med/surg to hospice..on-call position

[srleslie]

I am in acute care and suffice it to say for may reasons I am sick of it. I feel burned out. I've had exposure to hospice both in nursing homes and acute care, and I think I would enjoy the work. I am ready to make a change.

I will be interviewing for an on-call position which would be working every other week, on-call from 5pm to 8am and on weekends. The position would pay 21.41 an hour, with 80 hours paid for every week I'm on call. Does that sound reasonable? I think it would be a nice change of pace, and certainly easier on my body. I have several physical issues that working med/surg does not help.

My only concern would be being in NP school for the next 2.5 years and that working well with my clinicals. Any advice is welcome.

Thanks!

[softrbreeze]

That sounds doable. But do you mean 80 hours per 2 week pay period or 80 hrs per week? It has a lot to do with the patient census for the company and how much support the RN case managers have- but you may have nights where you get no sleep and fall into bed at 0800 exhausted only to be woken 2 hrs later by people knocking at your door, the neighbors dog barking, phone ringing, etc. That can get old fast. At the company I'm with now, that would be extremely rare but I've worked with a different company briefly where conditions in the day were drastically different (because of ridiculous rules and no support from administration) and so those on call had to pick up the slack and the phone hardly ever stopped ringing. I took call once a week there and it was exhausting and demoralizing.

[srleslie]

80 hours per two week pay period

[Mommy&RN, BSN, RN]

I do both acute med/surg and prn/on call hospice. I love both of them. The on call for hospice is my favorite though. There are nights I've been out for 8+ hours and nights I haven't left the house. I enjoy the problem solving.

[favthing, APRN]

I have experience in long-term care and sub-acute care settings, and have applied for an on-call position with hospice. It is every weekend from 8p Fri to 8a Mon with full-time pay. I am in a BSN program and hope to then enter a NP program. I wonder if this is a good move? What came of your experience?

[toomuchbaloney]

I have experience in long-term care and sub-acute care settings, and have applied for an on-call position with hospice. It is every weekend from 8p Fri to 8a Mon with full-time pay. I am in a BSN program and hope to then enter a NP program. I wonder if this is a good move? What came of your experience?

If this is a busy hospice you will get lots of practice with critical thinking and skills.

[TammyG]

I am not sure how you can work nights on-call and go to clinicals for NP school. This will make you miserable. Even one call at 2 am will keep you from getting decent sleep that night. Try a weekend-only job.

[gorgenurse]

I am currently an on call hospice nurse and in the past have had a position similar to yours. My only concern would be experience. Hospice is very different from med/surg. I had been a nurse for 8 years when I came into hospice with a varied background and started out with a detailed orientation and was a case manager for at least 6 months before moving into the on call position. One of the challenges for me was that in med/surg there is always another nurse to talk with, run things by, get advice from etc. In hospice and particularly on call you are it! And even with med/surg, ER, nursing home experience it was a big learning curve for me initially.