Starting new job on Monday - need advice.

Specialties Home Health

Published

hi y'all,

well, with over 30 years experience in nursing, i am going to start a new job in home health on monday. have no experience in this area and don't know anyone who works it either - so i'm turning to you guys with my questions.

what i'd like to know is any advice, warnings, stories - good or bad, or anything else it would be good to know as i enter uncharted territory. do you wear uniforms or street clothes? what should i expect? any tips or such would be most welcome.

thanks. :)

Weetzie,

Best of luck to you today. I have been in Home Health for 8 years now...management now but was in the field before. Your good days will come and go be it the weather or a difficult patient. Enjoy the great outdoors rain or shine, enjoy the time you can give to your patients, and enjoy the satisfaction you will receive when the patient and/or family/caregivers finally take posession of the case and understand how to nurture and meet the needs at HOME where life and love are most important.

diane,

thank you for the good wishes. sending best wishes along to you also, after your shoulder surgery today. god bless :)

suzy, thanks, the first day went beautifully! of course, be hard to have a rotten day watching osha videos and filling our forms, right?

woot! looking forward to tomorrow!

homern, thanks so much. right now i'm trying to get a grip on all the medicare regulations etc. so there is what seems like a mountain of stuff to read, but got a great hh book from amazon, and think that will be a big help as a refresher. it is wonderful for people to be able to be at home, rather than any facility, no matter how great, no?

Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

Gotta love those OSHA videos. :uhoh21:

Oops! sorry - double post.

Suzy,

the videos gotta be better than sitting there reading a very thick policy and procedures manual! :D That's what I did today. Been trying to prepare myself mentally for all the famous paperwork I've been hearing about, but what is scary is I can't even get the hang of the dang time cards - I mean, like there are 3 of them, with hours for everything under the sun, but only using abbreviations. What's GA again? as opposed to VA?? :rotfl:

Will go out with experienced nurse on perhaps Friday. Wheeeeee! off on a new adventure!

Thanks again to all of you for your answers, encouragement and good wishes. It really helps!

hi, just a sort of p.s. - after two weeks of orientation. i didn't know what to expect, but am so pleased at how much i am enjoying home health. wow! the ability to interact with patients on their own turf, actually getting to spend time with them!!!, the opportunity to help support their health care decisions, the autonomy and freedom, not to mention the possibility of encouraging natural health therapies (naturally with their pcp's approval) is so empowering. this just seem like what nursing is supposed to be all about.

the paperwork is indeed outrageous, and the only saving grace is that i get to do it at home, but the patients are sooo nice and i love the feeling of actually being able to make a difference in someone's life. and feeling that all that studying in nursing school had a purpose. woo hoo!!! i love it.

Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.
hi, just a sort of p.s. - after two weeks of orientation. i didn't know what to expect, but am so pleased at how much i am enjoying home health. wow! the ability to interact with patients on their own turf, actually getting to spend time with them!!!, the opportunity to help support their health care decisions, the autonomy and freedom, not to mention the possibility of encouraging natural health therapies (naturally with their pcp's approval) is so empowering. this just seem like what nursing is supposed to be all about.

the paperwork is indeed outrageous, and the only saving grace is that i get to do it at home, but the patients are sooo nice and i love the feeling of actually being able to make a difference in someone's life. and feeling that all that studying in nursing school had a purpose. woo hoo!!! i love it.

sweeeeeeeeeet !!! :D :d :D so happy for you !

i can hardly wait to begin ! :nurse:

my only fears are my lack of m/s skills... i have not used any in sooooooo long. and thourough head to toe assessments, etc. don't do those at dialysis either.. just lungsounds and checking for edema and the like.

but i have been brushing up on some of these things in my books and magazines, as well as here. ordered a few books at amazon and ebay at really good prices .. some just for hh, and a couple good rn facts checks, easy reference books small enough to carry with you. they have all the most pertinent info and referneces there, also include head to toe assessments, and the likes.

