Am I Allowed to Say "No?"

[dogsandchickens]

I am new to Home Health, but have been an RN for 10 years. I have been working for an agency for a little over four months, and I love it. At my particular agency, full time is considered 25 visits per week. Next week I will have 35 visits, at least. The office will call and text me, trying to get me to do SOC's/see more pts. Am I allowed to say no to them? Last week I did four SOC's, and have two on Tuesday next week alone. Not only that, they stretch my range, and some of my pts live over an hour away from one another. I am not sure how to approach this, because I do not want to upset the scheduler or my boss, both of whom I like.

[taggart84]

You could talk to your boss and tell them you are overwhelmed and what you are comfortable doing. Go from there.

[I<3H2O, BSN, RN]

Is 25 visits the minimum or the maximum? That should be your first question. Secondly, I would simply approach the scheduler and ask about how assignments are made. My previous scheduler didn't know the lay of the land well at all and would schedule us to run all over 3 counties and then we would revisit all three the next day and meet up with a different nurse in 2 different towns. LOL Deciding if you can say no or not needs to be a decision you make based on the determination of if the 25 visits are the minimum or the maximum.

[caliotter3]

I would also think it would be based on whether or not you are salaried or pay per visit. It seems to me that a pay per visit employee would have a little more leeway when it comes to saying no. Still, I would have the above mentioned discussions with both the scheduling coordinator and your boss. Work out something that is equally agreeable.