home health for a mom with kids

[lori86]

Hey, I am an RN with currently a little over 2 years of acute care experience. I am interested in working in home health. I have heard from several home health nurses that they are out on the field anywhere from 3-4 hours and the rest of their work (charting) is done at their own home. Is this true? One of the reasons I would be interested in doing this is for the future, when I have kids. Do you all think this is a good career for a mom so she can spend time at home with her kids and not have to pay to much for childcare. If not, any recommendations out there of what you personally think is the best RN specialty for a mom with little kids to do so she can also spend time at home?

Also anyone ever worked for sound options home health? Is it a good company?

Thanks! :loveya:

[caliotter3]

You can tailor your schedule to suit your needs if you work continuous care or shift work cases. If you work doing intermittent visits you can arrange your schedule to fit your needs to the extent that you meet the productivity goals of your agency. If the agency piles up work on you, you won't find it so easy to be home when the kids get off school. You have to find out just how busy they expect you to be when you interview for the job. I would recommend shift work over intermittent visits. You can work as many or as few shifts during the week as you please and depending upon the circumstances, you can arrange your hours so that you can meet the kids in the afternoon. Hope you enjoy working in home health.

You might want to give the general location of that particular agency to get responses.

[berube]

home health is great and if you are working PRN, you may have the flexibility you are speaking of.....full time means quota! and alot of agencies are pretty strick about it,,,i work full time, and see anywhere from 6 to 9 on any given day,,dirve anywhere from 40 to 100 miles, so sure on the days i have 6 and drive 40 miles i have the flexibility to run an errand or tow,othewise it leaves little time to do much other than visits and paperwork and i am extremely organized. i am usually at my first patients house by 8:30am and pull in my driveway around 3pm with another 2-3 hrs of paperwork, so it really depends on your status, and the geography you will be covering.

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

I would see 5-7 pts/day and be home no later than 2 pm.. usually 1pm as an average. I would jot down the most important home visit info on the pt. sheet while in their home.. such as vitals, basic assessment info, wound measurements and changes, etc. The rest I would complete later in the comfort of my own home. My usual route never had me drive more than 30-40 miles a day, tops. I would start in town at those pts. near the agency and catch the rest on my route on my way home. Our agency does "zoning", so the nurses have a pretty regular route which alway includes several on their way home. Works out very well that way.

Of course weekend call is another story, but other than that, this was my average. Depends on your agency and how they do things. Each agency does things differently. That's something you can inquire about when you apply with the different agencies.. see how they organize their routes, etc. :)