luckyladyore, are you doing private duty HH? That is a huge difference from visting nurse, but both are HH.
Paleobug, please read the Day in the Life of a HH nurse thread in this forum. You will get a better sense of the flow.
As for two of the myths you presented.
1. The pay is always less than the hospitals in every case I know of.
2.People DO breath down your neck, indeed! It is possible to be aggravated by phone and e-mail!! I went per diem after I kept getting harrassed to d/c long-term clients, some of whom we were doing med prefills for six years!! Now suddenly, I am supposed to find a CG to teach. Uh, why didn't we do that 6 years ago?? I refused, because it seemed arbitrary how they were picking and choosing clients to do this to.
Yes, there is incredible autonomy and freedom, but it isn't w/o it's stress, just like any other nursing job.
The downsides?
Roaches, Roaches, and Roaches (My personal fave), hot as hades in summer, driving in snow, gas prices, and of course the horrendous paperwork. You must be extremely efficient and organized. Scary places and dangerous hoods.
But, all that aside, it is still the nest nursing specialty that I have ever worked in.
I do think it is best to have some experience in the hospital first, a year in med-surg is best, but it is tough out there. It is possible to be a new grad and do HH, but you won't have had enough expereince to tune into your gut instincts yet, and since yu are alone out there, that is important. Of course another nurse or supervisor is simply a phone call away.
Don't think I am discouraging you, not at all, but I just don't want you to go into it and discover it isn't all a bed of roses. But it saved me from leaving nursing after I got burned out from hospital nursing for 17 years, and I enjoyed it. I still work an occas. weekend, but now I work in the quality dept of a managed care company. No roaches.
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