Adding Another Nurse to a Home Health Team

[nathalia004]

I'm the administrator of a small home health care agency and I also see patients as the only full-time nurse. I'm in the process of looking for another nurse to hire on a per visit/contract basis and I want to be sure we're hiring someone with experience.

My mother started the agency a little over 25 years ago after she retiring from her job as a head nurse in the emergency department at a major hospital. We worked as a team for a very long time and have had other nurses come and work with us over the years. But the majority of them retired from other jobs and stopped working for us eventually to focus on other things. Our agency is also family-run. Two of my siblings handle the billing and financial part of the business and my niece runs the office.

We've always had difficulty hiring because my mother had very high expectations. And we also built up a reputation for being a care partner that physicians can rely on and can send their difficult patients to. I was very reluctant to hire anyone after my mom passed away a little over a year ago.

We did hire someone with the help of my brother and my niece last summer as a part-time nurse. She has done a good job so far and helped ease my patient load when I really needed the help. But I think we're getting ready to part ways. She needs more structure than we can provide and I need someone with more home care experience. I do have another nurse on board who has the experience I want. But she came to me through a referral and I don't want to overload her because she's just coming back from an illness.

I want to put out a job posting pro-actively so that we're not scrambling to find someone if my part-time nurse quits. My initial requirements:

5 years of experience in home care

BA/BS/BSN

Master's Degree Preferred

Comfortable with independent decision-making/Will call me when needed.

Willing to Work in a Team Environment

Has experience with Wound Care.

Any suggestions for what else I should add? I don't want to be too strict but at the same time, I don't want to end up with someone who doesn't have enough experience.

Thanks!

[caliotter3]

My only advice is to come up with a comprehensive list of interview questions and take a strong look at your gut feelings about the people that you interview.

[Haddoa]

Did I miss something? This is for a HH nurse to go do home visits? Masters preferred? Seriously? I was an ICU nurse at a high acuity regional hospital, I needed a change, a complete change and went into home health per visit nursing and I have thrived. I have an ADN. I am a smart, amazing, and experienced nurse. Maybe broaden your search instead of looking to narrow it more. I can almost guarantee you are missing out on some great prospects.

[nathalia004]

Did I miss something? This is for a HH nurse to go do home visits? Masters preferred? Seriously? I was an ICU nurse at a high acuity regional hospital, I needed a change, a complete change and went into home health per visit nursing and I have thrived. I have an ADN. I am a smart, amazing, and experienced nurse. Maybe broaden your search instead of looking to narrow it more. I can almost guarantee you are missing out on some great prospects.

I understand that degrees aren't everything. My mother became certified as a nurse and then went back to school to get her bachelor's and her masters while working in the ED. I did the same when I went to grad school. I will take experience over a degree any day. All I really want for a candidate is to:

• Be willing to work with myself and my team.
  
• To be able to care for patients according to their needs in the home.
  
• To call me when an issue arises with a patient before calling the physician.
  

I'm not getting these things from my current part-time nurse despite all of the attempts by me and my staff to reach out to her and be supportive. I don't want to make the same mistakes again with the next candidates I have come in.

[caliotter3]

Actually, there is no way to determine this until the person is on the job. Some people can talk up a deceptive storm to go with a pristine on paper resume, but once on the job, they show their true colors in time.

[Isabelle49]

5 years experience in Home Care is a bit much. Our State Regs require 1 year nursing experience to start home health, but that would be without home health experience. I would think 1 - 2 years hh experience should work and may give you a broader applicant base.

BA/BS/MSN is also way over the top. I don't know any MSN's that would want to do hh and I doubt you could meet salary requirements. Why not an AD or Diploma nurse. I'm a diploma nurse with 15 years home health experience. Diploma nurses train in the trenches, they see and do almost everything. In reality, there is only one licensing exam and no matte what you training is, everyone takes the same test and receives the same license. I wish you the best.

[rcar397]

Haddoa are you still working for Amedisys? (I saw that you did in a previous post). Would you mind contacting me to discuss your experience, good or bad, with them? I don't know if its allowed but my contact is rcar397 at outlook. I would really appreciate any feedback you may have! Thanks!