Home Care for Lpns

[missy26]

Hi there im an Lpn who has been working at a dr's office for about 3 years. I like working there but at the same time i don't. It's not what i went to school for. Anyways i'm almost done with my rn program, but was thinkimg of doing homecare per diem or parttime. I know friends of friends who do it and like it. They started with no prior experience and i have no bedside experience except for clinicals. I do not asses patients at my current job. Any advice from anyone who does home care and who started off as an lpn with no experience? I know everyone says to get experience first but everyone seems fine when they start off. Also the agencies i'm looking at have lpn's do 8 hr shifts in one home. I really feel i might get some good experience here. I've applied to some nursing homes where there would be other people around- but no one has called me.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I started off as a new grad LPN in home care seven years ago...it was a great way to home my assessment skills, communicating with the healthcare team and my patients and their families; pt education, and documentation. The key is to find a HHA that has a great staff education model and a caseload where you can start out with less complex patients, and move towards more complex, high tech patients. I was a trach/vent nurse for 7 out of the 7 years in home care...I entered trach/vent training within 1 month of home care...they asked if I wanted to learn, and I did. The home health companies I work for now have done form of a requirement to get comfortable-about 6 months into home care-before taking more complex patients. You will learn a lot, and per diem gives a great flexibility as well.