Home health and hospice experience

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I want to go back to school to become a FNP. Right now I have 1 year of home health and hospice experience. I have been keeping an eye out for different experiences, not that there are very many opportunities here in ohio right now. I was wondering what you NPs would reccomend me getting some more experience in? I was just named employee of the year and am doing very well with the home health and hospice RN job; I started this job as a new grad and had to overcome that hurdle (prior to me they had not hired anyone with less than 1 year experience). I really enjoy my current job, it is a bit slow paced at times but the perks are making it tough to want to leave, but I figure I probably should have another experience at least before going back to school.

I am also very interested in good reading, so books, particularly on patho, pharm, etc... would be a great help.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Orthopedics, Hospitalists.

Where do you see yourself working when you graduate? Do you have a school in mind?

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I would like to work in a family practice office; no opposed to anything really though. I am looking at programs at Kent State University and The University of Akron (I live in Ohio).

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Specializes in Critical Care, Orthopedics, Hospitalists.

I would try to get the books that will be used in the program you want to go to - drop by the school bookstore and see what they're selling or something. That way you're a bit ahead of the game and reading something that'll be really relevant rather than a random book of pharm / patho / etc.

I think your HH & hospice experience is great. That job requires a good amount of critical thinking and independence, skills which are really valuable in a NP. You'll probably be a bit weaker in the general patho / pharm stuff as your experience is limited to probably a lot of diabetics and wound care, etc, in what you've been doing. The best thing about the acute care setting is you see a lot of meds and diseases over a pretty quick period of time. But you can't teach the independent, "think on your feet" experiences and communcation with patients experiences you get with being a HH nurse, so that was a great call.

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