Does this sound right?

[erinp88]

Hi! I was very excited to be offered a new 'FLEX' position in home care. Great hours and wages. Since it is a flex position, they expect for me to submit a monthly availability calender. Then the days I put down for availability, they expect for me to drive into the office and see if they have any work for me to do. Sometimes they have too much staff, and send the flex person happen.

I can't live my life like that! I understand that resource positions quite often have the potential for occasional cancellations due to low census and no guarantee of hours. If there is a need for me to be scheduled, then schedule me! I'm not familiar with home care, so is it more difficult to plan ahead?

[nurseby07]

In my very limited experience, YES, it is really difficult to plan ahead, just like in the hospital. I have pts who go to the hospital, come out of the hospital, die, quit, need more care/less care.I can't even tell my own pt's when I'll be there next week. Why not take a full time job? It's the best, really.

[erinp88]

I'm in school, so full time is not an option at this time and this particular company has no 'status' positions available.

I've worked flex positions in the past, and never had a problem. I managed to do a flex position where I never had to do weekends and always had enough hours and sometimes more than enough. I used that money to "plan" in case I didn't get scheduled. To top it off, I never had to work weekends or holidays! Of course that was facility based , and not home care. So, maybe I was expecting too much from this flex position.

[HmarieD]

Home health schedules are constantly in flux and require a great deal of flexibility from the nurses. I don't understand, though, why you couldn't call in to the office to find out if you are needed instead of physically going there.