Home health SN Safety

FLArn · Nov 17, 2012

Locked car doors, GPS so I don't get lost especially in "bad areas", cell phone so I can call for help and stay in touch with my office. We call when we get to and leave each visit. And my gut...if it feels wrong, I don't get out of the car. I've called the patient's home to give them an ETA if a family member can't come out and walk me in, I can and will call for a police escort (in an extreme circumstance). We are not permitted to carry weapons although, I'm told you can do some close range damage with car keys and the earpieces of your glasses.

KountryPrincess · Nov 17, 2012

Lol.....this topic reminds me of when I used to take call and sometimes got called out in the middle of the night and never knew exactly what I was heading into. I always took my 110lb Rottweiler with me in the car.....just in case :)

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Nov 17, 2012

I work in a primarily urban area but also have patients in the suburbs. I can go from the ghetto directly to a multi-million dollar home. Basically, all I do is try to schedule my patients who live in the "bad" areas of town during daylight hours. I see the majority of my patients in the morning and do my office work in the afternoons but things do, of course, come up. I have one patient who lives in a bad neighborhood whose mother tells me "be safe" every time I leave his house. I've never felt unsafe there though since I'm usually there on a weekday morning. Even the one time when I went at night, I felt fine because I was parked directly in front of his house. I can actually say that I feel safer at this job then I did working late hours in the hospital and having to take public transportation home at 11:30pm and then walk 1/2 mile from the train station to my apartment.