Is this all there is?-revisited

Nurses New Nurse

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Specializes in oncology, trauma, home health.

At the risk of sounding really nerd-like I wanted to post about the change in my life since I posted "Is this all there is?" about 2 months ago. Background: I landed my dream job in a level-1 trauma center, made a lot of money and was so depressed I couldn't see straight.

After much soul-searching I made the jump to home health nursing. Believe me, I was scared to death. On a superficial level, I was proud of my position at this hospital, it was really cool to read the paper and see the patients I had cared for in the news, daily. On the very up & up level, I didn't care anymore. Oh great, I get to care for the drunk driver who hit the school bus, he's totally brain injured, on every tube you can imagine, restrained, fighting and constantly pooping everywhere. That is not fun every night, for 12 hours at a time. Not so cool. Some of my co-workers *loved* it. I was a negative slob who *hated* it.

So I got this job, paying me MORE than the hospital. I have been there one week. One week- 6 days. I work 8-4 M-F, YUCK, I would have thought before, but not so now.

I have NEVER EVER EVER in my life loved or even LIKED a job. Now at 37, for the first time ever I am in love with my job. That is so weird to admit. Of course I would rather be home, have money flow in the mailbox, but if I have to work, I scored bigtime.

I work with this awesome group of extremely smart nurses and staff. My day consists of going to the office at 8, reviewing my pt load, driving 20 miles to see 3-5 pts. These people are sick, wary of visitors, or grateful to have a visitor. The ones who are wary quickly warm up because nursing is such a trusted profession. I drive around in my car, teach and talk and teach. I review their meds, talk about their lives, play with their dogs, chart in my computer and get home in time for my kids. Tomorrow is Friday, no really, I never again have to say "Tomorrow is my Friday" on Tuesday and drive to work Friday night missing my family like crazy. Today at the gas station the girl at the cash register asked "Are you a nurse?" I looked down and said, "Thanks! Uhh, I mean, yes!" She asked "How do you like it, I want to be one so bad" And for the first time EVER I could say "I LOVE it, do it!"

Thanks for reading my long rant...I mean rave...

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Congratulations to you!!! There's nothing quite like finding your niche.....good luck in the future.:yeah:

What a great post. I hope I can find happiness in whichever nursing niche I choose. When reading so many negatives, something like this is a breath of fresh air.

Specializes in OBGYN, Neonatal.

Congrats! It is nice to find a good spot that you are happy with! I'm happy where I am now, some days more than others of course but at least at the end of the day I'm not crying! (I was before!).

I'm glad that you love your job, maybe once I get out of nursing school I can find that niche as well. Congrats!

Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

Thanks for the update. It's always interesting to hear how people are progressing, and especially nice when things work out so well. Congratulations!

First off, congrats! That's awesome! And thanks for sharing!

Do you think it was necessary to have the inpatient experience prior to working home health? I ask because I've always enjoyed teaching but it seemed that most nursing positions that involved a higher percentage of teaching (not just the quick and dirty that is all there is time for in acute care) generally required some previous experience and warned those without previous inpatient experience that they wouldn't be prepared to work "alone" in the field and wouldn't be able to adequately assess patients or deal with emergencies... or were they just trying to keep the good jobs to themselves? By the way, it sounds like you have a very reasonable case load. Do know how normal that is compared to other home health agencies?

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

AIN'T IT GREAT? What other career has so many choices?

As a 'dyed in the wool' critical care nurse, any patient not attached to monitors really creeps me out. :bugeyes:

A lot of my former ICU colleagues have made the move into Home Care & they love it also. My guess -- it appeals to the same type of personality but provides higher levels of patient interaction & more reasonable schedule. Good Grief, I even know someone who absolutely adores her job as a school nurse in a Middle School - how strange is that???

Nursing has so many different 'flavors' that everyone can find something to his or her taste.

To JJJoy

I too work in home health (about 8 years now) and love my job. Most HH agencies require at least a year of prior experience and there is a good reason for that. While there is a lot of talking and teaching going on there is also a lot of skilled care and complex tasking going on, and you will have no support staff immediately available to offer a second opinion or help in case something goes wrong (and things do go wrong sometimes). There is no way I could have done this job competently as a new grad, even after working three years on a med-surg unit I encountered new things in the home.

Most home health nurses don't want to "keep the good jobs to themselves", they would eagerly welcome talented nurse to their field. But we are realistic about the demands in home health and want patients to be well cared for. Get some hands on experience and then give home health a try. It's not for everyone, but when you like it you love it!

Specializes in oncology, trauma, home health.
To JJJoy

I too work in home health (about 8 years now) and love my job. Most HH agencies require at least a year of prior experience and there is a good reason for that. While there is a lot of talking and teaching going on there is also a lot of skilled care and complex tasking going on, and you will have no support staff immediately available to offer a second opinion or help in case something goes wrong (and things do go wrong sometimes). There is no way I could have done this job competently as a new grad, even after working three years on a med-surg unit I encountered new things in the home.

Most home health nurses don't want to "keep the good jobs to themselves", they would eagerly welcome talented nurse to their field. But we are realistic about the demands in home health and want patients to be well cared for. Get some hands on experience and then give home health a try. It's not for everyone, but when you like it you love it!

JJOY:

I was just going to say that we should put that question out there to the experienced home health nurses, and she answered it. It's interesting, my preceptor and I had this same discussion yesterday because a brand new grad was hired straight out of school over a year ago. Even though she is doing well, my preceptor was talking about how much you learn while in the trenches of acute care to apply to the home health patient. I must say that so far there has been a lot of intense wound care that I never got to really do in the hospital, yes we did wound care, but not this chronic stuff on every patient. I really am enjoying it. It is really interesting (and a lot of time grossly interesting) to see how people live. Today we went in and there was out patient, hooked up to O2, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Scarey.

Feel free to pm me if you want to.

Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

That's awesome for you! Let's go nurses...and kudos to knowing when the job was not a good fit for you....because, let's face it, sometimes that can go out and reflect in our care....Not saying that we don't care, but when the job isn't recharging and refreshing, it shows......

Good luck in your new role....

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