Agency is going to hourly vs pay per visit

[CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN]

Just as the title says, my agency is going to an hourly model vs pay per visit. The corporate line is that this will allow nurses to "have a healthy work life balance" by us being paid hourly- 8 hours a day only with no overtime. Sounds great on paper but of course the daily production requirement for visits is not changing. So, if you look at the old pay scale and my new wage I will be working for 30+% less wages per week for the same/similar workload. The way corporate figured out the hourly wage is by years of experience so I'm going to get hosed. For example, last Saturday I cleared $420. This weekend I have the exact same number of visits and SOCs and will make (drum roll) $220 for the day.

I'm revamping my resume as we speak, and am really upset about it as I like my managers and coworkers and will hate to leave but dang, I can't give that kind of money away. Anybody else in home care on an hourly model?

[caliotter3]

I do hourly, but extended care. When I did visits, I got hosed there, and won't go back unless I have to. I was paying out money I wasn't earning in return, to put gas in the car to make the visits. Just can't see that.

[DemonWings]

Will they be picking up the extra 15.3 percent self employment tax if you go hourly? Or are you still considered independent?

I think sometimes hourly will work in your favor If you have long drive times between visits that's not considered part of your pay, but other than that it sounds pretty crappy.

[CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN]

I guess I will see how it goes

[Eleven011]

I worked home heath for 10 years (still do prn) and always worked hourly. It worked out great for me. We would come to the office at 8am. There would be 2-3 nurses each day and the DON. We would talk and divide up the days visits between us, and then go about out day. We had time to do the visits and chart and do whatever else we needed in the office. It the day was crazy, we could finish charting the next morning, maybe take one less visit or something. I would definately have made less money if I was per visit, some days we would only have 5-6 visits between us.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

There are pros and cons to both. Per visit is great when you have, say, 8 easy visits to do that only take 20 minutes each but it's not so great when you have fewer visits or when the visits are more complicated and you're with the patient for more than an hour, or when your visits are far away from each other and you sit in traffic for over an hour getting from one patient to the next. I'm salary and I think I make out better than I would if I was per visit.

[CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN]

Thanks for the replies, we are starting the new pay scale today and I am hopeful it'll work out.

[toomuchbaloney]

I preferred working hourly when I was in home health.

I appreciated getting paid for the time I was on the phone with providers or driving to my next appointment since I don't get to establish a visit fee which adequately compensates me for that lost time.