Feeling super stressed about newer vna job...

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Hi all. I started working as a visiting nurse a month ago. Havent worked in over 10 months prior d/t illness, and i took on 32 hour position and it is taking over my life. I am thinking about asking to cut down to 24. The problem i am having is they seem to want me to document in the office, until 4:30-5pm. I live 45 min away and would rather document at home, and the other 3 nurses doc at home so I dont get what the problem is.. I figured at first because I am new they want to keep close tabs on me, but they threw me to the wolves my first weekend, 3 soc and 2 visits.. Had only done 2 soc on my own before and they were uncomplicated ones. I was totally stressed out and feel like i hardly knew what i was doing this weekend. Now i am having trouble sleeping.. I had a pts family member call me when I am not on call and I felt obligated to call back...all these things are stressing me out..is this the norm of visiting nurses? Does it get more manageable? The travel to and from office is making it an extra long work week and ive been working 8.5-9 hour days without a break.. Anyone else travel that far to do vna?? Thanks in advance...

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A weekend with 3 admits and 2 revisits within your first month? Our new nurses (new to home health) would be doing their first admit at 4 weeks, and have several hours to complete it.

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Yup. I have only been on my own for 2 weeks. New to homecare too. I was so stressed out.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Don't answer your phone off hours. Change your outgoing message to refer to the nurse on call. YOU ARE NEITHER OBLIGATED TO ANSWER NOR CALL BACK until your next work day. Again change your outgoing message to call designated on call service. No guilt. You are not working. Period. That is the whole point of on call.

Don't give out your personal phone number. Either give a work cell (that you turn off when not working and refer all callers to on call if urgent otherwise you will return their call the next business day) or the office number.

Your workload seems very heavy for a new to HH nursing employee.

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i have a work phone and the message says to call the office but people don't listen. Im going to make it more specific regarding weekends and after 5 though. I had my phone off too and then turned it on after it finished charging.. No idea why... And saw the voicemail... And in the end I had to see the pt today at 4 pm instead of tues at a decent hour and it turned into a 10 hour day. I am Exhausted!!!!!!! Its almost as bad as hospital work that i did before. Wish I could find the happy medium... I really thoroughly enjoy caring for people in their homes.. Maybe I should find a per diem position so i can choose when i want to work.... Hmmm problem is, i have guilt leaving a job after such a short while. But the supervisors obviously know they put too much on me because today they said ohh we were wondering if you quit after the weekend...Ugh..

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i have a work phone and the message says to call the office but people don't listen. Im going to make it more specific regarding weekends and after 5 though. I had my phone off too and then turned it on after it finished charging.. No idea why... And saw the voicemail... I was like god damnnit!!! And in the end I had to see the pt today at 4 pm instead of tues at a decent hour and it turned into a 10 hour day. I am Exhausted!!!!!!! Its almost as bad as hospital work that i did before. Wish I could find the happy medium... I really thoroughly enjoy caring for people in their homes.. Maybe I should find a per diem position so i can choose when i want to work.... Hmmm problem is, i have guilt leaving a job after such a short while. But the supervisors obviously know they put too much on me because today they said ohh we were wondering if you quit after the weekend...Ugh..

um, yeah start looking for a new job. The fact that they expected you to quit is a huge red flag. They intentionally put you in a position to fail. I'm newer to homecare. My orientation sucked, but I was never put in unsafe or overwhelming experiences. I didn't start weekends til my 90 day eval. Even now I don't get more than 2 soc in one day. I don't travel to the office unless I have a meeting or need supplies. I have fantastic support, if I'm assigned something I can't handle, or more visits than is reasonable in my scheduled time (I have to be home for kids) i triage and move visits, or tell scheduling they need to be reassigned.

Homecare is different, and difficult in its own way, but I think you are being taken advantage of.

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They over assigned you for sure and they just sound crappy in general but long days were common for me when I returned to home health after a stretch as a SAHM. The first 6 mos were pretty hard.

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Thanks for responding all! When my manager said that she thought i quit it was in a joking manner... But clearly they knew it was too much and no one cared enough to intervien and work the weekend to help. Sad part is., I only went with this company for 2 reasons. 1 being 2 people work for them for 20 years and recommended it. Second one, they have an office close to my home, and said I could transfer in a few months when a position was open, but that office is so slow they are more likely to close down than to actually have another position. A huge part of me did not want to take this job because of the inconvience of driving to the area.. And now add in very long days, busy weekend that you dont get paid any extra for and no day off to make up for busy weekend. Maybe I will start applying to other places, and this time I will know the questions to ask before accepting a new position. They hired me btw without telling me my pay... I had to ask for it and they got back to me days later.. And I knew nothing about the benefits either. Truth is i was feeling desperate after my illness because alot of lies and disaappointment happened trying to get a job. Now i wish i didnt settle. The positives are, the staff are all very nice and dont mind getting asked a million questions. It just seems like they take on too much as a small office and expect the nurses to deal with it.

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If you were and would have difficultly getting another job and this is a learning friendly environment maybe getting a year's experience would be worth the effort?

i don't know what you mean by not getting a day off for working the weekend, wouldn't you insist (or laugh at them) on not working 12 days straight?

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You have to set your limits or anyone will continue their end of the relationship as if everything is a.o.k.

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Ya i did say, well im going to need a day off then next week, and they said yes if sun is busy we can figure it out. It didnt end up being that bad on sunday.. But nether the less I am still exhausted. I have today off and thats all... So it ends up being 2 five day work weeks when i am hired for 32/4 days weekly. But thats true about setting boundaries. Its hard to do that when your so new to a company.. I am afraid of being concieved as difficult rather than strong if you know what I mean. Either way, I am going to stick it out and continue to look for jobs closer to my house.. This time i know what questions to ask if I get an interview and job offer... Thanks again all!

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We favor strong but reasonably flexible employees. Those that are too rigid don't work out, we can't control everything and we need our staff to be willing to do what needs to be done at times, but we don't expect doormats nor prefer them.

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