Calling all HH Nurses, roll call

Specialties Home Health

Published

Hi, as a newly appointed moderator, I want to live this forum up a bit. I just resigned my position as a HH supervisor, to go back to the field.

I have been a nurse 20 years, 17 in critical care, mostly cardiac critical care, and the last 2.5 years in HH, or asthma disease management , which I also had to leave because I hated to be in a cube farm all day.

I still love HH, even though PPS is the pits, even though the OASIS would make good kindling for a massive bonfire, and even with all the rest of the paperwork, it is the most rewarding nursing I have ever done!!

PS, I went back to my former VNA who is now paying $30/hr, yes, you read that right, to work 3 out of 4 weekends. Since weekends work well for me, it's a good deal.

Let's hear from all the HH nurses out there. Out of all those registered members, there's got to be plenty of us on this BB!! :D

Specializes in psychiatric, home health.

I worked as a psych nurse for a VNA in NH , unfortunately for the psych population , state budget cuts and ignorant administration , services were limited. Mandates to teach pts to administer their own IMs, prepare their own med boxes, and monitor their own sx made me very frustrated. Am no longer doing home health, even though to me it was the most rewarding job I had ever done.

Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
I worked as a psych nurse for a VNA in NH , unfortunately for the psych population , state budget cuts and ignorant administration , services were limited. Mandates to teach pts to administer their own IMs, prepare their own med boxes, and monitor their own sx made me very frustrated. Am no longer doing home health, even though to me it was the most rewarding job I had ever done.

DON'T THROW IN THE TOWEL, YET!!!!

President-elect Barack Obama's platform included equal coverage for mental illness, and we need to see that he can do it. Write him, your representatives, sentator, etc. to tell them that it's costing lives and more money to reduce mental health home services. It costs far more Than necessary home visits for police, court, and hospitalization of individuals without their medications (and their cost for those, if/when they're unemployed for behavioral reasons). :bow:

Have your patients been referred from the court, self referred, insurance covered? We need to know more about this.

Thank you for your input.

Lois

I liv in Wa but work HH in Id.:D

Specializes in Med/Surg, OB, Home Health/Hospice.

I am a Home Health/Hospice Nurse in Rural Missouri. I may drive up to 130 miles a day deep into farmland. How beautiful the time is in between pts that I can spend praying for wisdom and knowledge to meet the next challenge as I walk through the door. I have fell in love a hundred times with people so old, that few take the time to know them under the wrinkles. I have been blessed with a close knit staff of nurses who welcomed me back to nursing after being home for 17 years raising children. They had patience and nurtured my skills back to life. I look forward to every day as a new challenge is met. I never have been so rewarded in any field as Home Health/Hospice Nursing. I am constantly learning and thriving to learn more! I am so grateful for this site!

Welcome! You have a wonderful spirit...please keep posting!:typing

Specializes in Med/Surg, OB, Home Health/Hospice.

Street Nursing...my 18 year old daughter does Christian Mission work in South Africa. When she got there last year, she called me and asked me to go to Walmart and buy her a year supply of sanitary pads due to the lack of them in SA. Then I saw the Stayfree ad that for every bag you buy they will sent a bag to SA for gals that have to miss school when menstrating because they have no pads. Well, that is just the tip of the lack of supplies. My daughter goes to the Townships (fancy name for deplorable slums) with a first year nursing student. They went to wash hair of children with diseased scalps. There is no running water in the homes, dirt floors and heaps of trash all over. There are community hydrants for water. The gals must go with men to be protected and can only go in a couple of blocks to be safe. They must get the children to trust them and have 1 translator. They wash the heads over 3 buckets. 1 to wet, 1 to wash, 1 to rinse, after hauling the cold water from the community hydrant. The children are crusted, filthy in dirt. Sores on the body are barely visible under the dirt. They wash the sores as best they can, use alcohol preps that were somehow scavanged out of the hospital and the young inexperienced nurse uses aloe gel on the sores. My daughter knows the neosporin I sent with her to SA will work far better on the sores than aloe. But her heart is heavy as she knows these people have no education of basic cleanliness and hand washing and as soon as the wound is cleansed, it will be recontaminated in the dump. So... remember Maria when you think YOU are having a BAD day. Forget the supplies back at the office? Praise God you HAVE them to go back and get! Knowing your work WILL make a difference today with your pt.

Anbody want to go to SA next year with me????? Now THAT is a CHALLENGE!!!

Hi guys! I'm an LVN in California and would like to do home health nursing. I just don't know where and how to start. I don't have much experience in acute care and just basically worked in different clinics for the past 2 years. Do I need to get certified in wound care or vent, trach care and does anyone know a school that provides this certification? Please, I need help. Thank you.

Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.

Call a School of Nursing in your area, preferably a State University to ask. Usually RNs are assigned to vents.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Developmental Disablities.

Hello I am a LVN with a home health agency and I love it. I have been a home health nurse for almost a year. I graduate and passed my boards. I applied @ nursing homes and hospitals and was told I needed more experience. This agency said they would hire me and train me so I am still with them. I am trying to get a part time job with a home health agency that works with peds. I want to do something a little different I been in geriatrics since I graduate high school before becoming a nurse I was a cna and loved it.:D

Hello, I have been working as a case manager in home health for about 5 years. The thing I love the most about it is the freedom and flexibility, the thing I hate about it is the volumes of charting you have to do. The job is also very interesting and I really find that there is NEVER a dull day! My background prior to home health was mainly in labor and delivery. My long term career goal is to become a nurse midwife and hopefully do home delivery, hence my desire to work in home health for the time being!

Specializes in Telemetry/CCU/Home Health.

My name is Jamie, I have been working in home health since Aug 08. It has taken awhile but I have to say that I LOVE my job! I love my patients (the vast majority of them that is) and have never felt quite so "necessary" in any other job that I have performed. I of course don't love the paper work but have developed a "system" with my paperwork so that it is not so painstaking. It is a small price to pay for the freedom and enjoyment of the work that I do.

Specializes in Mother-Baby; NICU stepdwn; Home Health.

hi! new to home health started about 4mos ago (nov 2008)...still learning something new daily. the patients are great one on one is wonderful and you get to teach! i love sponging of the years of experience of the nurses in my agency...i'm grateful that they are willing to let me join and train me... i'm in my second year of nursing and have sooo much to still learn (there always will be). i'm so grateful for the experienced nurses who are willing to teach and have the patience to share their shortcuts...this field is so differ from the hospital...they aren't trying to eat their young...praise god!

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