Questions regarding HH

oceanblue52 · Sep 9, 2016

1. I have received about a month of orientation and am starting my own cases. However, I have a supervisor to call and meet me in the field, and they still want to check me off on a few competencies (e.g. IVs). So technically still orienting but gradually being placed on my own.

2. There is a a TON to learn, and some days I don't feel like I am as good as I could be. But my patients have remained stable and I have a sense of what to look for if things start going down hill. I have learned to be comfortable with not knowing everything and calling other staff for concerns.

3. I see mainly routine visits. Have had a few re-certs and SOC. We do about 4-7 visits a day, SOC counts as 2 visits. Manageability depends on patient complexity and how far you are driving in between clients.

4. Not an LVN but they are very valuable in our organization :-)

NeuroRehabRN · Sep 11, 2016

1. We do an in-house orientation to go over HR stuff, then brain and spinal cord injuries and care related to TBI and SCI patients. Then the nurse goes to the patient's house and gets one to four days of training specifically with that client, depending on their needs (open airway, vent, etc). If they are an open airway or vent, the nurse is also required to go through a 4 hour class to learn how to manage vents.

2. I am the educator, so I don't go into the house (our field staff do the in house orientation), but I do follow up with the caregivers to make sure they feel competent to care for that client. If they do not, we provide additional days of orientation.

3. Our patients are usually long term and require 24/7 care, so our nurses usually work 12 hour shifts. Some of our nurses will do one or two visits a day with patients to do bowel programs, and maybe work an 8 hour shift with another patient.

4. See above.

Denali_25 · Sep 11, 2016

1. I am an RN and I only received two days of training out in the field.

2. The first month was really rough and I felt very overwhelmed. But after that I got used to things and I absolutely love my job now. I would have said that two days was not nearly enough except that my supervisor has been and continues to be very patient with me as I perfect my skills and processes. If she were a hard a** right off the bat I may have been bitter about receiving such little training.

3. I have the freedom to see as many or as few patients in a day as I want so long as I see all of "my patients" at some point in the week. I see and average of 8 patients per day and only three days a week. Of course that varies if I have an admission that day or if something out of the ordinary comes up.

ontnursec · Sep 12, 2016

1. As an home health RN/LVN how much orientation did you receive when you first started?

One month.

2. Did you feel competent with that much orientation? If not how long would you have wanted your orientation to be?

As a new grad, it was scary only having one month, but my organization is very supportive and I've done well.

2. As an RN how many patients would/do you see a day? Were they only start of care/discharges/readmit patients? Or would you also do routine visits?

I'm an RN in Canada so things are slightly different. In a day with only routine visits, I see from 9-12 patients a day. If I have start of care/readmit pts I might see 7-8 in a day (with admissions and routine visits together). I'm paid hourly and if a pts visit take me longer, I can give back other pts which will be seen by another nurse, and be paid for the time it took me to see the pt accordingly.