From Home Health to the Hospital

[WannaBNursey, ADN, ASN, RN]

I've been working in home health since I got my CNA license. Initially, it was the only way I could find work, so I stuck with it. Now I'm trying to get into hospital work as a PCA. I had an interview with a busy med-surg unit and they asked if I ever worked in a multiple bed unit before, I said no, but I was looking for a challenge and I'm a fast learner. The interviewer didn't seem too impressed. How do you go from working with one patient to working with 15? What can I say to an interview to convince them that I can make the change?

[northernguy]

Hospitals sometimes hire aides with NO experience, so at the very least you have got them beat.

Ive never worked home health(unless you count EMS), so I cant compare it to a hospital or long term care. I think most of the aides Ive worked with who did home health were very thorough, so you could use that as a selling point. They would pay attention to details aides who have only worked in facilities would overlook.

Home health aides are probably more customer service oriented than LTC, so they would definitely LOVE that in a hospital, where patient satisfaction surveys are a big deal.

You could also say that being a home health aide helped you learn to deal with the unexpected, whereas an aide in a more controlled environment like a Nursing home sees the same thing day in and day out and has help around if something unexpected comes up.

At the end of the day you did the same thing any other aide does, just in a home environment. Im sure youve seen and dealt with home o2, foleys and drains and ostomys and all that stuff, and maybe even feeding tubes and trachs, so your experience should still count for something.

Just keep in mind taking care of multiple patients presents a lot of time management problems and results in a lot of prioritizing. You will often have to coordinate and work with the RNs to make sure stuff gets done if you arent going to have time to do it all, which will be the case fairly often if its a busy med surge unit. Its kind of a team effort, which might be different from home care.

[sarah.e.foley]

I agree with northernguy! Here at the hospital I work at, patient satisfaction scores, team work and time management are all KEY. Explain to them how you are good at time management already; tell them how you will be good at taking care of so many more patients because you are used to taking care of these home health customers all alone, and when there is a good team around you you'll be able to get things done faster. Show them how your work experience makes you a better candidate over someone who they will have to train, someone who has NO idea what the job is really like- because even if you aren't used to their patient load, you KNOW how to take care of patients competently, just need a little practice with time mgmt maybe. Show that you are willing to learn, energetic, a team player, and care about patient satisfaction and I think you'll win them over :)