FIELD NURSING

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I am an older nurse working at a nursing home full time 3 days a week 12hrs. No benefits and the money sucks. I am considering leaving for a full time offer as field nursing. The money offered will be 20k more than what I am earning at the nursing home , plus they have a union. Any advice?

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Specializes in school nurse.

I'm not familiar with that term. Are you referring to home care?

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17 hours ago, Jedrnurse said:

I'm not familiar with that term. Are you referring to home care?

yes. like visiting nurse

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yes doing home visits

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On ‎3‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 6:11 AM, magdarly said:

I am an older nurse working at a nursing home full time 3 days a week 12hrs. No benefits and the money sucks. I am considering leaving for a full time offer as field nursing. The money offered will be 20k more than what I am earning at the nursing home , plus they have a union. Any advice?

Hi magdarly,

Field nursing can be a very interesting job. I think the worst parts are the weather and critters in patients' homes. You have flexibility with your hours, but you may find that you are working more than your scheduled hours (paperwork!), and perhaps not being paid for that extra time. You get to spend quality time with patients, and most are usually grateful that you come out to see them.

Find out if they use a points system or a just a set amount of weekly visits. Find out if they require you to get your own supplies ( bag, phone, etcetera) or if they supply everything. What will be the acuity of patients? Are they doing, for instance, vent patients, and do you have that experience (or will they train you if you don't?) Find out if you will be doing start of care, revisits or UAS. They each usually have different point or monetary values. And not all unions are created the same. Can't hurt to find out about what benefits the union offers to employees.

Your scenario sounds like all pros and no cons. More money and unionized - what could be better? Look into it, it may be what you have been searching for.

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Please see the home health nursing forum here. It all depends on the employer. There are thousands that want your skills.

If the employer is advertising as "field" nurse.. it is a red flag. There are hundreds of agencies that will pay you $35 per visit... because THEN they profit $35 for your visit. You will not be a "field nurse", your will be providing home care.

I tried it briefly. I had 20+ years of experience. I was the only set of eyes on that patient... scary stuff.

Check out your payment for travel time and wear and tear/ gas on your vehicle.

Also.. the documentation is brutal. One visit... 20 pages on your own time.

Best of luck whatever you go with.

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Specializes in HHC, Rehabilitation.

I once worked in home healthcare and they advertise "case manager" more now in advertisement (Texas) to attract more people. But it is not case management as you would think as a CM in workers comp or insurance companies.

I was a HH Nurse and often the case manager. HH is wonderful when you get to know the patient but OASIS/documentation is a killer as Just as Been There Done That said. Another killer if you let them walk all over you. Make sure you have a defined area and a set number of patients you will manage, and how many admits and or visits required per day--remember the drive times. If not you will be called each day and told on a whim (there goes the planned schedule) to drive 20-60 miles in the sticks or stuck in traffic in large cities getting to and from. They did that to a older nurse and she allowed it. Every night working into the night or not and being behind always, and had no life. I said "no" and had a back-up plan. Most HH companies give gas cards, and make sure if you want a full-time job that you are not a independent contractor--where you pay your own taxes and no benefits. Everything on paper signed. Ask how often are you oncall and are you paid. I did it every 6 weeks and was paid $200.00 though salaried.

I would leave SNF and consider HHC with a good company with carved out time to do documentation or consider working for an insur company (big ones as a Geriatric CM. That is what I am doing now.

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They may ask you to leave your house at 8 or 9 pm to do a house visit. Find out if that is the case and if you will need to be on call.

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