Joys of working Private Duty

Specialties Private Duty

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So I just read a thread about the "not so good things" about working in private duty. Im curious to hear about your joys/benefits of working in pd and what makes you stay in it?? (besides the obvious need $$ lol)

Specializes in Peds(PICU, NICU float), PDN, ICU.

The agency can claim safety hazard as much as they want. The most they can do is encourage the family to allow "house shoes" that are only used in the patients home. But it is a private home, so the family has the final say. If the agency pushes too hard, the family can leave and find an agency that is ok with socks in the home. Usually the agency will back off when the family chooses to threaten to leave the agency.

I agree it is a safety risk, but it is nice to work in socks!! If I feel uncomfortable performing a task without shoes I will ask the family if it is ok for that specific task.

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Specializes in Home Health (PDN), Camp Nursing.

I make my own schedule. No one ever forces me to work any place I don't want. I get to devote all my time to providing excelent, holistic care to my patent and their family, even if that means wearing many hats. I get to see patients that I didn't think would ever improve, learn to walk, get decanulation, and kick the ventilator habbet. I've seen exceedingly rare genetic conditions, and learned a lot. I got to go to summer camp, where all the children are ventilated, where the head of pulmonary at the local hospital, helped me wring my campers brief out after he was in the pool. Its also had its issues, oh god the bad times, they were bad, but overall I wouldn't trade the years I've spent doing Homecare/privet duty for anything, and I intend to keep doing it for quite a while.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
Be careful about the socks thing. My supervisor told one of my clients that she could not restrict us from wearing shoes because it is considered a safety hazard. So, I wore shoes when I knew the supervisor was coming to the house.

I've always found it so much easier to take your shoes off -- I work with kids/babies and am often on the floor with them. It's just much more comfortable.

My agency states that we should wear either scrubs or business casual with closed-toe shoes. We're also supposed to wear our name badge at all times. lol. Our nurse manager never comes into the home unless she's re-doing the once-yearly careplans. So I'm with this kiddo that I've been the primary on for four months. The nurse manager walks in and I almost pooped my pants. I'm wearing pajama pants and a tank-top. (Parents are super laid back and could care less -- they also didn't have A/C and it's about 90F in the house at any given time.) It's also my lunch time so I'm sitting on the couch with the baby on my lap, watching Lifetime Movie Network and eating potato chips. I mean...we'd been doing targeted OT/PT exercises for most of the morning. But the NM comes in right when I'm taking my twenty-minute 'lax time.

Anyway, everything was fine. NM was like "so has anything changed on her MAR?" Nope. "So...uh...I really just came over to play with the baby." We conspire to stuff the baby in our purses and take her to live with us because she's so damn cute. :>

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I've always found it so much easier to take your shoes off -- I work with kids/babies and am often on the floor with them. It's just much more comfortable.

My agency states that we should wear either scrubs or business casual with closed-toe shoes. We're also supposed to wear our name badge at all times. lol. Our nurse manager never comes into the home unless she's re-doing the once-yearly careplans. So I'm with this kiddo that I've been the primary on for four months. The nurse manager walks in and I almost pooped my pants. I'm wearing pajama pants and a tank-top. (Parents are super laid back and could care less -- they also didn't have A/C and it's about 90F in the house at any given time.) It's also my lunch time so I'm sitting on the couch with the baby on my lap, watching Lifetime Movie Network and eating potato chips. I mean...we'd been doing targeted OT/PT exercises for most of the morning. But the NM comes in right when I'm taking my twenty-minute 'lax time.

Anyway, everything was fine. NM was like "so has anything changed on her MAR?" Nope. "So...uh...I really just came over to play with the baby." We conspire to stuff the baby in our purses and take her to live with us because she's so damn cute. :>

This would not have been behavior of the nursing supervisor in my example. She exemplified the definition for, shall we say, thorough.

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Not to be a downer, but there are some things about home health that can be not so great. Examples: a nurse being deemed "favorite" by the client and then when it is your shift, you can not measure up. I thought home health was going to be my dream job and I have seen family members do a 180 in two seconds. It was an eye opener to me. I also have seen how some clients consider the home health nurse as their baby sitter.

On the positive side, I have met some great people and I do not get run ragged. But it is by no means a cream of the crop job.

At least for me anyway.

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