How do you make a living????

Make sure to stay about half an hour, it's ok to do your skilled visit note while there. Most agencies have quality assurance survey's and they ask the pt. how long you stay. So far as making a living. I am in sticker shock. I will never make the money I made in acute care. Beware the time "suckers"

Drawing peripheral labs and dropping off at the lab (we didn't get paid for the trip to the lab) An IV case that takes an hour to infuse the meds. (I got paid for about a 1/2 visit flat fee. And so on. The frequent in and out of the hospital/post hospital's...the list goes on and on. I agree with someone else that I've never felt so valued as a Nurse, but that said, I'd like to be able to pay for my gas and be able to pay the bills.

Our agency told me that Medicare requires 30 minutes for regular visit and 60 minutes for an admission, even supervisory. This was documented on the computer with a time stamped signature by the patient, and they would investigate if it looked like the signatures were too close together. So I'm not sure how people are doing 9 minute visits. Maybe killing a lot of time between patients. And I HAAAATE dropping off labs, especially if it has to go to a "big" hospital with a parking deck and all that.

What I hate is you have 7 patients on schedule...1 didn't get discharged from hospital, other 2 are mysteriously not home. So you wasted your day (often doing drive bys since they won't answer the phone) and end up earning $10 per hour after all the computer and driving.

I'm not certain how you make a living--I had to go from partime to PRN and get a job at a hospital to make our ends meet. Maybe the LPN have simpler visits that don't take as long, or not as much paperwork?

As a prn field nurse most days I make about 12 - 15/hr. The only way to make more is to do those visits where you don't even sit down with the patient. Trust me, there are nurses I work for who do this and I get complaints from patients about this all the time, i.e., 'I'm not even sure she take my BP, she doesn't listen to my chest or ask me the questions that you do, she doesn't talk to me at all'. These complaints are turned over to management, but has anything changed, NO! I just know I am doing the job all wrong and screwing myself out of a lot of $$, but I just can't learn to do the job the 'right way'.

That sound horrid you should be making at least 45-50 a visit and get paid for mileage.

Thing to remember is Home Health is a 'for-profit industry'. The profit is not for the staff, but for the owners!