Have choice of hospital or home health position...have read other posts but...

[Lucky724]

I have read older and newer posts here. I have the opportunity to work for a well established hh agency 3 days/week - salaried..OR I can work a PRN position at a hospital near me & feel pretty certain I would get fairly stable hours. Pay is the same basically minus the mileage for hh.

For the hh position it was made clear to me some days in the hh would be light while some would not be. I understand I may work 6 hours one day and 12 the next - I'm ok with that because its 3 days/wk. I was told I would be given orientation to the agency, OASIS and also ride along w/a case manager (which I would not be nor would I have to take call) - then be out on my own. They have a triage nurse and a call team that goes out after business hours. They are paid salary to do this so there is not an expectation of anyone else going out - was told if that ever happened - all call team members were out - then one of the management team would be called....... I am not concerned about going into people's homes or varied environments, what I am concerned about is it seems from what I read on here, hh is a very tough flavor of nursing to work...your job is like on the line allll the time because of charting..or maybe I'm reading things wrong..I do understand the need for accurate documentation because of the payment..I do not want to get into something & in 3 months be told to hit the road because I am not 100% accurate on OASIS. I assume, with them knowing up front this would be new to me, that there would be a grace period for the learning curve. I am really beginning to have 2nd thoughts about this position though for me personally it would work out really well. I am tired of the hospital setting & having to get up at 4:30 a.m. etc. I would like to have a little more control over the hours & I do know things change in a day so I'm not opposed to being flexible...I see where others are starting on this path too & seem hesitant...is hh that bad to work in?

[caliotter3]

If hh were that bad, many people would not have spent so many years of their career working in hh.

[twokidsmom,rn]

In my company even the nurses that have been there for years still get calls from our office about their Oasis. You are not in trouble for that, they just need clarification some times. The position you are talking about sounds good to me. I am a case manager and sometimes wish I was just going out and making visits and reporting back to the case manager. But in my case HH has not been very flexible, I work 5-6 days a week seeing 6-10 a day and doing 1-2 hrs of homework. But since you are not a case manager and part time that does not sound like a bad deal. You never know till you try it. Good Luck.

[KateRN1]

Every agency is different, just like every hospital is different. Some agencies are more lenient than others, and some nurses are more flexible than others. The only nurses I've seen lose their jobs over OASIS errors are those who refuse to learn from their mistakes or refuse to follow CMS published guidance.

I loooooove home health and have for years and years. I've been at some good agencies, some so-so agencies, and some downright fraudulent agencies. Right now I'm at probably one of the best agencies I've known. We're not without our problems, but I think most everyone wants to do the right thing. There are always going to be times of burnout and times of low census, that's the nature of the beast. But no way in the world would I ever go back to the hospital at this point.

[Lucky724]

Thank you all for responding..the position is 3 days/week, no call, no case management, salary plus mileage and I am going to go for it - no position or company is without the good and the "bad" but overall, I think the good in this one will outweigh the stress...