Live in student (ideally nursing student) for home care assistance in exchange of room and board.

Nursing students are entirely too busy for this. 100% of their time goes to their studies even if that means they can’t take care of all of their own needs. Nursing school is exceptionally hard, taxing and fast paced.

Also, why would you allow someone to gain legal residency at the address? Then they are your tenant and you would have to evict them.

Also, you want 24/7 care? You would need 3 people.

No, you cannot have a slave.

Students are still maturing and lack skills, knowledge and critical experience. My son's ex-GF came out of nursing school with a shocking lack of abilities and she was a graduate, plus she doesn't have common sense: an essential trait for a caregiver.

No, on every level. This isn't a solution. You'd be taking advantage of these kids and putting your LO in jeopardy.

Anyone who would take this kind of arrangement is nuts. Room and board plus a livable wage would be the right way to do this. A nursing student or college student would not have the time to attend to a senior citizen that needs 24/7 care and assistance. Of course there are always people foolish enough to take this type of arrangement and basically become indentured servants because they have no income and no way to escape should this situation become untenable for said care giver.

When DD went to nursing school, the LAST thing she had the time or inclination to do was care for an elder who requires 24/7 care, as you've said yourself! My dh and I were kind enough to allow her to move back into our home for the duration, in fact, so she could study and eat home cooked meals while wracking her brain to get thru the nursing school program. If she'd told me someone was offering her to do "home care assistance in exchange of room and board" I'd have thrown a FIT like she'd never seen before. Looking for free caregiving on an already stressed to the max nursing student is unconscionable, imo.

Such people get PAID a full salary in ADDITION to "free room and board"!

The only way I can see this work would be if the expectation for the student would be limited to a few hours per week in an adjunct position to family and agency caregivers, more of a warm body on site and companion than anything else.

If this student was my relative it would have my alarm bells ringing and I'd strongly discourage this arrangement, unless there are very clearly defined duties and hours of employment this can easily become a nightmare of indentured servitude and acrimonious exchanges between the employer and student. Your focus is of course going to be on your loved one and getting their needs met as affordably as possible, but in order to be successful you must look at it from the other side and make the arrangement a truly win win situation.

Check your Labor Laws. A Live-in receives a salary. Room and Board are perks to the job. They do not work 24/7. They are entitled to time off. Like any employee, they work 40 hrs a week. You as an employer must deduct payroll taxes, they are not self-employed. Yes, a contract would be a good thing.

My daughter went for her LPN. They took a 2 year course and put it down to 13 months, 5 days a week all day. When she went for her RN, it started out 4 days a week and her working 32 hrs on the weekend to support herself. Last semester was 5 days a week.

A full time student has little time when a full time job is added. Remember that a nursing student is not licensed. They also do not get to do hands on until they do clinicals which are 8 hour classes. So tell us how you expect time for care? You are looking for a slave who will have to halt studies.

I’ve heard of this working, but in very limited circumstances with minimal ‘care’ expectations.

Adelaide University attracts many Asian students, some being inexperienced late teenage girls from quite conservative homes. Families can be happy to think that they are boarding with an older person while they study, not going off the rails in the wicked West in a student hostel. ‘Care’ is usually cooking a few interesting evening meals and perhaps cleaning. More likely to be studying pharmacy or OT than nursing. It is usually self limiting, because the student goes home for the summer vacation and probably doesn’t go for the same arrangement the next year.

As Cwillie said, ‘a warm body on site and companionship’, very very limited care.