Home health versus LTC. Oasis vs MDS

[Nascar nurse, ASN, RN]

Hi. I have been a LTC nurse for nearly 20 years and am feeling really burnt out. Desperately seeking a change. Due to family situation I really need a "day" job so that leaves out going to the hospital. I have an interview with a home health agency on Thursday. Apparently they are looking for a case manager nurse to complete initial assessments and develope the plan of care. Is there anyone around experienced with home health and LTC? I currently do LTC MDS's, develop the plan of care and am in charge of determining skilled care criteria for our medicare residents and how long we will be able to skill them. These "sound" like great skills, but I don't know if they necessarily mean anything in the HH world. Don't want to look stupid @ the interview when all this "stuff" means nothing to them?!? Anyone know similarities and differences in MDS VS Oasis? Thanks for your input.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Several similarities, although different questions.

Take a look at Helpful Tips on Completion of the OASIS

Info in first post is actual questions on document that gets reported to Medicare. Learning curve is 3 months to master document---same as in LTC. Do they have an expert already to help you learn or is the expectation you be the expert? big difference.

Reporting times different, less in homecare. If you live in urban area where patients use ER as family doctor and are admitted at the drop of a hat, when will have more resumtion documenta (1 each time hospital discharge) so that can affect visit performance.

Questions, feel free to PM---I'm not my agency's guru, but know 97%

what's needed.

[Traveler]

I have been doing home care for 5 years and prior to that was MDS/cp coordinator. The two are similar in the purpose. Of course they are totally different forms and that will take some getting used to. But they are the way that payment is determined. If you have done MDS successfully you shouldn't have any problem leaning OASIS. It will take some time to get used to it though so give yourself that. I remember the first time I did MDS 2.0 it took me 5 hours for one. I decreased my time lots and lots after that. It was the same with OASIS. Once you learn it, you can zip through it a lot faster. At your interview, the person may not know a thing about MDS. Make sure you point out to them that it is very similar to OASIS.

Good luck!