how long before home care

[allevi]

I have been an rn for 5 months, and lpn before that for 1 year. And a cna for many years. I have an interest in home care and am wondering how long one should be a nurse before entering the home care field?

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

Hi allevi,

I would ordinarily say a year. But, since you have already been a nurse, LPN, for a year prior, and probably have phlebotomy experience, and exp putting in foley's etc... I would say go for it.

The big diff in homecare as a RN is having to case manage. It is quite a task to see all your own cases and oversee others, while having to supervise the HHA'a (CNA's in Homecare), and can be quite overwhelming. If you feel you have good assessment skills, and are organized, I would say go for it.

Visit my web site for more info on starting out, click on the link below. Hope this goes through, the BB is extremely slow today!

__________________

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Check out hoolahan's web site, its great. I visit it periodically.

I would also suggest that you ask to shadow a nurse one day. There is 2X the documentaion in home care compared to the hospital-- figure 15 min paperwork for each 3O minutes spent in the home.

You should have enough experience to do revisits, but be leary of someone asking you to Case Manage patients...consider asking to do wound care for clients on the Weekends/evenings needing followup as a good way of getting your feet wet.