Calling all HH Nurses, roll call

Specialties Home Health

Published

Hi, as a newly appointed moderator, I want to live this forum up a bit. I just resigned my position as a HH supervisor, to go back to the field.

I have been a nurse 20 years, 17 in critical care, mostly cardiac critical care, and the last 2.5 years in HH, or asthma disease management , which I also had to leave because I hated to be in a cube farm all day.

I still love HH, even though PPS is the pits, even though the OASIS would make good kindling for a massive bonfire, and even with all the rest of the paperwork, it is the most rewarding nursing I have ever done!!

PS, I went back to my former VNA who is now paying $30/hr, yes, you read that right, to work 3 out of 4 weekends. Since weekends work well for me, it's a good deal.

Let's hear from all the HH nurses out there. Out of all those registered members, there's got to be plenty of us on this BB!! :D

Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
Hello, I have been working as a case manager in home health for about 5 years. The thing I love the most about it is the freedom and flexibility, the thing I hate about it is the volumes of charting you have to do. The job is also very interesting and I really find that there is NEVER a dull day! My background prior to home health was mainly in labor and delivery. My long term career goal is to become a nurse midwife and hopefully do home delivery, hence my desire to work in home health for the time being!

It's a pity that OB patients seldom have HH. As a childbirth educator, I started making visits to "early discharge" moms and babies, and loved it, but insurance companies evidently don't feel it's necessary. So I started seeing med-surg patients, and almost fell over the first time I had to change a smelly, enormous, deep wound for a diabetic patient. I got over that, and enjoy managing all patients' care at home. You get to see the total patient, their relationships (positive and negative), and compliance issues.

I really want to say here, that home deliveries scare the life out of me. You know how quickly bleeding can compromise a mom and her baby's life! It's impossible to get a c/s in time when patients abrupt at home......

I've worked as the Pediatric Nurse Consultant, at a regional center that sent me on home visits to see if nursing home care was needed, and if the staff sent by HH agencies was apropriate. Seeing many CP kids convinced me that encouraging anyone to deliver at home may provoke a disaster.

Midwives can get as much job satisfaction working in hospitals, near emergency resources. Please rethink your desire to do home deliveries. Many a midwife has lost her license when things became bad, fast!

Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, Dialysis.

hi everyone. i am the branch director/director of nursing for 2 home health branches in florida. i've been in home care for 6 years and was a field nurse/case manager until june of 2008. i miss patient contact and live vicariously through my staff at this point. i deal on a daily basis with the struggles that we in home care deal with and am looking forward to reading the posts here.

Hey y'all,

New to HH. I've been a nurse for about 18 months. Just left the ICU to go into HH. Hopefully the daytime hours and perpetual busy-ness of HH will work better for me than 7P to 7A in God's waiting room.

Specializes in Med/Surg, OB, Home Health/Hospice.

Hope you aren't too bored with HH. But remember...It's YOU making the on the spot judgement calls and that takes a great nurse! God Bless...KD

Question for HH nurses: A doctor orders a medication po/sl. The pharmacist at a SNF fills it and supplies a special kind of soft flat syringe for administration with the medication. The SNF lists it in the MAR as route: po/sl. The label on the medication reads po/sl. Yet, when I write down in the patient's list of meds that the route is po/sl I am told it is either one or the other, cannot be both. What do you think?

Specializes in LTC/hospital, home health (VNA).

Could you write it as 2 separate orders for your agency/records. One for PO and one for SL PRN if not able to take PO. Just a thought. Don't know why it should be a big deal either way though. For us, as long as the doctor orders and signs it, it stands.

Could you write it as 2 separate orders for your agency/records. One for PO and one for SL PRN if not able to take PO. Just a thought. Don't know why it should be a big deal either way though. For us, as long as the doctor orders and signs it, it stands.

I had the same thought: the doctor ordered it! But of course, doctors do make mistakes......

Specializes in ER, Home Health.

