Home Health and Hospice

[Mysti nurse]

Most of my nursing career I have worked Home Health and Hospice. My last two jobs have been hospice. I've been at my Company almost two years. I love my team and my boss. Every job I've had I've been paid per visit. My last job was a small hospice and my patient load dwindled to zero. I had no work and still had bills so I had to leave. I've been mostly busy at this job, but now I'm dwindling to nothing again. I have no work Wednesday or Friday and am full time with bills to pay! Is this common that eventually the agencies fade into no patients in your area? It's not that they don't want to give me work, they don't have it. I've been an LPN 25 years and I'm 52! I've never worked in a nursing home, but that looks like my only option. Any advice or experience with this?

[No Stars In My Eyes]

My advice is to sign on with several agencies. Others I know did it and though it takes a lot of juggling with the calendar, it did get them sufficient work most of the time. Don't go to a long-term-care facility, it will be a total shock to your system to see how they operate today: understaffed and overloaded with the number of tasks in your assignments. I speak from experience. I did it and had to wear 6 hats, so to speak, to cover what used to be done by other employees, like ward-clerk, charge nurse, telephone triage, calling doctor's offices for orders for certain meds that change with blood tests, dealing with relatives, dealing with the aides on your floor, etc. I was stupid enough to try to stick it out, but got fired (for the first time in my 40+ years career). It was humiliating to find out that I could not 'keep up' with the way nurses are heaped with too much to get accomplished during the 12 hour shifts. 

Good Luck!

.