Advice needed..

toomuchbaloney · Sep 17, 2014

I just joined and after looking through many of the threads Home Health nursing appears to be really strenuous time wise.
So what are some of the strategies you use to get through the more time consuming activities or least fulfilling parts of the job?

I do my documentation during the visit thereby eliminating the need to work in the evenings or weekends.

caliotter3 · Sep 19, 2014

Keep up with the work as you go. My one time colleague would sit with a pile of documentation to be done that she did not turn in to her agencies until three or four days AFTER the due date for her paychecks. She bragged about being able to turn it in late and still get paid on time. But consider that she routinely did 15 or 16 visits each day! Too much. I suggested to her that she should do each day's documentation each day instead of waiting to do it all at one time and she insisted that she was comfortable with her method.

RunHeatherRun · Sep 20, 2014

I definitely do as much charting in the home (we use Homecare Homebase on tablets so I go through the physical assessment and interventions checkboxes in the home, then after I leave the home, I finish up my narrative note before I see the next patient. I schedule my day to allow for this time. I rarely take work home with me. When I am off work, I want to be off work not finishing up documentation. Sometimes I get busy and can't document between patients. On those days, I catch up when I can before the end of the work day. I usually schedule each patient an hour apart for revisits, giving me about 45 minutes in the home and another 15 of additional charting after the visit is over before I see the next one. If I know that it will be a longer visit or a long drive between patients, I schedule accordingly. For SOC, I schedule a two hour block of time, giving myself an hour with the patient (sometimes it's more or less, depending on the patient of course) and then an hour to finish up charting after I leave the home. This has worked well for me and I am never late on charting. The documentation is the thing every home health nurse grumbles about, but if you stay on top of it, it won't bog you down. Just remember, there are good days and bad days. Some days you will feel like you are on top of everything and some days you will feel like you are drowning, barely able to keep your head above water. If you schedule accordingly, you will also have time for your lunch break (again, there are bad days when I just shovel food in my mouth as fast as possible because I am behind or crunched for time). Another thing, I always give my patients a range of time that I will be there (between 9:30 and 10:00, for example), to give myself a little cushion.

**Elektra6, ASN, BSN, RN** · Sep 23, 2014

But consider that she routinely did 15 or 16 visits each day!

She must have made a lot of $$$$ ! :)

caliotter3 · Sep 23, 2014

She must have made a lot of $$$$ ! :)

But she admitted that a good deal of that money went to a heavy car maintenance program. She was putting on those miles!!