How physical is home health?

caliotter3 · Jun 13, 2012

If you are doing intermittent visits, most of the physical side would be involved with all the driving from one case to another. If you are not doing wound care, there would not be much patient hands on contact beyond the physical assessment.

merlee · Jun 13, 2012

Sorry to disagree, caliotter! Very physical, at times! Carrying your bag up 3 flights of stairs can be tedious! Also, I have known some nurses to sit on the floor to do leg care, like dressings/wrapping.

I can certainly recall schlepping my gear 100 ft or more to a front door in rain or snow. Not fun. And if you have a laptop, it may weigh more than 10 lbs.

Sometimes you have no help turning a patient because the family will take the time you are there to 'disappear'.

And I have had to lift a 3-liter bag of fluids to an IV pole that was slightly over my head. Doesn't seem to weigh very much until you do it!

So you need to have a good back.

Best wishes!!

xoNurseRNxo · Jun 13, 2012

It can be demanding on the body at times. Like you said, most of the time you won't have help transferring or turning clients. There's been many instances where I've done wound care to lower extremities in a squatting/kneeling position. Also I've encountered clients who have low beds (no hospital beds that can be raised) so it becomes a challenge. And the driving is tough too.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Jun 13, 2012

I don't think it's as physically demanding as the hospital but, as others have said, you sometimes have to be in awkward positions to get things done. I have taken a child's blood pressure while they were playing on the floor, I do a lot of port accessing or dressing changes while kneeling because the child wants to recline on their couch. It's not like the hospital where you can just raise the bed to avoid killing your back while you reach into inaccessible areas to pack a wound.

caliotter3 · Jun 14, 2012

If carrying my nursing bag around were too challenging for me I would find a way to do without it.

Shimmer580 · Jun 14, 2012

I think it varies patient to patient. I do all pediatrics an mostly infants now but when I did adults, there were hoyer lifts inside the homes for the heavy patients and if I couldn't turn a patient myself, I would ask an adult family member and usually never had a problem. Agree with the posts about awkward positions to get things done and kneeling on the floor and sitting on the floor is daily for me. But it's not the whole time, just a few min here and there. The heaviest thing that's been killing my back is actually my work bag because it's so full! But it's overdue for a clean out anyway.

Caffeine_IV · Jun 14, 2012

Great answers. Thanks everyone. This gives me a little more insight.

KateRN1 · Jun 14, 2012

I'm an RN with back problems. In my experience, HH has been less hard on the back than med-surg floor nursing.

OkieeRN · Jun 17, 2012

You may want to consider desk case management in home health. It isn't bad on the back (as long as sitting doesn't bother you).

cathrn64 · Jun 23, 2012

I do a lot of home health tasks on my knees (no dirty minds here!). I take a lot of blood pressures on my knees because it is easier on my back than bending down. I draw labs this way as well. I also can do wound care this way. I was once "marked down" on a performance eval because of this. I told the "supervisor" that the patient was laying on a low couch, how would she have done it differently? (the patient was on the couch, the wound was on his foot, the patient took up the entire surface of the couch. the complaint was that I put the supplies on the floor. The only other place would have been out of my reach, and I would not have been able to maintain the proper technique with the wound care supplies so far away.

Back on topic, you will do things differently in order to maintain/help your back. It is not as hard on your back as some other forms of nursing, but there are still adjustments to help yourself and your back!