Hi Yall,

I graduated last May with my assiocates degree in nursing. I went and tried a Med-Surg floor. I absolutely hated every minute of it, much less 12 hours of it. I left the hospital and landed a job doing Home Health. Being a new nurse I depended on myself alot! This taught me so much. Having no one around, I learned to trust myself and insticts. I did this for about 6 months. Then I decided I need more skills! I went back to the hospital this time to the ER at our local indigent hospital. Boy it was a ride. One that I will not take again. I have the skills to deal with anything now, but sure made me miss homecare.

So...

I just landed a new job with another Home Care company and will start in the next 2 weeks. I know now my calling is in the Home Health industry!

Shelly

Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.

ernursechic:

congratulations on your return to hh.

now on a serious note, i just read about home care medicare fraud, and would like to refer you and other hh nurses to this site:

www.hhs.gov/stopmedicarefraud

we are mandated reporters of fraud, as well as abuseand since reading the article about the agencies in fla i became aware that we need to be on the lookout for that sort of thing. it seems that our responsibilities don't stop with providing care to our patients at home or in facilities where we visit them.....

i once worked at a hh agency that provided health insurance through a company that charged $325./ month (about 6 years ago). upon inquiring about the cap on the benefit, i learned that the maximum that insurance would pay yearly, was $1350. you have to look into everything! :angryfire

###

Specializes in Home health.
ernursechic:

congratulations on your return to hh.

now on a serious note, i just read about home care medicare fraud, and would like to refer you and other hh nurses to this site:

www.hhs.gov/stopmedicarefraud

we are mandated reporters of fraud, as well as abuseand since reading the article about the agencies in fla i became aware that we need to be on the lookout for that sort of thing. it seems that our responsibilities don't stop with providing care to our patients at home or in facilities where we visit them.....

i once worked at a hh agency that provided health insurance through a company that charged $325./ month (about 6 years ago). upon inquiring about the cap on the benefit, i learned that the maximum that insurance would pay yearly, was $1350. you have to look into everything! :angryfire

###

unfortunately, home care agencies have been dealing with the after effects of medicare fraud for years. many changes have taken place in an effort to eliminate fraud, but obviously it still continues. thanks for the link.

Specializes in HH, Hospital, Doc's office.

Hi, I am a HH nurse for over 20 years. Let me explain. I lived in CA in the mid 80'sd and went to LVN school. I went back to Indiana, and as an LPN, started HH care, I have worked on and off for over 20 years for the same company as a HH nurse. I have tried nursing home, hospital, doctors office, and I keep coming back. I have decided (hopefully) I will retire as a HH nurse. I went back to school in 1990 and became an RN, I now am back in CA and working again for the same company as an RN case manager. I love home health, I keep coming back to it. I love the flexibility, I love the fact that one day is never like the last, I love that I do not have a supervisor "looking over my shoulder", the paperwork sucks of course, but the positives outweigh the negative by far. I am hoping the newest medicare cuts don't make it to the board, but we will do what is necessary to take care of our patients. I just found this board, and just wanted to say hi to everyone.

Hi enursechic;

I am a recent graduate who has been working on a med/surg unit for about 6 months now. l am absolutely miserable there. I started looking into home care about 2 months ago and finally received a call from a local agency. I was surprised they even considered interviewing me since I had less than 1 year of acute care experience. I can't wait to get out of the hospital. If you don't mind me asking, what is your typical day of working in home care? Do you get paid by the hour? or by assessments? Thanks in advance =)

-strugglin rn

Hi Yall,

I graduated last May with my assiocates degree in nursing. I went and tried a Med-Surg floor. I absolutely hated every minute of it, much less 12 hours of it. I left the hospital and landed a job doing Home Health. Being a new nurse I depended on myself alot! This taught me so much. Having no one around, I learned to trust myself and insticts. I did this for about 6 months. Then I decided I need more skills! I went back to the hospital this time to the ER at our local indigent hospital. Boy it was a ride. One that I will not take again. I have the skills to deal with anything now, but sure made me miss homecare.

So...

I just landed a new job with another Home Care company and will start in the next 2 weeks. I know now my calling is in the Home Health industry!

Shelly

+ Add a Comment