charting!!!! I am about to leave home health...

Haddoa · Nov 20, 2016

I have also been in home health for a year and am leaving for the same reason. Along with call, weekends, and holidays. I looooove the job but there is no home life balance. Instead of going to the hospital cause no, I am staying with my current company that I love and going into business development. It will be very different not being with Pts in such a nursing role but you still get to talk with Pts and it is straight business hours. I transition out of the field in two weeks and can not hardly wait!!!!

caliotter3 · Nov 20, 2016

Have you considered trying extended care home health, for your present agency or perhaps another agency? On a typical 8 or 12 hour shift, your basic charting is done on shift. Rarely is there any follow-up at other times unless you choose to, say, call a doctor during the day if you work at nights. Besides that, you don't have the wear and tear on your car (and you) from driving all over to contend with on a daily basis.

principessaGG, BSN · Nov 20, 2016

I am not sure I know what that is?

principessaGG, BSN · Nov 20, 2016

good for you....I wish I had the opportunity...I have expressed an interest from the beginning to my MCP but I don't think it exists in my case. I have not read a book, shopped or anything. I feel like I have lost control of my life...terrible. Good luck to you!

Libby1987 · Nov 20, 2016

You should be able to chart at point of service and not be charting into the night. Is the issue really that too many visits are expected and/or the drive time is excessive?

Also, one year is not enough to become optimally efficient.

principessaGG, BSN · Nov 21, 2016

I am now doing admission,...I find it hard to do Oasis charting in the home with the client. Oasis is very involved and would be awkward . Dont you agree?

caliotter3 · Nov 21, 2016

Nurses learn to become efficient at doing the OASIS charting (or a good deal of it) in the home during the visit. If you can't become proficient at this to your standards, then you might want to consider which change will be most beneficial to you.

Libby1987 · Nov 21, 2016

I am now doing admission,...I find it hard to do Oasis charting in the home with the client. Oasis is very involved and would be awkward . Dont you agree?

To clarify, we consider point of service anywhere before the next visit. I had a couple of coffee shops that I'd go to to finish admission charting. Or I would do everything but the admission charting at point of service and delay the admission charting until after my visits were completed, but I scheduled that time into my daily routine.

That is not to dismiss the sheer volume of charting required in HH but there are ways to better manage all of your time in HH and it does take years of experience to master all of it. Someone with a lot of HH knowledge and experience as well as being very familiar with their service area and resources with many contacts and relationships is going to be much more efficient than someone in their first couple of years. You have to be willing to stick with it and continue to grow in your knowledge of the field. I was always in a state of trying to do things better. I got over the hump a few years in and worked the last several years without much stress. And I made a respectable full time wage working 40 hrs/week, not 50 or 60.

allnurses Guide · Nov 21, 2016

Hospice nurse here . . . so far we don't have OASIS charting. But the charting system we do have is unwieldy as well.

Electronic charting is the scourge of (many) nurses and physicians everywhere. We've had more than a few local physicians say "to hell with this" and leave local medical offices due to staying until almost midnight trying to get the charting completed. And these are smart, savvy, compassionate physicians.

I hate having to drag a computer into a home with me to take the focus off the patient. I hate having to drag a WOW into a room as well. I'm looking forward to retirement - not the aging part but the not-charting-on-a-computer part.

You'll have to deal with electronic medical charting wherever you go . . . :banghead:

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brillohead, ADN, RN · Nov 21, 2016

Have you considered trying extended care home health, for your present agency or perhaps another agency? On a typical 8 or 12 hour shift, your basic charting is done on shift. Rarely is there any follow-up at other times unless you choose to, say, call a doctor during the day if you work at nights. Besides that, you don't have the wear and tear on your car (and you) from driving all over to contend with on a daily basis.

I am not sure I know what that is?

Typically called Private Duty Nursing... it involves providing one-on-one care to a single patient in that patient's home over the course of an entire shift (typically 8-12 hours straight), rather than visiting several different patients over the course of a day. I've been doing it for a few years now and I've NEVER charted after my shift was over.

There's a forum just for PDN here on AN: https://allnurses.com/private-duty-nursing/

Nori.Giselle · Nov 21, 2016

What charting system are you using? Maybe you need to find a company with a better system. I've worked home health and there are some really great systems where I usually finish charting before I leave and there are some really sucky systems...