RN coders vs RN chart auditors

[shlbwm]

Hi,

I was wanting to know if has anyone experience with coding or chart auditing from home. I am looking into working from home. I have had 26 yrs of hospital nursing and looking to get away from bedside nursing due to health issues. I actually have looked into triage nursing from home my problem with that has been I graduated from Excelsior College in 2011 with an ADN and currently going for my RN to BSN online from a local college. My problem with the triage nurse thing is that I can't get a California License because of the Excelsior College. I can't even endorse from another state and I am told that the RN to BSN won't help me get one either since they go back to the original program you graduated from and took the NCLEX.( I wonder if I took the NCLEX again after finishing the BSN would that make a difference?) I'm guessing probably not. I have an adult child that is autistic and lives at home and requires someone to be here with her at all times, she is high functioning and doesn't need a baby sitter exactly just more or less someone here in the event of an emergency. My husband and I work opposite shifts and I have been on nights all these years and ready to get off those(definitely makes the body old and the health issues). I am really frustrated and just looking for something else and I know people that are coders, but are not RNs. They tell me that it was very difficult after they went to coding school to get jobs because they had no experience and I'm afraid this will be an issue as well. There is so much information out there and you don't know what school for coding and auditing to go to and you don't know which ones that are accredited with what you need(listen to them tell it they are all accredited.) The coders I talked to all went to AAPC for theirs which I called, but still worried about that no experience problem. Any advice, help would be greatly appreciated. I'm just venting. Maybe I need to go back to school for computers and forget about nursing.

[featherzRN, MSN]

I work as a CDS (clinical documentation specialist) and thankfully I found a hospital that would train me. So it's possible to do and you'll pick up some coding along the way. Look into ACDIS bootcamps! :)

However, at least where I am, you do need a valid in-state RN license which you aren't going to get if you have an excelsior ADN in California. (I am also an excelsior grad and I DO have a california license, but I got it well before the cutoff date). Check VA hospitals and see what they have to offer you - you can work with any state license there. :)