Another "Should I Switch to Home Health" Post

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My Synopsis and My Question:

I work on a busy unit and have for 6 years. I am tired and want a change. I realize HH is also busy, but at least it's a change! I don't have a job offer yet but think my chances are good after 2 interviews. But I am nervous even thinking about change!!

I am tempted to just go for it. My big 'ol hospital isn't going anywhere and with 6 years of experience with them I think I'll be able to get back in somewhere if needed. My managers are awesome and fair and know I do a good job and would vouch for me.

How many people here love their home health positions? It seems like I see a lot of negative posts about HH, but people who love their jobs rarely go on the boards like this and tell everyone about it. It's more a place to vent.

I didn't want to hijack anyones thread! As you can see I'm pretty long winded. Here is the original super long post, I understand if you choose not to read it!

I currently work on a busy unit in a big 'ol hospital and have worked there for 6 years (since I graduated with my BSN). I like the people I work with, I make enough money. But lately the acuity has just been crushing and they've taken away 1/2 the aides and most of the ones left are from the float pool and can't handle the pace. I'm getting tired of managing 4 sick/needy patients on telemetry and at least 1 discharge and admit per day, usually 2 of each. Yesterday I was dealing with a patient bleeding post procedure and my phone was ringing off the hook and I was getting paged overhead to take people to the restroom (aides were all MIA) and find the phone for the lady down the hall--her phone was right in front of her by they way, I never leave a room without the call light, phone, water, etc within reach of the patient. We all have "buddies" assigned in the morning but they are equally slammed. That is one thing about the team on my unit--no one is ever just sitting on their butt while you are drowning. We continue to have good patient satisfaction scores, so you know the powers that be will start looking for more places to cut.

Anyway, I know a person who does HH and loves it. Her company is hiring and I got through the phone interview a week ago and a live interview with 2 managers today. Since my interview I've had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I think the interview went well and think I will be offered the job. I think it is a fine company. A social worker I trust says they are well respected (our hospital only sets up with them if the patient requests since the hospital has their own HH).

The knot in my gut is, I think, FEAR of change.

I am in the very fortunate situation of having a job that I like (even love at times) and I am not the only source of income for my family. I just feel like if I don't go soon I will work on this unit until I drop dead. I am tired of working every other weekend and tons of holidays. This job is one weekend every 4-5 weeks and 2 nights of call a month. It is open on holidays but you schedule yourself with your patients and they often decline care on holidays. I'd bring more money home but work more hours. Depending on my charting skills I realize that on the pay per visit plan they use I will probably/possibly end up making less per hour than my current $33/hr. And I've read horror stories of 80 hour weeks, mostly spend wrestling with paperwork, especially OASIS.

Thanks, Elle

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I have moved from an ICU/ER&trauma at a large urban hospital to home health and I could not love it more. It is so personal. It is a huge shift from acute care nursing to tertiary care with seniors but what a huge need! we need more clinically strong, autonomous nurses who can teach well and be creative to join home health. It is one of the few reasonable cost effective ways to safely care for people and keep them aging at home. before we know it we may actually show the powers that be (insurance companies and CMS) that not all home health companies/staff are lying thieves who are trying to commit medicare fraud. and that teaching someone to manage their own illness at home is the best option to save our aging population and to keep people home, happy and well. (And not in the hospital for every ache pain sneeze and medication issue!

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To the origal poster......I could have written your exact post....except I have been in the Cath lab for the past 15 years....my stomach also sank after my interview with bayada....probably because of the thought of "change" leaving a position that I could handle in my sleep to one where I don't know all the ins and outs yet.....bayada is letting me work per diem on my days off from the hospital to get a feel for it and make sure I like it before I go and quit my other "comfy" job and go full time.....i think I have enough nursing experience to be ok just per diem for a little while so I can learn the documentation and the flow of things to be able to handle a full time position without feeling totally over welmed ....good luck to you....keep us posted....i'd love to hear how it goes

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I keep telling myself that I don't have a job offer yet so I should not worry about this too much until they call or don't call me back...

