A voluntary health agency which provides nursing services in the home, including health supervision, education and counseling; bedside care; and the carrying out of physicians orders using nurses and other personnel such as home health aides who are specifically trained for specific tasks of personal bedside care. These agencies had their origin in the visiting or district nursing provided to sick poor in their homes by voluntary agencies, such as the New York City Mission, in the 1870s. The first visiting nurse associations were established in Buffalo, Boston and Philadelphia in 1886-87.
A private nonprofit organization with the purpose of providing skilled nursing care and other health care services, primarily in the home, on an hourly basis. Most VNAs are classified as home health agencies.