Am I nuts for leaving a job I love?

[coffeetalker]

I work in a 26 bed Inpatient Hospice, I have been here for 2.5 years, prior to that did Home Hospice for about 6 years. I left home hospice due to being on salary and my days consistently being 10-12 hours long. When I took the Inpt hospice position, I knew that flexing was an issue (at that time was about one flex every one to two months).....over the last several months, flexing has increased to generally one flex (12 hour shift) every two weeks. In addition, it seems like the number of truly skilled need patients is going down, while the number of nursing-home like patients is increasing. I really enjoy my co-workers and continue to love hospice. I have accepted a position on a Pulmonary/ Med-Surg Unit- but am really not excited about it. Last year, when the flexing was getting bad, I was able to help out Home Hospice (until they decided that they did not want to risk having to pay overtime even though they needed - and still need the help), I looked into helping Home Health but same scenario- don't want to run the risk of paying overtime. I don't want to have to spend my time off trying to find enough hours to make the mortgage payment. Any thoughts?

[nutella, MSN, RN]

What about working per diem or per visit for any other hospice agency if there are any in your area in addition to your job?

Working on a medsurg floor is very different from hospice/ home care.

Or look for another job with an agency that pays better / different position?

I do not think that I would be happy with a regular bedside job after working non traditional jobs including home palliative/home hospice and now hospital palliative care consult team. I did leave home care because management never stuck to the agreed upon amount of visits, which led to too much working hours per day.

[coffeetalker]

There's only one other hospice in my area and it's 45 minutes away (not acceptable commute for me). Unfortunately in my area, there are not a lot of home health agencies- (and because I briefly worked for one in the fall last year PRN)- I know that the pay is nowhere near what I'm making. I know that it will be different (as I use to work cardiac stepdown), but it will be a constant paycheck. There are not a lot of hospitals in my area, either and the closest other one is 32 miles away. There are a lot of SNF's, but again the pay is not acceptable. (recently had one of the facilities that I use to go to for home hospice talked to me about a charge nurse position, but the base pay was $7.50/ hr less than what I make now.

[coffeetalker]

(the new position is about 5 miles from my house)