Before coming to Big Name Agency, my skill sets were all from SNF/LTC and clinic nursing. I had extensive G-tube experience, wound care experience, suctioning, some IV experience etc from my SNF days, but no trach/vent/TPN experience. I am really struggling to pick up cases right now because we're in a very small region and the support/orientation for these additional skills is essentially none.
I know I've had issues with anxiety in the past holding me back, but when it comes to such serious, life-altering skills if something were to go wrong (and only one shift of orientation to a particular case before I'm thrown out on my own) I just end up not even pursuing a case or backing out of taking on a case once I see everything involved.
It's not just me, though, because it seems the only cases left have been on there for multiple months because no one will take them due to either family dynamics (weird rules, treating the nurses poorly) or the high skill demand.
To give you an idea of what we're dealing with: when one of the "easier" cases went in the hospital recently, the primary caregiver/parent ended up having to essentially take over care because the patient was still very complex for our community hospital (vent, G/J tube, chest PT, cough assist, multiple rounds of suctioning, frequent de-satting, PICC, quadriplegic, etc) and the nurses didn't have a clue as to how to proceed with the patient's care. The patient ended up being turfed to the ICU to receive the same level of care that they usually receive *in the home*.
Pardon the long read, I guess what I'm asking is if all agencies/cases are like this or, if I were to move to an area of more opportunity, is 1:1 private duty care still something I could pursue. I came to 1:1 private duty care and had a great "simple" GTube/seizure/hospice case to start but, unfortunately, she passed away at 10 years old. So now I'm just left scrambling.
