I have been a hospice nurse for eight months now and my caseload just keeps rising and rising. I currently have 16 patients. All of my pts are hospice, my agency does not do home healthcare. We see pts four days a week and do patient care conferences one day per week. We are expected to see pts on meeting day, but since meetings and care planning takes up most of the day...only 1 or 2 pts can be seen that day. I am finding it hard to give these pts what they deserve. I used to see each pt 2-3 times per week, daily if the need was there. Now I see my stable pts once per week and everyone else 2 times per week. It just doesn't seem possible to give the families the emotional support they need when I have to get in and out of a visit within an hour so that I can squeeze in 7 pts in an 8 hour day. I love hospice care, but I am feeling burned out from the load of work. We also have a lot of on-call. I am on-call approximately 5 week days of the month (5p-8a...this is after working 8a-5p) and I am on call for three 12 hr shifts on weekends. Luckily our triage is good and I don't get called out that often...but having to put my own life on hold is getting old.
How many pts do you take care of? How many visits per day do you do? What is the maximum amount of pts that your agency can give you? What is your on-call like? Do you case manage as well as do the visits? Any input would be appreciated. I would like to see how my agency compares with others. I don't know if I am overworked or just not organized enough to keep up.
