Going into homes scare me off??

Specialties Home Health

Published

Specializes in Surgery Pre/Post.

I interviewed with a home health job at our local hospital. It's work from home, set your own hours, & pay per visit. On call every 6-8th weekend and on call once a month for the night. The system is all on Ipads and when you are on call on the weekend so are 3 other nurses to help you. They cover 5 counties and try to make your patients where you live to cut down on driving time. I live in the fairly rural area/farming community. There are some rough areas, but for the most part I would feel safe. On top of it the hospital has a superb daycare (which I desperately need) and they will pay off my $30k in student loans bedside it's where I went to school at...sounds perfect to me!!

My question is how do you deal with working in people's homes? Some nurses I work with now are really trying to scare me out of this. Saying "you won't believe the disgust and filth people live in!" And "you are better off staying here" I hate my office/clinic job and am BORED to tears, but will the homes really scare me off? It's not like I never thought of that before, and I am just letting people get to me...

Any advice for a new nurse in Home Care??

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You can read plenty of input in the home health forum. Basically, if you are so bored at your present job that you feel you need to change, it will be up to you to decide whether or not this is for you. Only you know what you are looking for. There is something to be said for the stability and routine of going to an office though.

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I LOVED HOME HEALTH. Were there some dirty homes - yes. Some with multi-legged uninvited company. Sometimes, a call the the Public Health office was involved. Sometimes I had to ask for their dogs to be confined. I usually ask for people to not smoke when I was in their home, and sometimes, but only rarely, they wouldn't do it.

Make it clear that there are to be no weapons at all in the home.

I loved it, would do it again if I could.

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Specializes in Pedi.

I do home health in a primarily urban environment but we also service the immediate suburbs... which are some of the richest towns in the state. The worst area of the city, you wouldn't dare set foot in after dark... in the best, a one bedroom condo costs over a million dollars. I go from the absolute ghetto to a multi-million dollar home in one day.

I don't scare easily so I'm not really bothered by the filth I've encountered. The vast majority of homes I go to are clean- there is one in particular that I go to regularly that is absolutely disgusting- old stains of god knows what on the rugs and you can tell the kitchen floor hasn't been mopped in months. But I'll take this over the hospital ANY day.

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Most ppl are incredibly nice. Once you do a few cases you get over it. You see all walks of life and the pt let u into their lives and homes its a very sacred thing to me. Most pt ask me if I dont mind the dogs/cats which I dont mind at all. Even in the dangerous places Ive had pts have their husbands or sons walk me to the elevator. You will meet some really incredible ppl out there!!

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

You learn to look past the living conditions and see the beauty within the hearts of people. You really get to understand your patients seeing them in their own homes and seeing what they are dealing with. I learned that the most humble homes have the folks with the biggest hearts and living in a mansion doesn't make any difference if you are sick. It made me appreciate my own health.

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It really depends on who you are and what bothers YOU.

I loved working in Home Health most of the time, but after a while I started to have case after case of filthy homes, hoarder homes, smoke-filled homes. One home was so bad I deliberately placed it at the end of my day because the smoke permeated my clothing so badly I felt dirty and couldn't get the second-hand smoke smell out of my nose. (I smelled like I had spent an hour in a bar.)

You do see it all in Home Health - Million-dollar to slums. And you will see the extremes of both!

(I didn't leave because of the homes, though. I left because the hours and the driving.)

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You learn to look past the living conditions and see the beauty within the hearts of people. You really get to understand your patients seeing them in their own homes and seeing what they are dealing with. I learned that the most humble homes have the folks with the biggest hearts and living in a mansion doesn't make any difference if you are sick. It made me appreciate my own health.

This is VERY true! I just had an ungrateful patient that lives in a mansion she stated something like" Look around me is this living? This is no life." I just bit my tongue.., overall she is a nice lady and I do enjoy visiting her but she is so spoiled.

The people who can't even afford air conditioning in this heat are the ones who treat me like gold and always try to give me food or drinks. Learn to look past it if you want to go into this field. Of course do document if its a hazard!

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It's true that some homes are beyond cluttered & dirty. The odd thing is that it rarely bothers me. Don't get me wrong -- I'd love it if all of my patients' homes are clean, safe, & smell good. That's just not reality, so to make it in home health, you have to have a great poker face. People don't want to be judged, and unless it's a safety concern for the patient, I just do my thing without mention of the environment. You honestly learn to block it out.

If you like to educate patients, are good at working independently, and can manage unexpected challenges, then you'll love home health. Some days unfold smoothly, while others are chaotic. I've found that I learn so much more about a patient from being in the home. For example, medication errors are so much easier to catch because you can look at the bottles and have them show you how they are taking them.

I haven't regretted making the switch to home health.

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