Question for home health nurses

princessRN4 · Sep 2, 2000

I just left a full-time job in home care, actually today was my last day. I started at $23.00/hr. and worked 8hrs./day and 40hrs./week. The per diem nurses made $36.00 per visit and $45.00 per admission visit. It was a wonderful job, in the respect that I had a lot of autonomy. I made 4-6 visits per day. Somedays even less when the census was low. The good thing about being paid hourly versus per visit was that I got paid to sit in the office and do my paperwork when the patient census was down. The per diem nurses got paid more for the actual visit, per se, but they didn't get the hourly pay to do the paperwork (and there is LOTS of paperwork in home care)! Good luck with your new job!

Mijourney · Sep 2, 2000

Hi sunfire,

Are you new to home health? Have you compared salaries in other parts of your state or in your region? Is the $30/visit for FT employees with benefits? I have been in home health for a little while so pay comparison from me will not be helpful. In my neck of the woods, pay in home health varies according to the area being covered such as rural, urban, or suburban. Six to seven patients/day is about the norm for most of the agencies I'm familiar with. An admission usually means a reduction to four or five patients because of the admission paperwork. On call varies from agency to agency. I have worked in an agency where only FT staff was employed and the nurses take call and do prn visits after hours and on the w/e. The agency had another nurse designated to work w/e to do regular visits because of the volume of patients and/or visits. I have worked in another agency where FT and PT staff were employed and both would take call as well as do regular visits after hours and on w/e. This was done because the nurses were not getting enough visits during the regular work week. I have friends that work in an agency were there is designated w/e staff that do all the coordination of after hours calls and visits. $17 does seem a bit low, but what do the hospitals in your area normally start nurses at? If you're new to home health,

$17 may be the starting salary for that agency. In my area, most salaried home health nurses start off about $1-2 more than in the hospital. Curious again. If you're taking call every other weekend, does this mean that there are only two nurses in your agency taking call? Or is it simply that some of the nurses already employed there that are not taking calls on the w/e? Are the supervisors or someone in nursing administration readily accessible after hours? Will you get paid additionally for after hours calls and visits? If you think you are interested in this agency, you want to particularly look at how assignments are done, how after hours services are handled (this includes w/e), nurse backup, especially if something happens that you need immediate help with. You also want to look at their contingency plans for the holidays and bad weather days. In home health, pay and a fair client assignment is very important, but you also need to know how well your back is going to be covered, because as the previous poster wrote, this is an autonomous position. Best wishes.

[This message has been edited by Mijourney (edited September 02, 2000).]