Apparently visiting hospice nurses have to visit even in the ice storms LOL

caliotter3 · Jan 21, 2012

This is why I would never attempt to live in a state with this kind of weather and expect to continue in home health/hospice. I found that kind of an attitude no matter what kind of job a person had. At best, people would be classified as "essential" versus "nonessential", and wait for the word during bad weather.

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Jan 21, 2012

We close and make visits for emergencies. ROutine visits are cancelled.

allnurses Guide · Jan 22, 2012

Well bless you for doing that! As a California girl who had to learn all about this wintertime unpleasantness I took a few spills even in my spiffy pink snow boots. I just kept forgetting about those unexpected ice skating rinks in my path. I never got used to ice. Either driving (we had a spinout going through Glenwood Canyon about 2 seconds after I politely suggested to DH that he might be going a little too fast) or walking. You can't see the damn stuff!

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Jan 22, 2012

As a lifer living in bad weather, I found It's Just like the hospital.....They need care even when it's bad outside. It stinks but it has to be done....I am glad you are safe:hug:

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Jan 22, 2012

Well, I have lived in mountain areas and snow didn't stop us. Now that I'm in a semi-arid climate, the same thing stopped us as stopped us there: ice. Ice is good for getting killed in.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Jan 22, 2012

My solution, wear Yak Trax:

f05500.003?$uslarge$

YakTrax 2 Pair of Snow and Ice WinterTrax with Security Strap - QVC.com

Our homecare was opwn with 10" snow last year. Bough new snowboots in preperation for this year. Saturday's 2in snow had icy crust...off to work today.

curiousauntie · Jan 22, 2012

Snow? No problem unless it is deeper than my truck's clearance! I actually love to drive in snow. Well, let me qualify that. I love to drive in the snow during the day. Not at night so much. I am usually the last one from our office still on the road during storms. But...driving on ice? NO WAY. I live in a very rural area and during storms the roads don't get salted/sanded until the roads in the more populated areas have been done.

We have never been told that we MUST be on the road. It is the nurses call. I did actually go home one day last year during a brutal snow storm as the roads were not treated yet and I was sliding all over the place. My problem has been that the streets in the resort towns in my area (South Jersey shore). Some of the towns are only about 25% full in the winter, so sidewalks aren't shoveled and the road crews seem to do one pass and leave big snow banks which hinders parking and makes me have to climb over the snow banks...dirty, icy snow banks. I try to keep a flat shovel and a snow shovel in my car to deal with the snow banks and the sidewalks of my patients.

No office person, be they the receptionist, or the administrator, should be telling a nurse who is alone in her car, driving on God only knows what road conditions, they MUST keep driving. Our office is in the city, with good roads and street crews. I usually am driving in very rural areas. That office person has no idea of what you may be dealing with. If you feel unsafe, you ARE unsafe...to yourself, your vehicle and to other people on the road.

caliotter3 · Jan 22, 2012

See it the same way as going into a bad neighborhood or to a case where you were threatened or otherwise felt unsafe. The agency will swear up and down in front of God Himself that they never pressured or required you to do something that was unsafe for you. In the end, it is you who is responsible for your safety. That is why I would make the decision beforehand not to continue to work in a field where I am "expected" to endanger myself for my clients. Now I would consider making the visits if they provided a professional driver with equipped vehicle to run me around. That I would probably be willing to do.

midlife_nurse · Jan 30, 2012

My office assures us that we have discretion in choosing whether a situation is safe- driving, home, neighborhood etc. As a crisis care nurse, however, I've been advised that if I'm in a home with a patient whose death is imminent, that I should be prepared to stay on if the next nurse can't get there. Not as private as in the hospital, when "code orange" meant that we'd be staying and sleeping on air mattresses, but just as vital for our patients and their families. I'm just glad that in TN, weather this bad is usually a one-day event!

SappyRN · Jan 31, 2012

We usually cancel routine visits when the roads are iced over. If we know the weather is likely to turn that bad we have the patients tucked in really good with extra portable O2 and meds. We also will have families call sheriffs dept for pronouncements if we are unable to get there.