Nursing Support Services
We provide in-home respite care and in-school support for parents and/or caregivers of children and youth with chronic, complex health conditions.
The Nursing Support Services (NSS) program supports children and youth in BC who require the knowledge, judgement and skill of a registered nurse for some aspects of their daily medical care needs. This may include those who:
- Have a tracheostomy
- Require a ventilator (including BiPAP and CPAP machines)
- Have a palliative diagnosis
- Need help with their diabetes care or tube meals at school
What we do:
- Provide scheduled in-home nursing respite care, so families or caregivers can have a break from providing their child or youth's day-to-day medical care
- Teach and support school staff to help children and youth perform their diabetes care or tube feeds, while helping the student to become independent in their own care
- Train school staff to perform medically ordered rescue interventions for students with seizures
Referral information
To access our programs, patients need a referral from the child or youth’s primary physician or nurse practitioner, who is licensed to practice in BC.
To request seizure rescue intervention training, the school must have a complete seizure action plan that has a prescription for seizure rescue intervention(s) from the student’s doctor or nurse practitioner.
For more details about the referral process, please visit our referral page.
Contact us
We offer services from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Families and care providers can contact us with questions about our services or how to make a referral.
Address:
Room 1A13
4500 Oak Street
Vancouver, BC
V6H 3N1
Phone: 236-427-9250
Fax: 604-708-2127
Email: nss@cw.bc.ca
Patient and family resources
The following links may be useful to patients and families who need to use NSS programming:
- Seizure Action Plan (PDF)
- School Checklist: Steps in training school staff to provide seizure rescue interventions in the school setting (PDF)
- LearningHub Module – Seizure Rescue Intervention for Non-Medical School Staff
- Diabetes technology supported by NSS in schools (PDF)
- Diabetes resources for families
- NSS Principles and Philosophy of Care for In-Home Respite Care Services (PDF)
- Youth transitioning to adult services can find further resources at Child Health BC
Additional resources
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Indigenous Health
We advocate for and provide support to Indigenous patients and families who are visiting the hospital.