encounter at home.
- NG tube (nasogastric)
- A thin tube passed through the nose into the stomach to deliver food, water and medication. Short-term solution (typically up to 4–6 weeks). Caregivers monitor the site; nurses change the tube.
- PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy)
- A feeding tube inserted directly through the abdominal wall into the stomach. Used when long-term feeding support is needed. Comfort and skin care around the site is daily caregiver work.
- Foley catheter
- A flexible tube inserted into the bladder to drain urine, held in place by a small balloon. Common after surgery, in bedridden patients, and in some neurological conditions. Bag emptying and hygiene are caregiver tasks; tube changes are nursing tasks.
- IV (intravenous) line
- A small tube inserted into a vein for delivering fluids, medication or nutrition directly into the bloodstream. IV insertion and management is a nursing-only task.
- PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter)
- A long IV line typically inserted in the upper arm, threaded into a large central vein. Used for weeks-to-months of IV therapy (chemotherapy, long-course antibiotics). Requires careful site care.
- Tracheostomy
- A surgical opening in the front of the neck creating a direct airway. Used when prolonged ventilation or airway support is needed. Trach care, suctioning and emergency response training are mandatory for caregivers.
- Suctioning
- Using a small machine to clear secretions from the airway, especially for tracheostomy and bedridden patients with weak cough. Trained-attendant or nursing skill, not general caretaker.
- BiPAP / CPAP
- Bi-level / Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines that support breathing, typically used overnight. Common for sleep apnea, COPD, and post-stroke breathing issues.
- Pulse oximeter (SpO₂)
- A small finger-clip device that measures blood oxygen saturation. Normal is 95–100%. Below 92% in a non-COPD patient is a flag.
- Pressure-relief mattress
- An alternating-pressure or foam mattress that redistributes weight to prevent pressure sores. Often essential for bedridden patients despite 2-hourly repositioning.
- Patient hoist / lift
- A mechanical or electric device for moving non-weight-bearing patients (between bed, wheelchair, commode). Reduces injury risk for both patient and caregiver.
- Hospital bed
- An adjustable bed with raised head/foot ends and side rails. Makes positioning, feeding, and care much easier for bedridden patients. Available for purchase or rent in Bangalore.
- Range-of-motion (ROM) exercises
- Gentle joint movements (active or passive) done daily to prevent contractures and maintain mobility. Caregivers do passive ROM 2–3 times daily for bedridden patients.
Category 05
Hospital & insurance terms
What you’ll see on discharge summaries, policy documents and TPA letters.
- Discharge summary
- The hospital’s formal document at discharge, listing diagnosis, treatment, current medication, follow-up plan, and warning signs. The single most important document for setting up home care. Hospital discharge care →
- Pre-authorisation
- Insurer approval obtained before a treatment or service starts. Required for cashless billing on hospital admission and most domiciliary hospitalisation claims.
- TPA (Third Party Administrator)
- A company that handles claim processing on behalf of an insurer — the body you actually communicate with for pre-auth, queries and reimbursement. MediAssist, Vidal Health, Health India are common Indian TPAs.
- Cashless billing
- A claim arrangement where the hospital or care provider bills the insurer directly, so the patient doesn’t pay out of pocket (subject to policy limits). Only works with empanelled providers.
- Reimbursement
- The patient pays first and submits documentation to the insurer for repayment, typically within 30–45 days. Used when the provider isn’t in the insurer’s network.
- IPD vs OPD
- Inpatient Department (admitted to hospital) vs Outpatient Department (consultation/treatment without admission). Most insurance plans cover IPD heavily and OPD lightly or not at all.
- HDU (High-Dependency Unit)
- A hospital ward between general care and ICU — for patients who need more monitoring than a regular ward but aren’t critical. Often where step-down care begins before discharge.
- Sum insured
- The maximum amount your health insurance policy pays in a year. Most home-care benefits are capped at a percentage of sum insured (typically 5–10%).
- Empanelled provider
- A hospital, nursing service or pharmacy that has a contractual cashless arrangement with an insurer or TPA. Always check this before assuming cashless billing will work.
Category 06
Family decisions & care planning
The terms that come up when families plan care together.
- Family caregiver
- An unpaid family member (spouse, adult child) acting as the primary carer. Often invisible in care plans but bearing the heaviest emotional load.
- Caregiver burnout
- Physical, emotional and mental exhaustion in long-term family caregivers. Signs include sleep changes, irritability, withdrawal, and resentment. Respite care is the standard intervention.
- Care plan
- A written document covering medication schedule, daily routine, warning signs, escalation contacts, and family preferences. We build one for every placement.
- Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
- Six fundamental tasks: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, eating. The standard framework for measuring whether someone can live independently.
- Instrumental ADLs (IADLs)
- Higher-order daily tasks: cooking, cleaning, finances, shopping, transportation, medication management. Decline in IADLs typically precedes decline in ADLs.
- Power of Attorney (medical)
- A legal document authorising another person to make medical decisions on the patient’s behalf if they become unable. Worth having before it’s urgently needed.
- Advance directive
- A document stating the patient’s wishes about future medical care — what treatments they would or wouldn’t want. Recognised in Indian medical practice though formal legal frameworks are still developing.
- NRI family
- A family with the patient in India and primary decision-makers abroad. Care coordination needs to be time-zone aware, with daily updates and clear escalation paths. NRI family care →
Don’t see a term? Tell us — we’ll add it. The glossary is reviewed and expanded every quarter by our Care Director.
Now that the words make sense,
let’s talk about your situation.
Tell us what you need. The terms above will help — but a 5-minute call with a care advisor will help more.