Help choosing, Homecare or Dialysis?

sistrmoon, BSN, RN · Mar 30, 2015

I'm in NY and looking into homecare myself after 8 years in the hospital. You might want to ask on the home health nurses group in here? Probably get better responses.

EmergencyRN22 · Mar 30, 2015

*I* would do dialysis. A big turn off for homehealth is going into people's homes (sometimes not so nice areas). With you being a new hire, you would probably working those areas. I can stomach a lot of nastiness but for some reason going into a potentially gag-worthy home is not something I can do.

Then, not sure where you live, but driving in bad weather. Possibilities of picking up bed bugs or scabies from homes are higher than working in dialysis or hospitals.

Lol sorry if I made you start itching.

Good luck.

CateRelate · Mar 30, 2015

I did Homehealth for several years and EmergencyRN22 made several good points. Yes, the amount of driving and depending on where you live (I live in Los Angeles so poor driving conditions were rarely a factor excluding traffic) and though I never caught scabies or anything contagious, I did have to visit some really nasty homes. Sometimes it's sad to see how ppl have to live too. But, I learned so much about wound care! I hated all the charting in Homehealth but loved my patients.

I think there is a potential to make more money in dialysis in the long run and I love the idea of 12hr shifts. But I could be wrong.

Hope this is hopeful.

firstinfamily, RN · Mar 30, 2015

I interviewed for Fresenius in my area and went through about a month of interviews before I accepted a different hospital position. From what I was told working dialysis can be very long hours, so perhaps more than 12 a shift. It is a controlled environment. Home Care I did for 2 years and loved being on my own but realize that you are totally on your own, no back-up staff. I was working 12 hr shifts 5 days a week and it was too much for me. I was required to see 8-9 pts per day and that did not include driving time, plus because everything was by computer we had to have our documentation in the same day we made our visits. Not all places were wi fi compatible, so often I would be doing documentation at home after seeing pts all day. Gas reimbursement was not as much as what I was spending on gas(price of gas had gone up) and they would only reimburse so much for cell phone use. Since this time our state has passed a no cell phone use while driving law. I learned a lot about wound care doing home health, the areas that I visited were not always healthy to be exposed to. I do better with instutionalized nursing where there is some organization. Have you looked into sub acute care or out patient type services??? Perhaps the PACU or another area of the hospital where floor nursing is not the norm?? You may not want to lose all your benefits of spending 7 years in one place---the seniority does make a difference.