How long?

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How long did it take you to feel completely comfortable working in home health nursing? The OASIS is actually not bad at all for me now after 4 months in this position, but it's the continual new dx that are challenging me. I find myself reading up on all sorts of things at night...CHF, COPD, HTN, wound care, etc.

That's the hard part for me, since I never worked in med-surg.

Speaking of wound care, anyone have a good link to basic wound information, how to classify a wound and standard treatments? I'm finding that a lot of the physicians go with whatever the RN suggests, and I'm new to this, so want to learn more.

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Took me 3 months to not cry over the endless charting every day. 6 months until I felt competent, and 9 months before I enjoyed every single minute and felt proficient and completely comfortable.

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yup, i've been in your shoes too! I've been in home health (started as new grad) for 1 yr 6 months... and still i find myself looking up BASIC stuff... like first semester nursing school lol! but its all about brushing up and keep learning, right? esp as health care providers, i think its very important that we stay up to date, and make sure we're teaching our patients the right thing.

I think it took me about 6 months to be really comfortable. after 1 year, more so!

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

Don't feel bad, don't beat up on yourself. I was never a whiz with neuro, did all of my clinicals and all of my professional experience with cardiac- and renal-related diseases. I have to look up the most basic stuff, too, when it comes to things that have escaped my professional practice. No one knows it all! Looking up the things you're not familiar with is so much better than trying to wing it. And sometimes when you have patients who have rare diseases, it's better to ask the patient for his/her experience and where to go for more information. I've done that a time or two.

For wound staging and best practices, you really can't beat the WOCN website. All of the OASIS questions refer you to their guidance. http://www.wocn.org/resource/resmgr/guidanceoasis-c.pdf

I have a .pdf of a great article "Hanging Wet to Dry Dressings out to Dry" that I will forward to anyone who wants it, but I don't think I can post it here. Feel free to PM me, or if my PM box is full, email to KateRN1 at hotmail dot com.

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Specializes in Home Health, Case Management, OR.

I also went into HH as a new grad and it took me about a year to feel like I really knew what I was doing. I have been working in my position almost 2 years now. It is always changing though, and I am always learning or reviewing. I too look up info in my medsurg book and med books as needed.

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