thinking of leaving floor and going to HomeHealth

caliotter3 · Mar 9, 2009

Many people have gone to home health to reduce their stress levels. Of course, there can be stress in home health if you are prone to worry or run into bad situations. Overall, though, the difference is remarkable. Your best bet, if you want to destress, is to ask for shift work, also called continuous care. Typically routine care with stable patients. You do one shift with one patient and produce one nurse's note. You can control your schedule. If you want to work only one shift a week or seven shifts with the same patient or three shifts, all with different patients, it is up to you. You work out your needs with the staffing coordinator and adjust as necessary. Suggest you go back in the home health forum and read some of the many threads that describe the job duties and you will get a picture of what to expect. Call around to the various agencies in your area and see what they have to offer in terms of available case work and pay/benefits. I am almost certain that you will be able to relax a bit and might be able to go back to enjoying nursing when you are able to accomplish quality care with your patients. Good luck and hope you enjoy hh should you decide to make the change.

Lorie P. · Mar 9, 2009

i have been hh/pdn for 1 year now and love it! the stress is almost "0", one pt, one nurse's notes. :yeah:

it does have it bad days, but nothing like med/surge in the hospital. the reasons you listed and more are what made me leave the hospital.

good luck in you new adventure!

rabbitgirrl · Mar 10, 2009

I had a colostomy patient and guess what....NO COLOSTOMY SUPPLIES. CBI patient and guess what.....NO CBI BAGS...A complete-care patient who was incontinent of B & B and NO CHUX!. I started out with 7 patients. I cant work like this.

Whoa! I am sorry that is happening to you; that is just plain wrong. I don't think it is med-surge that you hate, I think it is REALLY crappy management. Not all med-surge is like this. You might want to try another place.

You could try HH, it is less stress, unless you are asked to supervise (if you are an RN, this is definitely what you will be doing) If you supervise, that means signing off on nurses all over the city and betting your license that they did what they said they did. Also way less money.

You could do agency. The problem there is, the minute you leave, all the mistakes of the shift get blamed on you. This is only true for some facilities, and you will know which ones pretty quick. You can always refuse to work in a specific place. Also, there is usually a non-compete agreement, saying that you will not take a job at a place that you worked for the agency for a year after you worked there. The money is as good or better than med-surge in a hospital. It might be a good bridge until you find another job you like.

Best wishes for your happiness.

KNK2229 · Mar 10, 2009

I worked as an intake coordinator for a very busy home care agency and I can tell you that there IS going to be stress. Lots of it. Just in different form. Keeping up with not just your patient's condition, but also the paperwork that is intended to be turned in by a certain time by the agency. I can see why a lot of nurses would perhaps prefer the home health versus the hospital because the flexibility you get is priceless. However, just take into consideration the added on extra supervision by the head RN and the easier access of your patients being able to contact you.

caliotter3 · Mar 10, 2009

You don't have a disproportionate amount of added stress if you insist on a patient care job and not a nursing supervisor job. Your patients can't contact you unless it is through the agency. You are not allowed to give out your personal contact information to the patient and can be disciplined for doing so (although most nurses do this if they feel they can trust the patient/family to not abuse the privilege). Go back through the home health threads and you can see where a lot of issues dealing with hh have been discussed.

daisydoll · Mar 10, 2009

"i had a colostomy

patient and guess what....no colostomy supplies. cbi patient and guess what.....no cbi bags and pharmacy wouldnt bring any after being called 3 times. a complete-care patient who was incontinent of b & b and no chux!. i started out with 7 patients. i cant work like this."

wow this sounds like a place i used to work at lol! my friend did med surg for a while and hated it so much she almost left nursing. now she has a job in home health and loves it! she sets her own sched and goes at her own pace. she sees several patients a day. often she gets done early and goes shopping or something, and still gets paid for 40 hours! the pay is great, the benefits are good, and the sched is flexible. i say go for it you have nothing to lose!

chenoaspirit, ASN, RN · Mar 10, 2009

Thanks for the replies. I will definitely check out the HH section on here and see what HH nurses have to say. Im just soooooooo nervous!

ozoneranger · Mar 10, 2009

I loved HH, did it part time while working baylor weekends. Instead of throngs of drama seeking family members following you all over the place (I had one try to follow me into another patient room).

One patient, one family, eat lunch out, relax, country roads on sunny days. I loved it.

olli975 · Mar 10, 2009

I feel your pain. I had the other day a pt with a PICC and when her .9NS bag was done, I flushed her PICC, clamped it and went to get another bag and put it up right away... Guess what, no .9NS, no flushes, nothing... By the time I went to another unit and got .9NS, and a flush, I could not flush her PICC, had to call PICC RN, thank God she was able to flush it... I work PT though, less stress but also thinking about picking up a shift or two of Home Care... Good luck to you!!!

BradleyRN · Mar 10, 2009

All nurses should leave Med/Surg. Maybe then they would get the picture that we are getting screwed.:)