Home Health Psych Nurse

msteeleart · Oct 25, 2015

I am a home health psych RN case manager but I also do medical stuff like wound care, picc lines, etc. I like the psych cases the best. You usually lock their meds in a lockbox and do daily or BID visits to make sure they are compliant with their meds. I like the job and most of the patients but the borderline personality patients are the most challenging. They are usually in and out of the hospital every other week due to self harm behaviors and trying to get attention. Doing holds, transfers and resumptions all the time on the same patient gets oldI never feel unsafe but I used to work as a community outreach nurse at a mental health center so I am used to it. Home health is so much more flexible than working in a hospital, I am with my family more than I ever have been. Sometimes I am charting but it is better than sitting in a nursing station in a hospital on 3rd shift trying to stay awake after not being able to sleep during the day. Sometimes I question if I want to continue doing this but then I think about the 12 hour shifts in a hospital and realize this job is so much better. I make more now than I ever made in a hospital. The benefits aren't as good as a big hospital but I guess you can't have everything.

greenbeanio · Nov 23, 2015

I'm just starting out in home health psych - transitioning from inpatient psych. Hoping you get more responses since I'm still in training and had some of the same questions and concerns as you do.

My agency seems to have mostly patients with schizophrenia/schizoaffective D/O, Bipolar, some depression/anxiety D/O with borderline PD. As to the safety issue, I've been told that if something doesn't feel right, leave immediately, get to your car and call.

NewenglandMSNRNBC, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN · Nov 23, 2015

Also a RN case manager in psych home health. One of the biggest challenges is establishing the therapeutic relationship. Overall, Once you get to know your patients it's not so bad. And of course with certain patients you have to take it day by day. As PP said, the second you don't feel safe, leave. I honestly only felt uneasy about two or three times in six years with patients I didn't know. The only downside is that It is a tremendous amount of charting with all the oasis paperwork ..But I too make so much more money than I did in the hospital... With much better hours. Good luck!