Are all hospices like this??

[RN4ustat, BSN, RN]

Last year I worked for a very small rural hospital based hospice. I loved the work I did but never had enough work to keep me busy. I was seeing 1 or 2 patients daily and using my PTO time to make up my regular hours. So, I was very excited when I became an RN case manager for a very large, well-known hospice company because I knew there would be enough work to keep me busy. We have been working short handed for so long that I'm beginning to feel very frustrated. I know that there has to be a happy medium somewhere so I would like a little input from other case managers regarding caseloads and on call before I make a decision to make a change. Thanks in advance!!

[doodlemom]

I think staffing is an issue that most hospices are dealing with. The hospice that I work for has a number of prn nurses that fill in for us so the case loads are not so bad. Most of our home care nurses have 12-13 patients maximum. We have hired quite a few nurses that came from big name national hospice companies and they like working with us much better. I think it really depends on where you work - the management is what makes it.