How often do you visit a nursing home?

[Allfurcoatandnoknickers]

Just wondering really. My mum is in a nursing home as an off site nhs patient for a few weeks until she is hopefully able to get moving again following a sprain to her ankle. She's 89 years old and is in good health apart from her mobility problems. Whilst in there she'll be given intensive physio. I've got two kids and am very busy at work. My OH works away a lot, and basically feel very stretched. I'd like to visit her every few days ideally, but feel sad if she has a day without visitors. Both me and my sister live about a 20 minute drive from the home.
What do other people do?

[Fixerupperz]

Can I just say that I work in a nursing home and seeing family members is so nice, sadly a lot of our clients dont get many visitors at all so it is lovely to see a nice family who do the best they can

[chubbylover78]

My ex mil was in a home for over 20 years as she wasn't able to look after herself. It was her decision to go into a home and she loved it. There was always someone to talk to and activities planned for the residents each day, some days she was toobusy to see us.
Call her on the days you can't visit, even if it's for a few minutes just to let her know you've not forgotten about her or altenate visiting days between yourself and your sister.
hope this helps :)

[Frontier]

Fixerupperz, what would you advise for people whose family member doesn't remember their visit?

When my Gran was in a nursing home, towards the end of her life, either I or my parents would drive 300 miles to visit every weekend. She had insisted she wanted to stay in her home town so friends could visit, but the reality was they were old and frail too (and diminishing in numbers).

Anyway, despite our efforts she would tell her friends often that her family never bothered with her because she genuinely (I think) didn't remember we'd been once we'd left.

We kept on because we felt we should rather than because of any great desire to go particularly as towards the end she got quite unpleasant to be around. Was it worth our while?

OP, a friend who's mother is in a nursing home about 20 mins from home has an arrangement to go one day a week, and her brother and sister go on other days each week, so mum has a visit approx. every other day.

[Allfurcoatandnoknickers]

Thanks so much for your replies. It really helps! Good idea to call on the days I don't go, I wasn't sure whether it was ok to do that, didn't want to be a pain!
Hoping it won't be too much of a long haul, but suspect it probably will be...