HH Questions for Interested Nurse ...

Specialties Home Health

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I have 15 years of psych experience and some ER as well. I wanted to get into home health b/c I like the idea of being community based and getting out of the hospital setting. I had a few questions that perhaps some can answer:

Is it possible to do HH full time ... are there enough patients?

What is a relative pay range (per DAY) if you are willing to work 10 or 12 hour days?

Thanks for the tips.

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Full time can be had when doing extended care. If you want to do intermittent care, try to get a salaried position so that you don't have to worry about enough work, but be aware that there may be many uncompensated hours where you do documentation at home.

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Full time can be had when doing extended care. If you want to do intermittent care, try to get a salaried position so that you don't have to worry about enough work, but be aware that there may be many uncompensated hours where you do documentation at home.

How does intermittent care pay for an RN?

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

Your questions are very agency- and area-specific. Some more information about what kind of home health your wanting to get into and where you're located would garner much more information.

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I have 15 years of psych experience and some ER as well. I wanted to get into home health b/c I like the idea of being community based and getting out of the hospital setting. I had a few questions that perhaps some can answer:

Is it possible to do HH full time ... are there enough patients?

What is a relative pay range (per DAY) if you are willing to work 10 or 12 hour days?

Thanks for the tips.

I work for a hospital based home health agency in a larger community. There is definately a need for experienced committed nurses in home health, psych/mental health appears to be a plus. I work 10 hour shifts and expected to see the equivelent of 6-7 pt. a day weighted visits. Some agencies pay per visit, some are salaried, others pay per hour.

Fortunately, I am paid visit time, paperwork and admin time as well as time and mileage for travel. Sometimes I am short a visit to equal 10 hours and sometimes I work over 10 hours. Because we are hourly, no one works for free. Our wage scale is comparable to our sister hospital (we are union). I have friends who work for agencies who pay per visit and they have a much higher productivity requirement. (Her requirement is the same as mine and she works an 8 hour shift.)

There are great places to work with excellent compensation packages. You might have to shop around a little.

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Specializes in Home Care.

I have to say it is extremely challenging to train those employees who get hired on who are planning to still stayed employed elsewhere. Usually it takes a full time RN about 3-4 months to learn the basics.....10-14 months to fell comfortable. I usually double that for part-time hires and I dont hire anyone who cannot offer at least 3-4 full 8 hour days a week for training. 90 percent of my part time hires that hold another job usually quit. Those who stay usually have some experience in home health already.

There is an extreme amount of detail on home care that no one tells you about. A lot of people think its just clinical stuff but its not, There's medicare guidelines, hmo rules, OASIS documentation, laptop training etc etc etc.

Good luck.

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I have to say it is extremely challenging to train those employees who get hired on who are planning to still stayed employed elsewhere. Usually it takes a full time RN about 3-4 months to learn the basics.....10-14 months to fell comfortable. I usually double that for part-time hires and I dont hire anyone who cannot offer at least 3-4 full 8 hour days a week for training. 90 percent of my part time hires that hold another job usually quit. Those who stay usually have some experience in home health already.

There is an extreme amount of detail on home care that no one tells you about. A lot of people think its just clinical stuff but its not, There's medicare guidelines, hmo rules, OASIS documentation, laptop training etc etc etc.

Good luck.

Thanks for the detailed feedback. What kind of experience do you look for when hiring RNs?

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Specializes in Home Care.

Definitely I look at clinical skills. Do they know and feel comfortable and confident with the basics. With all the other stuff you'll be learning, most agencies will not be able to offer one-on-one training for basic catheter insertions, peripheral lab draws, picc line dressing changes, wound vacs. The more skills you've got down, the better.

Someone who is organized, good time management and yet, enough flexibility to adapt to scheduling changes and varying home environments and lots of travel (Up to 800 miles every 2 weeks). People that are too organized and too rigid don't survive very long in homecare.

Lastly, if you are thinking Home Care is "easier" its probably not going to be a good fit for you. There is a huge amount of detail.

If you can, ask the agencies you are interviewing if they can offer a day of observation. Our agency offers ride alongs where you can spend the day with an employee in the field before hiring on. Its not a super duper accurate representation of the life of a home care nurse, but it definitely offer you a mini look into a day in the life. I also encourage my staff to relay the good, bad and ugly about what its really like.

Good luck to you... Hope this helps a tad.... :)

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