Can you tell me about your typical day as a home health nurse?

[Sterren, BSN, RN]

I've been doing inpatient nursing for 4 years but I'm seriously considering a move to home health. I love what I do but for family reasons I need something with more flexibility, and I have a friend who does home health and finds it to be amazingly flexible and rewarding. I have an interview coming up in a few weeks and I know that's the time to find out about this particular company's scheduling and hours. However, I know there are a lot of different options out there and would love to hear from people already doing this job, about what your typical day looks like. It seems impossible for home health to be LESS flexible than the 12 hour shifts I work now, but I also don't want to change jobs if I'm wrong in assuming this might be a better way for me to balance the needs of my family with my career.

Thanks so much!

[caliotter3]

Do a little reading in the home health forum.

[EarthChild1130]

I've been doing home health for almost a year now, after 7 years in hospital/clinic. My specialty is psychiatric nursing. My day starts a little later than I'd like because I have a hard time getting my patients moving before about 9 a.m...I see an average of 5 people a day. I call in to our office, check in with my scheduler, and make sure I don't have any admissions or evaluations (if I do, I have to go in and get the paperwork)...I pull my schedule onto my computer, and start calling folks...I spend about 45 minutes at each patient's house, on average and assuming there is no crisis...I'm usually finished with my last patient around 3 p.m. There are only 2 psych nurses so each of us takes turns spending one week at a time on-call for afterhours, and I've only been called MAYBE 5 times in 8 months, and I've never had to go out of the house on an afterhours call. My day is really flexible; for example, if I have to take time to go to something for my niece at school, I arrange the patient visits to accomodate that...same with doctor appointments, etc..I have found it to be flexible and pretty rewarding, because there is a huge push to manage psych patients in their homes to reduce hospital rates, and I have found that providing education and monitoring in the home has greatly reduced the times my patients are hospitalized, and they feel more empowered. I also like listening to my music and riding around town all day and not stuck inside. LOL Good luck whatever you decide!