Back on the road

[Erclifton85]

I started my nursing career in home health and home hospice over 2 years ago. I was hired as a new grad (I guess I interview well) and then ended up getting employee of the year my first year of work. I was involved primarily with seeing hospice patients in facilities but also got my share of home health patients. It was a great experience as a new grad, although the autonomy at times can have you second guessing decisions.

After a year and a half on the job I decided to take a position on a med-surg floor to fluff my resume with that whole 1 year thing... I know it's helpful but is it necessary? I knew that I wouldn't love med-surg, but I saw it as a necessary thing that had to be done. I am planning on starting a family nurse practitioner program within the year and thought the experience would be helpful for that. Now fast forward 9 months. The home health agency I used to work at has given me a job offer I can't refuse and I am going back there full time and staying on at the hospital PRN (my hospital hours were only part time and bills need to get caught up).

I guess in all of that I just want to say, it's great to be back on the road. In a way I feel completely underworked in home health compared to the politics I had to deal with on the floor every night. In home health I'm not getting the dreaded staff meetings telling us how much more work we need to do for the same pay, I'm not reporting off to ****** morning nurses, I can spend as much time with my patients as I need to in order to get them situated... I feel like I am compensated fairly for what I actually do. That's something a hospital nurse can rarely if ever say. Plus as a hillbilly male nurse, I like to think of my job as being a trucker, out on the road, who gets to stop at grandma's house a few times a day...