MumbaiWard boy, ward girl, sister, aaya, hospital bai — Mumbai has a dozen names for the person who looks after someone who can no longer look after themselves. They come down to two jobs: an attendant who lifts, bathes and feeds, and a qualified nurse who also does the clinical work. Healkin sends either one to your door.
Families ask for the title they met on the hospital ward, and the titles do not all mean the same thing. Here is what each one is asking for, and who we send for it.
On a hospital ward, the man who lifts and shifts the patient, wheels them to the OT and changes soiled bedding. Families ask for the same pair of hands at home, usually for someone who can no longer be moved by one person.
What we send: A male nurse attendant, trained in transfers, positioning and hygiene. Say you want a man when you book and we roster it that way.
The same work done by a woman. For a female patient most families want a woman, and for bathing and toileting nearly all of them do.
What we send: A female nurse attendant. For a female patient that is what we send unless you ask otherwise.
How most of India addresses a nurse. A family asking for a sister means the qualified one — dressings, injections, drips — not only the lifting and bathing.
What we send: A qualified nurse rather than an attendant. Wound dressings, catheters, Ryle's and PEG feeds, prescribed injections and IV lines are all this tier.
The woman who bathes, feeds, changes and sits with the patient — through the day, or right through the night.
What we send: A female attendant, on a single visit or on a 12- or 24-hour shift, depending on how much of the day is uncovered.
Usually meant as help with the hardest part of an illness to ask about — sponge baths, diapers, soiled sheets.
What we send: An attendant does all of that for the patient, and the linen around them. Cooking, house cleaning and family laundry are not work our staff take on, and we would rather say so before you book than after.
The person who stays with the patient so the family can sleep, go to work, or travel — turning them, watching them, and calling you when something changes.
What we send: An attendant on a 12- or 24-hour shift. Over a run of days we hold the same person across the block wherever the roster allows, because continuity matters more to an elderly patient than almost anything else.
The formal name for everything above. A General Duty Assistant is trained in transfers, hygiene, feeding and vitals, and works to a nurse's instructions.
What we send: This is the tier most home care actually needs, and the one our bedside visits are built around. It is also the cheaper of the two.
A nurse posted to your house instead of to a ward — after an operation, after a stroke, or for a patient on a tube feed, a catheter or oxygen.
What we send: A qualified nurse on a 12- or 24-hour shift, or on single visits where the clinical task is a short one.
This is the only distinction that changes what you pay, and the one most families get wrong in both directions.
Lifting, turning and transfers. Bathing, toileting and diaper changes. Feeding, including a Ryle's feed once a nurse has set it up. Medicine reminders, walking practice, and company for someone who is alone all day.
This is what most homes actually need, and the cheaper of the two.
Everything the attendant does, plus the clinical work a ward would do: wound and bedsore dressings, Ryle's and PEG feeds, catheter care, prescribed injections, IV lines, and watching a patient whose vitals are not yet steady.
Needed when something in the patient's normal day is clinical.
Single visits are priced and bookable here. For a 12- or 24-hour shift, or a block of days, message us and the Care Team quotes it on a callback.
Need someone through the day or overnight? Message us on WhatsApp with the patient's age, what they need help with, and the hours you want covered. We come back with a tier, a rate and a name.
Tell us the patient's day — how they move, how they eat, what has to be done to them and when. That is what decides attendant or nurse, not the job title.
We quote the visit or the shift, and say plainly if you have asked for the wrong tier. Nobody is sold a nurse for work an attendant does.
The person who arrives is background-checked and named to you in advance. Over a block of days we hold the same one wherever the roster allows.
You get a written handover at the end of every shift, and an office to ring if someone does not turn up.