Age-old question... Should I leave the hospital for home care?

Specialties Home Health

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I know this is a personal decision but I am looking for input from nurses who have taken the leap of faith?

So I work on a psychiatric unit. It is just toxic and I am burnt out. Since our strike last winter, the hospital I work is getting worse all the time. Morale is at an all-time low. Are all facilities

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Wendy

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Times are slow in home health, both extended care and intermittent visits. I would consider part time work in hh to supplement my hospital job, but not to replace it, unless, of course........ And the problem with of course is that it might change in six weeks or six months.

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What does senora T say? Ha, ha! This is why I don't use my phone to post. I hate spell check.

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Seniority! Haha!

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Wendy

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Voice texting?

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Wendy

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Oh, well! It could have been worse! Heard that Senora T is a hard one to please!

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What part of the country are you in Calliotter? Actually the census has been low in the hospital where I work ......I was under the impression that homecare was the wave of the future because of shorter hospital stays and that employment options were excellent in this field. Thoughts? I guess my main concern is whether or not I would like home care. And if the stress levels were less? Have you done homecare? I think I've seen your posts and you are doing extended Homecare, correct? 

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Wendy

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The other thing is the company that I am looking to work for does not offer part time employment. I do need to carry benefits for my family. So basically I would take a full-time position and supplement with Perdiem at the hospital. That would be my plan

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Wendy

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Caliotter is from Cali fornia. In spite of the propaganda, home health work has declined in my area of SoCal. What there is available, gets sucked up fast by the neverending churned out new nursing grads from the proprietary nursing schools you find on every corner.

That is for extended care. Things do not fare much better for intermittent visit home health, where RNs are supposed to be preferred. A lot of those positions now go to per diem LVNs. They are cheaper to pay. Obamacare has something to do with this. Also, part of the problem is that there are well more than 1100 home health agencies in the LA area alone. Too many agencies, too many out of work nurses, for decreasing numbers of client visits/cases. When I approach hh agencies looking for work, I get told they have no work. Six years ago, I could get hired by two agencies in one day and have overtime work for the following day.

That is why nurses in this general area that have hospital positions, think twice before they walk away from them.

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Si.

Can you do both? Per diem one of the jobs until you see what you like?

I'm SORRY I gave up the hospital. I miss sticking things into patients. I miss bedside. I miss other nurses. And I feel that all the reading in the world won't keep up my skills.

Then again, homecare will still allow you some of that. There's tons of teaching and patients on homecare are so much more medically fragile than they were 10 years ago when I did it. Homecare pay here is comparable to hospital pay.

I took a HUGE salary cut to be a school nurse. And yea, the money really does count, as much as we don't want it to.

I miss that too.

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I Have been working home care for a long time. I use to be a Medical Assistant then moved to Certified nurse Assistant. I am really trying to get in the hospital. Personally becoming a HHA I have lost a lot of my termanology because where I work we are mostly treated as MAIDs. But I love and work for our participant's. Here we have no boss , but everyone want to be a boss type thing. I say pray on it and let The Lord guide you. He has a purpose and plan for you. Plus you know it take a special person to put up with all that we do. So i give you the pat on the back , applause and good job your not getting from The Big Bosses. We are in the same boat. Think of it as working for the Lord for He will give you your big bonus for your good deeds. Best wishes!

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I'm in St. Louis and just made the switch from hospital to HH for multiple reasons and I'm loving it so far. The money is surprisingly comparable here. I'm starting out prn and am also in the process of getting signed up with an agency to do some local agency in the hospital to keep up my skills. HH is a HUGE change and there's definitely a learning curve along with tons of glorious freedom :sarcastic: Before I made the switch I did a ton of research and read through every post I could here in the HH forum....very helpful.

Good luck!

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