I've been reading all I can find about home health nursing and I know a person who loves it, a person who hated it (but started over her head as a new grad) and a person that did it for 9 months and decided it was too much time away from her family.

So thanks for input, Vainglorius, and thanks for letting me know my sinking stomach has happened to others, shefrn1.

Anyone else love it? Hate it?

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I am switching to home health from a busy tele/medsurg floor where the ratio is 6:1 and they are also cutting all of our resource staff and making it harder and harder to be successful at the job without making any mistakes or completely floundering and staying until 830 at night to finish everything up. At the same time they are taking away our resource staff, they are also writing people up for incidental overtime and staying past your shift too often. I can feel the stress in your post and have had many days like that myself. I have been on this floor for 2 years, the whole of my nursing career and am completely burned out and done with hospital nursing at this point. I've considered moving to different units, but since I've floated all over the hospital now, I realize, it's about the same on every floor and some are worse. So, I applied at a whole bunch of home health agencies and got hired on to one and will be starting soon. I have talked to two people who moved to HH and love it, they told me all the realities of it, but it still sounds better than what I'm dealing with now. I've also heard of people who hate it (especially on here), but I'm willing to give it a try. I feel good about it and I hope it's what I'm expecting and nothing worse. Anyways, we should all keep in touch on our journey.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I'm starting a home health position in a little over a week, after 10 years at the bedside in Med/Surge, Psych, and LTC. I'm a bit nervous about such a huge change, but I'm also very excited. I've been trying to avoid allnurses, as I'm sure there are more negative HH posts than positive... I mean let's face it, the majority of people post when something is going wrong. HOWEVER my curiousity to read at least a few posts regarding HH nursing, has gotten the best of me.

Anyway, good luck to all of us who are starting this journey. =)

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My friend does HH nursing and she said it is only for nurses who don't mind having to do a lot of driving. She said she doesn't mind driving a lot but is concerned about the wear and tear done on her car from the constant driving.

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So I've decided IF I get offered the job I'll take it unless there is something awful about the company or the compensation that I find out. It's a pay per visit. I would bring home more money but work more hours and IF I manage to make it a 40 hour work week (instead of 50-60 battling charting) I'll make about $3 less/hour. I just want to to be on the same schedule as my husband and daughter!

I'll check in next week and let you know if I get called--Thanks for the support!

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Update:

When I interviewed a month ago I was called back with, "Well, we like you and would like to have you but now corporate says we don't need a full time nurse". The manager who called said she disagreed with corporate and had some meetings to try to argue for the position. So I figured that was that. Then about 10 days ago she called and said she thought she had a job if I was still interested and I said I was. Then Thursday she called and said she was going to call my references and today I got the offer! I'll start November 1st. And I'll be here looking for help shortly after!

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Congratulations on your new job!!!!!!:yeah: Hope everything will work out well for you in your new position.

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Specializes in Surgery Pre/Post.

I have a love/hate relationship with my job. I have a young toddler & a baby on the way & I am scared about how I will balance it all. I think most of the nurses at my agency feel the way I do. It is hard with a family & some personalities are just not made for the job. You must be disciplined and focused on getting your charting done right away or it will haunt you into the wee hours...weekends are dampened knowing there is charting waiting for me. Corrections come back to haunt you & the kicker there is...we are paid by visit, so all that time charting in your free time is literally...for free. I also wouldn't count in pts not wanting seen on holidays, some people have no family & to them-it is just another day. As you can tell, I personally struggle making it work for my family, but I also cover a large area and usually put at least 1100 miles on my car a pay period. I have been doing it for 15 months now & while I am still here, it isn't because I necessarily want to be. You may love it. I think it goes either way. I will say flexibility and pay is awesome! Good luck!

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Specializes in ER, Forensic Nurse, SANE.

I have a love hate with home health too. I love all my pts. I hate the paperwork/ computer. I work hourly, I know I could make more money in the hospital you must drive a good econh car. The miles build up quick. I drove 17k miles last year. Drove a Honda mini van. Gas hog. Now I drive a Prius and love it. It's the only way to go. 50 mpg. Good luck. Everything has its pros and cons. But definitly less stress and slow pace than hospitals.

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