Interview a home health nurse

hoolahan, ASN, RN · Oct 1, 2002

Hi Sandy.

The info you are asking is a lot to type up. You can get some of it from my web site http://www.geocities.com/vnarn_nj . I would suggest you check out a community nursing text from a local colllege library that has a nursing school (If you are in a distance program), or make a trip to your local VNA, call first for an interview. Good luck.

SandyB · Oct 1, 2002

I know it's alot to type but I wanted to try to get a nationwide view instead of just a nurse in my community. I'll ck out ur website and hope others will give in and type me up some info. It's not hard to find one nurses view...it's a bunch of ya I want.

Thanks

sunnygirl272 · Oct 1, 2002

'm in a BSN program and need to interview home health nurses. Here is the info I need from any and all of you: Types of clients you see. Coordination of patient care (who, how etc). The roles of other team members. How you handle patient education and document it.

Thanks!

i have been a nurse for over a decade, in home health for 5 yrs.

i see clients from ~13-104...payment source medicaid, medicare, private insurance, no fault, workers comp, indigent care.

we document all instruction...not documented=not done. wehave teaching guides for the major diagnoses, they are in need of updating. but they work ok..have a check off sheet in the back that the nurses and client/caregiver sign off, it goes in the chart upon discharge from agency. coordination of care in our agency is done by the case manager for the particular client, and also by the nurse on any particaulr day that something warrents a call to the md. physical therapy on occasion may call md if it is a pain control issue for example.

team members directly invomved in care of John Doe, a s/p hip replacement:

--case manager, always an RN

--other team nurse, lpn and rn that do visits

--physcial therapist (we contract out with our PTs...they are not direct employees of our agency.)

--HHA (home health aide) to assist with personal care first,then may assist with other things as time allows...

we also have

MSW (employees of our agency)

Occupational therapist(also contracted)

Dietician(contracted)

Speech therapist(contracted)

we have a home health aide coordinator who is repsonsible for scheduling th eHHA that are emeployed y our agency, adn for canvassing out for aide service from other agencies for clients of our agency.

we of course have clerical staff and supervisors also

we also have a PCA program through social services, it is for medicaid clients that are disabled (in one way or another) they get someone to come into help with erpsonal care, or errands, or cleaning. tehy are not maids, they are not to be used for like spring cleaning adn that typ eof thing....

we also have a home based hospice

and a long term home health care program...."nursing homes without walls" allows people to stay at home a little longer before needing to be placed....it is a joint program with dss...

hope i have helped rather than complicating things more...

melinda

renerian, BSN, RN · Oct 1, 2002

I would be glad to chat with you and I have been in home health 11 years. Seen alot of changes in that time. my email addy is [email protected]

renerian

SandyB · Oct 6, 2002

Thank you Sunnygirl272. I plan to use your answers and the website of you listed on your profile as part of my interview.

And renerian, thank you too...I finally send an email to you.

Anyone else out there from other states or even a HH nurse who sees kids wanna contribute?

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!

moyesrn · Oct 15, 2002

My first job out of nursing school was Home Care. Our payment sources were the same as the other nurse. Medicad, Medicare, privet pay, Insurance. We had forms for our teaching as well as assessments. It is all on one form. I had twins with failure to thrive. Also a child with cf that needed shots. Lots of RSV in the winter. We had case conference once a week with all the team members. PT., Nurses, Case managers, Social workers. Hospice was a large part of my job. I really feel that it is a good program to have. So many familys want the family member to be at home but not suffering. I really thought we accomplished this. I hope this helps

SandyB · Oct 16, 2002

Thanks moyesrn, now I have a good number of interviews to include in my paper due on Sat. Sounds like you do both home health and hospice work. I find I'm leaning toward just hospice....I'm sick of seeing wound care at every pts home!