Acute care case management vs home health

[stormyday]

HELLO! Any hospital case management nurses who can compare to home health? I work for a large hospital in the home health department and have been offered a job full time in acute care case management. Home health has been ok but I'm really looking for a position where I can have a normal routine. I have worked in acute care for several years before going into home health and realized bedside nursing is not for me. Appreciate any thoughts on this!

[friendlylark]

Hello stormy day! I have worked in acute care case management on a med/tele unit. The things I liked about it are: (1) I worked very closely with the hospitalist physicians. I had all of their cell phone numbers, and I felt like a part of the team. (2) I felt like I supported the unit nurses in a professional way. They went to me for help with some of their toughest cases. I felt like a good resource for them and a leader on the unit.

Bad things -- (1) MEETINGS!!! With ADMINISTRATION! I didn't enjoy that. Boring and too much butt-kissing. Political. Not a fan. (2) The nurses on the unit would sometimes use me to get in the middle of difficult family situations. Super annoying. (3) The fact that when it's a problem to solve - it's YOUR problem ... for the duration! My case management director did NOT involve herself with patients or families. She was very much hands-off, so not a good resource for me in that regard. Tough cases were mine to solve. (4) Just the annoyingness of patients in general. LOL. Gaming the system, wasting people's time, etc ... (5) Administration - once again. A particular director for Utilization Review made things more difficult than they needed to be.

I have never worked home health - but I feel like home health would be less stressful overall. Acute care case management can be pretty stressful. And I felt like I had NO flexibility. Even getting a way for a doctor's appointment was a big issue. It was a tough gig.