Home Health Nurses I need help!

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I'm trying to find what setting I do best in. Ive been a LPN for almost a year now working in long term care. I hate it. I hate the politics, and the fact that I dont get to spend anytime with the residents AT ALL. I only have time to admin. meds, treatments, and paperwork. If I try to spend anytime with the residents I get behind, go into over time, and get in trouble. I recently quit my job and am looking into doing home health full-time. I did home health before as an aide and loved it! The downfall with the agency I worked with was I didnt get a lot of hours and they we're just kind of wishy washy. My question is are there any full-time home health nurses out there that just dont do it as a side job? Do you get enough hours/ make enough money? I know the benefits are usually crappy and a lot of places dont compensate for gas. But, Im ok with that as long as I can have a job that Im happy with. Tell me what its like?:uhoh3:

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I made the transition from LTC to full time home health and have generally been happy ever since. It depends a lot on your relationship with your agency. The trick to staying totally employed is to sign on with two or more agencies, so when one case closes, you have more than one agency looking for new work for you. You also just plain need to be on good terms with your office staff. Bringing in lunch or cookies once in a while doesn't hurt. I hope you make the change successfully and that you find it rewarding. Good luck.

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I made the transition from LTC to full time home health and have generally been happy ever since. It depends a lot on your relationship with your agency. The trick to staying totally employed is to sign on with two or more agencies, so when one case closes, you have more than one agency looking for new work for you. You also just plain need to be on good terms with your office staff. Bringing in lunch or cookies once in a while doesn't hurt. I hope you make the change successfully and that you find it rewarding. Good luck.

Is there a website I could go to to find out what agencies are good to work for? I applied to one yesterday and it was just wrong. They wanted me to pay $60 for my background checks, had a form stating if you didnt resign the way they wanted you to your last pay check would be minimum wage. This was a waste of my time.

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http://www.highwayhypodermics.com is a website that rates and talks about travel agencies, but not home health agencies per se. On this bulletin board members will talk about their experiences with various agencies. You can go through the threads and find posts both pro and con. However, you must keep in mind that these people are talking about specific experiences at specific points in time with specific people at specific offices. You might be able to get a general idea about a company (particularly a nationwide one), but you can't necessarily assume that you will encounter the same experience if you go to the local office. I've been generally happy with Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc. They are a nationwide company, for profit, based out of Columbia, MD. You can find their offices in most major cities. My positive experiences were based usually upon building good relationships with my patients and working with office personnel with positive attitudes. Other nationwide agencies are Interim, and Gentiva. You can also look for home health agencies at acute care hospitals. You described a monster of an agency. Hope you find something better soon. Good luck.
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http://www.highwayhypodermics.com is a website that rates and talks about travel agencies, but not home health agencies per se. On this bulletin board members will talk about their experiences with various agencies. You can go through the threads and find posts both pro and con. However, you must keep in mind that these people are talking about specific experiences at specific points in time with specific people at specific offices. You might be able to get a general idea about a company (particularly a nationwide one), but you can't necessarily assume that you will encounter the same experience if you go to the local office. I've been generally happy with Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc. They are a nationwide company, for profit, based out of Columbia, MD. You can find their offices in most major cities. My positive experiences were based usually upon building good relationships with my patients and working with office personnel with positive attitudes. Other nationwide agencies are Interim, and Gentiva. You can also look for home health agencies at acute care hospitals. You described a monster of an agency. Hope you find something better soon. Good luck.

I found a better website http://www.medicare.gov to review nursing homes, agencies, etc...

I applied at Maxim and Interim, wish me luck!

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