Caregiver or Domestic Helper: What's the Difference?
A live-in helper, a trained caregiver, and a home nurse aren't the same thing. Here's what each is really for — and which tasks need a nurse.
homenurse.sgGeneral care information, not personal medical advice. Draft — pending clinical review.
Why the distinction matters
Families often use 'helper', 'caregiver' and 'nurse' interchangeably, but they're different roles with different training — and getting the wrong one for a task can be unsafe. The simplest way to see it: a helper supports daily life, a nurse handles clinical care, and a 'caregiver' sits somewhere in between depending on their training.
A domestic helper
A migrant domestic worker is hired on a Work Permit through the Ministry of Manpower, lives in, and supports the household and the person's daily life — meals, housekeeping, bathing, mobility, company. All-in (salary, levy, insurance, food) this is roughly S$800–1,200 a month. A helper can be trained in basic caregiving — the Caregivers Training Grant subsidises approved courses — but a helper is not a nurse.
A trained caregiver or home nurse
A trained caregiver comes in for skilled personal care, usually by the hour or visit rather than living in. A home nurse is registered with the Singapore Nursing Board and does the clinical work — wound care, catheters, injections, insulin, feeding tubes, monitoring after discharge. You bring them in for the task, without a live-in commitment; home nursing with us starts from S$55 a visit.
What a helper shouldn't be doing alone
This is the line that matters for safety. Clinical procedures — changing a catheter, packing a wound, giving insulin or injections, managing a feeding tube — should be done or supervised by a nurse, not left to a helper because they happen to be there. A helper can absolutely support that care day to day, and a nurse can train them on specific tasks, but the clinical responsibility belongs with the nurse.
Most families use a mix
The setup that works for a lot of families: a helper or family member for the daily living, and a home nurse dropping in for the clinical tasks — who can also teach the helper to manage the routine parts safely between visits. It keeps costs sensible without putting anyone in a role they aren't trained for.