[CVICURN2003]

Hi. I currently work in a CVICU. I have never worked anywhere else(four years) and I do love my job, but since I have never worked anywhere else I think I am at a point where I would like to try something different. A girl I worked with just went to a local HH agency and I am waiting for "reality" to set in to see how it really is for her. We all know that jobs are not nearly as great as they seem in the interview (in any profession). I have read the "days in the life" of a HH nurse and everyone varies so much. How can I make sure I am getting into a good agency? What questions should I ask? I have read about salary/per visit/per hour. Safety questions will be important to me also. Will I REALLY be able to schedule my day the way I need to? I need to be able to leave after the kids go to school/daycare (around 7) and be home by 1630 or so ( I can do paperwork after bedtime, but do I get paid for it?)? Will I make what I make in the hospital (29/hr but NO Benefits and always cancelled first). I love patient care and I really think I would enjoy it. Do you deal with alot of psyc pts? Are there any more sites I can look at for some more education on HH nursing.

Thanks for any help.

[cisco]

Each home health agency will vary on the pay scale and reimbursement for driving. If you're salaried, then no, you wouldn't get paid for the time it takes to do your paperwork at home after hours. If you're paid per visit it doesn't matter cause it's a flat rate for the type of visit no matter how long it takes.
and unfortunately you never know what goes on behind closed doors of any company until you actually work there.

I personally loved home health, it's one on one, lots of teaching and interacting with family. Occaisionally, you will get some noncompliant patients. If you are on-call and you will be, if you know you have to go into and unsafe neighborhood after dark, you can call for a police escort. If they can't escort you then you'll have to call your supervisor and request backup help...if they refuse then you'll have to state that you feel it's too risky. Hopefully most managers will work with those bad situations. I did rural home health and never had any of those types of problems that my urban friends ran into. You can always call some of the local companies and just talk to them letting them know that your interested in changing to home health. They'll be more than happy to fill you in on the basics. Good Luck.

[Cattitude]

And let me add to the above post... Depending on what state you live in there may be several type of HH programs as well. In NY we have CHHA and Long Term, big difference between the two. I do Long term, I have a steady caseload (my pt's don't change frequently) and I don't do on call ever. I also don't do weekends or holidays. I am salaried at $84,000 yr. that varies with exp. and education.
Do your research, ask about mileage, reimbursement for cell phone, tolls, ask how many visits per day is avg? Out of those visits how many are admissions, how many are revisits? Admissions are more work.
As far as scheduling, again each place is different, I have a great agency, we have a lot of freedom.
Good luck and ask more questions if you need to.