Considering Home Care Nursing

Itshamrtym · Apr 11, 2008

Hello:

I have done pediatric private duty home care since 1998. So it will be a little different than regular home care where you go to see 5-6 patients a day. I only see one for the whole shift. But it does have similarities. You change choose your own hours. It is one on one. It gives you autonomy. One con would be at times family dynamics can get in the way of your care. It can be boring at times. Hope this helps a bit... Did you check out the home health nursing site on here??? Good luck to you... take care...

patwil73 · Apr 11, 2008

I used to do home care. I liked it a lot. The diversity of patients was very exciting, you had a lot of time for teaching, and if you were ever near an accident you tended to have everything you needed in your bag to help out the people who were hurt.

I believe I did have to do some weekends - maybe 1 every 6 weeks or so (mainly admitting new people to service) although I can't remember if I volunteered for that or not.

Cons - a lot of driving, especially in big cities. Some areas can be dangerous and you are essentially alone going into people's homes. Also it is very self-directed, so if you have any problems (be it time management to the more serious addictions) home health care can be a bad choice for some people.

Hope this helps,

Pat

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Apr 11, 2008

Pros: Time for teaching, autonomy, balance in the patient/provider relationship (The patient has control over the environment), nice people who want to offer you their hospitality, beautiful seasonal days on open country roads. About half of my time was spent on the open road.

Cons: Some homes are not compatible with life. The desire to run out the door is compelling. Ditto for some patients. There can be some unsafe situations for a nurse to go into. For me, paperwork was the big con that tipped the balance in favor of leaving home care. After spending a full day seeing patients, there was the paperwork to contend with on my time with no additional compensation. Nights and weekends that were supposed to be for decompression and relaxation were spent doing the freaking paperwork. I couldn't recall having a full day off where I didn't do something work related. Another con can be weather if you live where it snows. Sick people don't generally shovel or salt their driveways and steps.

There was weekend work too but usually patients didn't want to be bothered on weekends with health care providers. Usually only admissions on weekends for our small HH company.

november17, ASN, RN · Apr 11, 2008

I've heard good things about home care nursing. I did home care briefly as a CNA and I enjoyed it. Although it was a bit different because as a CNA I was with 1 patient all day long in their home. The RNs that would come and visited always seemed to be very relaxed and easy going vs the stressed out ones I see in the hospital all the time nowadays.

The only cons I've heard were that sometimes patients can live in sketchy neighborhoods, or that some patient's homes can be...uh..."yucky" for lack of a better term. I suppose depending on where you live you might be subject to being stuck in traffic a lot.

Personally it is something I've considered. If I had a nicer car with a better stereo I'd probably go for it. I guess it will have to wait for now!

Nurse_Newbie · Apr 12, 2008

Thank you for your feedback. There's a 90% chance that I'm going to go for it!!! The worst is that I don't like it and have to find a different job. Sometime you just have to go with your gut feelings :rcgtku:.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Apr 12, 2008

Welcome!

Moved your thread to our home care forum..see stickies top of page.

caliotter3 · Apr 20, 2008

I do home care shift work and recommend it for increased flexibility with scheduling your work, reduction in driving, and reduction in paperwork. You can work flexible shifts, flexible times from 4 to 16 or more hours when you want. Normally your agency will work with you to give you the hours and types of patients that you want. Of course, the more you are willing to help out the agency and patients, the more they will be willing to schedule you for work. It helps to be reliable. Hope you find that you like home health.

NurseFeelGood2005 · Apr 21, 2008

The agency I work for is 830-5pm work hours, 3 holidays per year required to work, 1 day a week to be on call which is 5pm-830am the next day, and to work every 3rd weekend. One of those weekend days is a 24hr on-call. Doesn't sound that great does it?

There is more flexibility with your schedule to a certain extent. Certain pts require certain time of day visits. Labs need to be drawn at certain times of the day. Chemo needs to be hung a specified time, as do IV antibiotics. Some days I'm done early, some days I'm running late.

Paperwork stinks especially if your the case manager. Minimal compensation for keeping up with all the extras that is required. If your a visit nurse you may get taken advantage of if your company is short staffed. (believe me I've been there)

Maybe I just work for a poor agency, but most days the cons seem to outweight the pros for me. The nice weather lately has been a definate Pro though!

Good luck with your decision!

:)

class 5 · Apr 28, 2008

Hello everyone, I am a med-surg nurse who is about to transition into homecare.. After 4 years of 12 hr night shifts I needed a change..I was becoming physically exhausted,and burnt out, and I decided to leave the hospital setting.. I'm hoping my med-surg exp..will give me the edge I need to make this transition..I look forward to teaching my patients, and not worrying about call bells, and iv's leaking, etc..I'm sure homecare has it's own stressors, but I hope it will give me some flexibility and not be as draining..I welcome any advice on making this transition ...thanks in advance..

NurseRoRo · May 24, 2008

Hello everyone, I am a med-surg nurse who is about to transition into homecare.. After 4 years of 12 hr night shifts I needed a change..I was becoming physically exhausted,and burnt out, and I decided to leave the hospital setting.. I'm hoping my med-surg exp..will give me the edge I need to make this transition..I look forward to teaching my patients, and not worrying about call bells, and iv's leaking, etc..I'm sure homecare has it's own stressors, but I hope it will give me some flexibility and not be as draining..I welcome any advice on making this transition ...thanks in advance..

Your med-surg skills will definitely help you in the field. I have found a great deal of creativity in homecare! Last week I tied two gloves together to act as a tourniquet when I realized I didn't have any in my tote. Also you have the time to teach patients at your own pace and you know what sort of resources they have in the home to use. The biggest thing for me to get used to is that even though we teach patients how to clean stuff and keep it clean in the hospital, the home environment can cause you to tailor your education based on what's going on in the house. Good Luck! :clown:

class 5 · May 29, 2008

Thank you..