Advice

GHGoonette, BSN, RN · Nov 23, 2010

Stress and pregnancy don't go well together...Take a long, hard look at your finances and work out how essential those benefits are.

Financial security and medical cover's important, but if you can earn enough to pay for your own medical insurance, why stay where you're unhappy?

mentalhealthRN · Nov 23, 2010

I say bag the job you hate! Life is too short to be miserable. Plus working in home health as a mom has great hours. I say go for the home health job and give notice at the LCT facility. However I would keep my eyes out for a position doing home care with benefits or talk to your employer about getting them. Is this a private duty job--thus no benefits? I would look for a home care agency so you can get benefits.

littlebit3 · Nov 23, 2010

I was in the same situation earlier this year - had been at the nursing home for a year (hated it for the same reasons), started working in home health and really liked it. I did end up quitting the nursing home job and worked home health full time. I was a lot happier and less stressed...but I did miss those benefits. The good thing is, you could do home health full-time while you looked for another full time job in an office/clinic that would offer benefits. I can honestly say there are too many other options for me than to ever go back to the nursing home! I'm glad I made that choice and don't regret it.

systoly · Nov 23, 2010

I left LTC under similar circumstances and have been doing home care exclusively for several years now. I usually work 4 12s and the extra money more than makes up for the decrease in benefits. My quality of life and my family life have never been this good. I get to take time off when I want to. While in LTC, I had lots of vacation which I could never take, because d/t staffing issues my requests were denied consistently, so what good is that? My suggestion is don't try to figure out whether you should stay in LTC, figure out how you can make home health work for you.

indigonurse · Nov 23, 2010

It sounds like the home health is less stress for you. The major draw back is if your patient gets sick and goes to the hospital, or passes away you could be in between cases and without $ for a while. If good health insurance is what is holding you back then you will need to look into all your options and weigh your decision. I worked in LTC when pregnant. Once I went off on maternity leave the employer stopped paying their share of cost and I had to go from paying like $35 per month to $300 per month. To avoid that I had to work up until the day before I delivered, had a C-section then was back to work in a week. Cause then I had to ad the baby onto the insurance.

kesr · Nov 23, 2010

I'm going to play devil's advocate - I am guessing most responders are women. As a generalization, women will sacrifice pay and benefits for a "happier" work envirnment. Most men will tough it out to provide for their families. But if you are carrying the family's insurance, you have an obligation to keep your family covered - you may not be sick, but you could get hit by a bus!

There is a reason jobs are called work - you and your husband need to work out the best arrangement for your family, and that may be a suckier job for a wile.

Alnitak7 · Nov 23, 2010

I was working in home health care when I was pregnant.

Speaking strictly for myself, it was not working.

I worked for people who had a blatent lack of concern for my safety and health. I was sent out to patients who

were on radiation therapy (known to be a threat to unborn babies)

I was also coerced to drive long-distnace through a snowstorm on poorly maintained roads to a client who did not expect me to come or need me under these dangerous circumstances. This was just so my agency could make money for themselves and not about the needs of the client.

I also had morning sickness while I was on my home-care job and this a threat to patient safetly.

The patient needs help immediately when they ask and I literally had to restrain myself from throwing up while I helped a vomiting patient. :uhoh21: There was no one available to help me with her.

There are hostile and abusive clients, families and co-workers in home health care as well as in the nursing home

and multiple anxiety producing situations.

Stress is a threat to unborn babies. You should research this.

Here is another thing, can you imagine if you had a misscarriage while you were working in home care, with no one around to help you?

I have heard of girls working up until they are ready to have the baby, but I think they are rare.

If I had it to do again, I would find a job much calmer than health care.

In the last part of my pregnancy, I arranged to stay home and usually had someone there with me for safety.

RevolutioN2013 · Nov 24, 2010

I am a pre-nursing student so I have no opinion on the nursing work side of this discussion. However, I administer the benefits for the company I work for so I do have some input on the insurance side. I would advise you to do several things. First, I think you need to break down the numbers. I know for my company we only pay 50% of the employee's premium and none of a spouse's premium. A single premium is $375 per month for health/dental/life bundled. That's $187.50 per month out of pocket times 12 months equalling $2250 for the year. However, our deductible is $2500 with 80/20 coinsurance. So you'll pay your $2250 in premiums, but you also will pay an additional $2500 on top of that before you receive any benefits and then you have 20% of services redeemed on top of that. So essentially you have a fixed cost of almost $5000 per year base before the insurance company pays anything. Then on a service costing $10,000 your portion is $2000. So you have your $2250 and then you pay in full for your first $2500 in services and then you pay $2000 for your next $10,000 in services. You're now up to $6250 for the year out of pocket for $12,500 in services. That's 50%. You see where I'm going with this... You need to look at your own situation and plans and talk with an independent insurance agent to see if there is a single plan that you could get that would be of use OR if you're not planning to get pregnant right away you might forego coverage. Also ask the agent whether or not the revised insurance laws define pregnancy as an allowed pre-existing condition and whether or not pregnancy office visits are defined as a preventive care visit. The laws changed this year and you need to know how those changes affect your existing coverage as well as any coverage you may consider buying. Good luck to you!