[SuperStockRN]

I agree with the earlier posts that it is not a good idea to go into Home Health Agency work until you get some experience.

I would decide what kind of Home Health you are interested in - adult, child, infant, geriatric, critical care (ventilators), etc. Then I would go into that area for atleast a year. If I wanted to go into Pediatric Ventilated care, I would start on a general Peds floor, then work my way into a Peds ICU, then consider home care.

The earlier post was correct about having to pick up on suttlties (sp?) of the patients you are seeing. Although my primary specialty is ER and I am comfortable triaging and looking for those symptoms, I believe it would be even more difficult to pick up on those in someone's home where they might say they feel well when they aren't. At the ER, they atleast present believeing that perhaps something might be "off".

Don't get discouraged! It's difficult to be a new grad, new nurse and have others say that you shouldn't go right into exactly what you want to do... we just want you to be prepared and safe for yourself and your patients!

Hope this helps!

[caliotter3]

It depends on the individual agency whether or not they will hire someone without experience or not. Some will, some won't. I was hired by a home health agency while I was still in school (had a new LVN license). They hired me to work a specific case and I believe that hearing that I was on the verge of getting an RN license played a part in me getting hired. The home health agency where I did my home health clinical rotation while in school, told me they wouldn't hire me until I had at least a year of med surg experience. One of my school friends moved to another state after graduation and was hired by a staffing agency with no experience by telling them she had two years experience, as someone had advised her to do.

The only circumstances that I would advise someone new to go with a home health agency is if you are being hired for a specific case and they promise you a thorough and complete orientation to the case. Without a good orientation to working that specific case, you don't really have the background to be able to handle the many problems that can arise with home health, or staffing nursing homes and hospitals, for that matter.