[vitofly]

I'm hoping some of your amazing nurses can shed some light on how I might be able to help our local agency locate a nurse to care for my special son Spence. My son is 17 mos old and doesn't have a Trach however, he requires regular suction, breathing treatments, and feeding & meds via g-tube feeds.

Our current situation is as follows:

I'm active duty Air Force and our insurance Tricare Prime (Humana) has approved my son for Private Duty Nursing for 12 hours/day. Unfortunately every agency in the area went out of business and the sole remaining agency (Care IV) has for weeks now been unable to get any nurses to fill the vacancies they have. I've been told by the agency coordinator that we have better chances because my son doesn't have a trach & nurses prefer not to work with trach patients but she flat out told me it's hard to get nurses to work in my area because it's rural and away from the city (long drive).

My wife & I are u7p at all hours, round the clock caring for our son and honestly we haven't been out together since before he was born. My job has been on the line many times and I'm running out of ideas on how to get help caring for my son. We've come so far to finally get approved for the nursing to only find out that their's no nurses interested in working out here.

I'm hoping one of you nurses will read this and share it with a Central Arkansas nurse that might be looking for this line of work.

I appreciate any ideas or assistance.

Regards,

Jason

[caliotter3]

How rural are you? Is it possible that you could move to an area where there might be better prospects of finding a nurse willing to travel? I'm sorry to say that with gas prices the way they are, you are most likely going to have a hard time finding someone willing to drive very far away from where they live. You might also consider providing a sleeping room free of charge to a nurse who could then travel home on their days off. I've seen this arrangement work before.

[nurse hobbit]

Try posting this on the Arkansas Nurses forum, you might get more responses there.

Best of luck to you!

[vitofly]

Is their an Arkansas Nursing Forum in particular that is good or used more? We're only 30-40 minutes drive from downtown Little Rock so we're not really that far away. The Agency isn't exactly advertising very actively. The only ad I found so far was in the Lonoke Paper which most folks don't read since it's fee and usually end up in the tush before it's unwrapped.

[vitofly]

Disregard I see what you mean.

[ernurse2]

I am not sure where you are located, I live in Cabot and am an RN. I would like to get in touch with you and hear more.

[vitofly]

Ernurse:

I replied to your message in private - thank you so much for contacting me. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

[Thornbird]

I would suggest that you try the agencies in Little Rock. I don't live in Arkansas, but I do this kind of work. Here the agencies are located in the big cities but have cases all over the state. I live in a rural area an hour from the nearest city and get cases near home. Some agencies don't necessarily advertise or specialize in pediatrics but will take on the case, especially if they have nurses in the area.
That said, pediatric homecare is an area with a huge shortage. Parents never get the amount of help they really need. But, whatever you can get is at least a break. A good agency will run ads in newspapers and online to recruit a nurse for you. Ask about this before signing a contract with a new agency. In advertising they should stress the positives. Many nurses don't do this work because they assume the kids are terminally ill. This is not usually the case, so it pays to get the word out for your child.
I wish you all the best. I know from experience how difficult your situation is.