Home Health RN hours?

[elimayrn]

Hello to all and thank you in advance,

I am currently a RN hospice case manager X 2+ years. Prior to this I was an LPN working LTC and 3+ years in home health. I loved home health and I love hospice most of the time but now I want to return to home health. I miss the healing aspect of nursing and what is pushing me over the edge is the hours in hospice. It is rare that we work a 40 hour week, many times over 50 hours and many of these hours are the charting hours which fall after 5p.m. plus on-call hours Q 4-5 weeks and late admits that must be entered that evening. Plus most if not all the hospice agencies in my area are salary, so I'm not compensated for those extra hours. I've checked job boards and almost every hospice agency in the KC area are advertising for RNs. It has wrecked my work/life balance and I feel alienated from my family. My question is do home health RN's have 8 hour days? Can you leave it at work when you go home? I'm not naïve and not opposed to occasional over-time but as a rule are the hours more manageable?

[caliotter3]

The best way to insure an eight hour day is to work in extended care doing eight hour shifts or less, rather than doing visit work.

[Wlaurie, RN]

I'm doing home health working 8 hours. Time is pretty flexible and based on what time the family needs/wants up to 16 hrs/day. On my case some are working 6 hour shifts and on the weekend some are working a 16 hour shift. I like having one patient and when I leave I don't stress too much about the day.

[LilyRN99]

For my one case I do a 10 hr shift and a 8 hour shift every other Saturday (per my request and family agreed ). My other case is 8 hour shifts. It depends on how many hours the Insurance approves. If they approve 16 hours it is often divided into 2 shifts. My 8 hour shift Case gets 16 hr per day. One nurse works 10pm- 6 am and I work 8-4. Sometimes you have to be flexible based on the family needs. Often if a family likes you they may compromise in your favor at times.

[Nursylinda]

I've been working HH for a year and a half and the hours are tremendous with overtime If You Allow it to Be!!! I've had to constantly tell my scheduler that I will only take a certain amount of patients per day and that would be each day as I work, remind her of how many hours I've put in the day before so that I can have a life outside of work on the weekend. This is an autonomous position and if you're hired to work for either 37 or no more than 40 hours a week, then state that and don't back down. It's a vicious battle that I've come to see as unfruitful, maybe the pay can be nice but for what it takes may not be worth it in the end if your'e not happy driving yourself like a slave. It's all up to you.

[elimayrn]

Thank you Nursylinda,

This is exactly why I'm leaving hospice. The money isn't worth the trade off for me. I don't want to live to work, just work to live a decent life.