hey weetz... when you have to start an iv, do you then stay there until it's done? i can't imagine it being any other way. so how does that work then with "visit time"?

so many questions yet.....

i, too, know the paperwork will be a motherload, but as you say, i don't have a problem with doing it at home at my leisure.. in my jammies with a cup of hot chocolate, or in the summer out in the backyard on my swing... there's no rush, can get up and move around or do something else for awhile and come back to it. it will be very liberating.

i have been feeling very claustrophobic at work lately.. like the walls of our tiny unit are closing in on me. and like a hamster running a wheel. :rolleyes:

i just wanted to share with all of you that

:balloons: i gave my notice today !!!!! :balloons:

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee haw !!!

anywaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay... just thought i'd share !

two weeks from today.... last day !!!

jnette

omg! jnette!!! :w00t: :yeah: :flowersfo :yelclap: :cheers: :icon_hug: :kiss

i'm soooooo excited for you. obviously i haven't been keeping up on the 'morning thread' - will have to remedy that, so i don't continue to miss such gems as this.

must be kind of scary after spending the last 10 years in dialysis, but you are a natural home health nurse - so caring and compassionate, and you seem to always know just the right thing to say. all the technical stuff will come back to you, and brushing up with the books will help. i know it is helping me. just ordered another hh facts book - this one small enough to carry along with me. would be interested to know what books you got.

as far as the iv's - we only do blood draws for labwork. they use a butterfly needle and assure me 'it's a piece of cake' - yeah, sure - just wait till i have to do it. will be terrified. :eek:

the next two weeks will go flying by, and think it was a smart move to keep yourself in the system in dialysis. like you say, no point in burning bridges if you can help it.

keep me updated, o.k?? woo hoo!!!

Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

Sure will keep you updated, Weetz ! :)

And thanx for the encouragement and confidence.

The IVs and blood draws don't worry me a bit.. never have. I actually look forward to them. And we do IVs from what I hear.. abx. etc....why I was wondering about length of visit, etc.

It's the "other stuff"... things I might not recognize.. all the respiratory stuff, and differentiating between all the various dx. etc. So many new meds out there I'm not even familiar with.. so much of everything I don't know.... WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH !!! Am I scared? You BET !!! Am I excited? You BET !!! :D

Bu I'm going to be flopping around like a fish out of water for a long time ! :uhoh21:

Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

oooooops! about the books.. i got the following:

fast facts for nurses [paperback] by springhouse corporation; welsh,william

* nurses' guide to home health procedures [spiral-bound] by johnson, joyce young (amazon)

* mosby's home health nursing pocket consultant [spiral-bound] by como, n... (amazon)

* fast facts for nurses [paperback] by springhouse corporation; welsh,william (amazon... and dirt cheap in the "used" section! like new, and a $39.00 book for someridiculously low price like $12.00 or something!)

*home health assessment and careplanning by ma.....(ebay)

those are the ones i got. i like the smaller reference books, too, so i can carry them with me. i have a feeling i will be referring to them a lot !!! :eek: :rotfl:

* mosby's home health nursing pocket consultant [spiral-bound] by como, n... (amazon)

:) i just ordered this one from amazon a few days ago. small enough to carry with me!

just have this picture in my mind of a couple of fish flopping about out of water, both wearing home health rn name tags, and frantically thumbing through books. :rotfl: :rotfl:

Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.
:) I just ordered this one from Amazon a few days ago. Small enough to carry with me!

Just have this picture in my mind of a couple of fish flopping about out of water, both wearing Home Health RN name tags, and frantically thumbing through books. :rotfl: :rotfl:

Yep... that's us. Weetz ! :eek: Scary.

And here you're already talking about paperwork and forms and VOs and 485s... and to me it's all Greek, 'cuz I haven't the slightest idea what you guys are referring to.. so you're already WAY ahead of me!

I do want to create a good little "system" for myself.. like the binder, file caddy, etc. I'm one of those super organizers, but it will take me awhile to put one together.. gotta know what I need first. Heh.

Yeh.. I love those little pocket references ! :D

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