Home Health Nursing information..

[mmanidesigns]

I'm really starting to consider doing Home Health Nursing. I hear that the hours are flexible and this is really what really draws me in. I have also heard that the pay is better as well. Work less and get paid more. I actually heard this from a Home Health nurse that I took care of in the PACU. I'm currently a PACU nurse and have worked in that area for 2 years. I really enjoy being a PACU nurse but I'm finding it difficult to get out on time. The hospital that I work at is usually really full so I may be stuck with my patient well after my shift is over while I wait for rooms to be cleaned or patients to be discharged. This becomes very frustrating to me because I have a 6 years old son I have to pick up and get in bed for school the next day. I also worked in MICU for 1 year. Basically I want to know if this is sufficient experience to get a job as a Home health nurse. I would like to know the challenges that I would face, the average salary of a Home Health nurse, How many patients would I see on a given day, How flexible are the hours really, are there any weekends that I would have to work, are there any times I would have to work on a holiday, and any other perks of working as a home health nurse. Any answers I get from those experience in this field would be so greatly appreciated.

[caliotter3]

You can get a reasonably good picture of hh by reading many of the threads in the forum. You set the schedule that you want. This works particularly well for someone doing shift work rather than intermittent visits (referring to how many days or shifts you work each week). Intermittent visit work entails meeting "productivity" that is set by your office. Each client must be seen at certain time frame so you work around that and do as many visits as expected. If you only want to work one shift each week that is up to you. You set something up that is agreeable to you, the agency, and whatever client(s) you will be working with. One nurse I knew, had to be home for her child when the child came home from school, so she worked a 7 hour day shift. Sometimes you can make "unique" hours, depending on the circumstances.

You have the experience. Don't worry about that. Anything that you are unfamiliar with can be explained to you by your supervisor. As for the other questions you posed, each of these matters can be discussed and arranged with the persons who are responsible for placing you on a case; or in the case of intermittent visits, the person who is keeping track of your schedule and patient load. I would call the particular agencies that you are interested in and just ask some of these questions to find out how they run things and what they expect of you. Different agencies have different policies and you may find that one is more suitable for what you want to do. Hope you find that you like home health.