[michelle126]

Just a question for you gals. I currently work in LTC and am interested in working hospice pt. how do your agencies assign pts. Since my background is ltc Id be interested in getting more of these pts. Also, how long is/was the orientation process. Thands for any input.
Michelle

[Wren]

Michelle,

I think you will find different Hospice organizations have different "rules" for assigning any patients whether they are in a LTC facility or at home.
The hospice that I worked pretty much assigned us geographically. I covered a certain area and any LTC in my area was covered by me. That said, there was a huge amount of flexibility and some nurses really liked going to nursing homes and others hated it. It was not uncommon for one nurse to take a week or more and cover all of the LTC patients (if the areas were close enough).

I have heard that other hospice agencies (probably the larger ones) have designated nurses who cover all of the LTC patients. But I think most places you'd have a mix of patient types.

Lengths of orientation or training too will vary by agency. Some will put you to work the next day with little or no training (not a good system!) and others will require a much longer and clearly defined orientation. Those are great questions for your job interview though.

Good luck!

[aimeee]

We used to have one nurse covering all the facilities for a particular team but our nursing home/assisted living census has grown to the point where that is no longer feasible. We still have all the patients in a particular facility assigned to one nurse. We normally make our assignments based primarily on geographical proximity but patient load and personal strengths/experience factor in as well.