breaking into homecare

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Rehab.

I am a newer nurse with just under a year experience working as an RN at a SNF/LTC. The patient ratio is high and I have been feeling burned out lately, hence why I'm looking for another job. On most days about halfway through my shift I feel so overwhelmed that I consider quitting without another job to fall back on. That's how bad I've been feeling, so I'm looking for something new!

I LOVE working with the rehab population, and I love the teaching and wound care I get to do on a daily basis. I think home care would be a great field for me, but I'm wondering how to break into the field? There are many agencies in my area and I think I've tailored my resume to a home care position, but I want to put my best foot forward here. Any advice?

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

If you want to do Medicare intermittent visits (vs shift work), your best bet is to find out everything you can about OASIS. If you can afford to attend training classes on your own, I would highly recommend it, but they are expensive. If you want to learn more without spending a small fortune, visit the CMS.gov website and read everything you can. You can also visit the Medicare Learning Network and they even have a You Tube channel with educational videos. OASIS is the backbone of the Medicare home health industry and the more you know about it and can speak intelligently about it, the better you will look to a potential agency.

If you have relevant CEUs, such as Wound VAC ®, IV therapy, chemo certification, rehab certification, case management, etc, make sure that you have those available.

Use the Home Health Compare website to review the scores of agencies in your area. In my ever so humble opinion, the scores are really not that indicative of the care provided, but higher scores seems to correlate to more training provided to clinicians.

Best wishes!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Rehab.

Is OASIS similar to MDS? In the rehab I work at, we have to tailor our notes and assessments based on diagnoses, and certain things (that result in higher reimbursement) are important to include to ensure that we get the most money. I will definitely look into learning the OASIS system. I am a fast learner so I think I'll catch on quickly.

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OASIS is the Titanic, MDS is a rowboat.

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