home health gency is sending me out on my own...feeling a bit unprepared. advice?

[ceebeeRN]

I have a job assignment at a local home health agency and I really feel like its sink or swim. I was not naive and I wasnt expecting a grand 6 week orientation or anything but I did expect more than 1 hour!

I had to ASK for some kind of orientation even though the coordinator knew I was a new grad and that this was my first case with the agency! after I asked, they told me I could meet with the current nurse on the case to get a feel for what was going on. If i hadn't had enough foresight to request some kind of orientation, I would have just been going to my patient visit totally blindsided!

Luckily the family seems to be easy going and very helpful and they know Im new, so they step in to help. I just wish I was more prepared so I can look more competent in their eyes!

I know agencies aren't the best or the most instructive places for an inexperienced nurse to start but right now,you have to take what you can get. And I also suppose, I guessed they would put a bit more effort into prepping their employees.

I was just wondering if anyone has had similar experiences with home health agencies? or was your experience more positive? is this typical behavior for dealing with their employees, even those who are new grad nurses?

[caliotter3]

That is typical behavior, even from the agencies that are considered to be a "cut" above. I winged it on my own for the longest time in the beginning. My approach was this: I got as much of a verbal report as possible about the patient, (this was before I found an agency that would give the nurse a copy of the Plan of Care (485), then I looked up everything, just like I was still in school and the patient was my clinical patient. I took my backpack with as many references as I could stuff in there, drug book, peds book, the other references I had at the time, etc., depending on what I thought I might need (this was in the days before laptop computers). I also would try to camouflage my "newness" by asking how the family wanted things to be done. It is always a good idea to ask this anyway, because they usually like to be in charge of the show. You are getting them to explain things without having to go into a long discourse about how you just got your license last week. Then I just played it by ear. The more often I did things, the better I got at getting through it. Before you know it, a year will have gone by, and you will be feeling more comfortable and you will have a routine. It does get easier with time.