Home Health offer - studying while on job - advice?

BrisketRN, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2019

Yes I used to work nights in private duty for adults and children on ventilators. Here's what I can say:

There is a lot of downtime but it isn't consistent. One night you might only be giving a few meds, doing vent checks, reposition every 2 hours, and another night (with the same patient) it could be non-stop work. So yes, bring something to do, but you cannot expect you'll be able to do it.

I wasn't in school at the time, but I would read, watch videos or movies on my phone (one earbud in was allowed at all of the homes I worked in), pay bills, create my monthly budget, etc. I even planned 90% of my wedding while working.

I never fell asleep. Didn't happen. I'd drink ice cold drinks all night and have caffeine in cold forms. I'd also snack throughout the night (healthy snacks) because if you plan a meal time THAT will be when your patient starts having a rough night.

Also every clinical manager trying to convince me to take on a new night case would always say "they just sleep all night." Usually that wasn't true. The patients kept me on my toes.

The lack of interaction is tough. I felt lonely at times. I don't really have any good advice on how to cope with that other than making sure you plan and attend social gatherings outside of work.

Kitiger, RN · Mar 20, 2019

I worked home care, nights, for years. I never fell asleep. There are some good threads here on how to stay awake on a slow night shift.

BisquitRN is right; you cannot plan on having time to study. Do your last-minute papers some other time. But you may well find some good studying time while at work. Just be sure that you are always aware of your client, always ready to jump up and deal with whatever.

I wasn't in school while working nights, but I did study up and prepare some inservices, and I did a lot of reading up on seizures and different rare diseases. I brought nursing journals as well as books to study. In fact, I find it harder to keep up on my journals now that I'm on days. ?

If you need to stay in the bedroom with your client, be aware of noise (flipping pages, or turning on a video that starts with a loud commercial, etc.) and keep your light out of your client's eyes.

You won't have anyone at work to talk to most of the time, so you will need to have times outside of work where you can interact with others. Of course, if you're studying while at work, I doubt you'll be bored.