Already want to leave home health but don't know how to explain the WHY. Please help.

[baxt]

I am brand new to home health and I am having a really hard time with it. I have three years experience in tele/PCU and two of those years are as a multi-hospital float nurse. I loved floating but the 12 hour shifts were really getting to me physically and mentally, especially because I always worked night shift.

Well I transferred to home health within the same company and the disorganization/overwhelming patient loads are wearing me down. Orientation was MESSY! The nurse preceptor wanted me to just follow her and do all the physical work (take vitals, draw blood, assessments) while she refused to teach me the charting system (she was constantly flustered and rushing through everything, said we had no time to go over it, but that we will another day... every day). I stood up and had my preceptor changed, but I left orientation without ever being shown the protocol for admissions and discharges because for some inconvenient reason, no admits or discharges were scheduled during my orientation with any of my preceptors.

After orientation I had to come in to the office to learn on my own time from the supervisor who was also overwhelmed by their own patient load. I have also been put into bad situations where I show up to a patient who had orders changed, where the orders were faxed to the office but never uploaded to my computer system. I could not see them because the office uses a separate computer program and the field nurses do not have access to it.

The office will create half of a schedule for me the night before and then send me three more patients by 1000 the day of my shift. My job is salary, Monday to Friday and the hours are supposed to be 0800-1700, however every shift I work is truly 0800-2000 by the time I get done with calls and charting. It seems impossible to stay organized here and I am worried about losing my license. When I ask questions it feels more like I am in the way or inconveniencing people so I see this as the culture of the workplace since everyone seems frazzled all the time. I don't see these issues going away as I gain more experience.

How do I get out of this? I plan to leave ASAP but my company has a strict policy that says I have to stay for 6 months before I transfer to another department. So I can't go back to my float job.

I want to change companies but how do I explain this to a new employer? I love nursing, I love working with patients, but not when I am pressed for time like this. I didn't realize I was signing up for 60 hour weeks. I am looking into a few different job prospects, but when it comes time for the interview what am I supposed to say? Won't it look bad that I switched to home health and immediately left within one month? I want to be honest and tell them home health is not for me, but I also don't want to look like someone who job hops and who cannot be trusted to stay. How do I highlight my strengths without shining too much light on my weakness (transferring to home health and really disliking it)? Thank you nurses for reading! I look forward to your responses.

[caliotter3]

I would find some other "reason" to explain to a prospective employer. Schedule, distance to office, different emphasis (such as hospice, rather than plain visit hh). Anything that comes to mind. If they are astute, they will read between the lines. Just be resolute in your reason if they try to pry the lid open during your interview.

[BabyNurseNY]

I could have written this post myself. I tried transferring back into the hospital with the same company and even went on an interview but HR told me I couldn't take the job and had to wait until my 1 year mark. When I spoke to the interviewing manager I just told her I was leaving this job because it is just so different from working in the hospital, I realized I did not like working 9-5 and bringing work home with me and that home care is just not a good fit for me. She totally understood and offered me the job. I was so upset when I was later told I couldn't transfer. Good luck!

[Daisy4RN]

I had this same experience with Home Health. My orientation was bad, and way too much paperwork to ever be caught up on time. Are you sure that the policy is that strict where you are at now? If you are planning to leave anyway maybe you could try to find out if it is possible to go back to your float position (you never know), you got nothing to lose. If you do leave and go anywhere else (except home health) then I agree with the other posters, try to play if off lightly with "it just wasn't for me", they know that you didn't like it or you wouldn't be there.

[RNPA93]

This same exact situation happened to me! I went prn at my homehealth job. I tried to quit twice and she guilted me into staying prn. I finally worked up the courage to put in a "final two week notice." In my interview for my new job I said that I was trying to go PRN at the hospital and my manager told me I had to quit and apply for the PRN spot, which she actually did tell me, which apparently is not how that works lol. So I said I had to find a job in the mean time but really wanted back in the hospital. I am leaving the homehealth job off my resume. I'm also taking classes for my RN to BSN so I did and do actually have a reason for leaving the hospital, trying to go PRN in the first place. But yes homehealth was terrible. 60 to 80 hr work week, on call every weekend, which really means you have to go see the daily visits and do the weekend admissions. I drove probably a total of three hours a day. I would also get called everyday around 9 or 10 am and they would add patients, always in a different town. It was a terrible job. I feel like a weight is off my shoulders.