How does your morning begin?

[PepperciniRN]

I've been lurking around this HH forum for a while reading everybody's questions and pros and cons of HH. One thing I can't quite get straight is the morning routine....

I am a new grad, and I'm probably looking at some LTC time before anyone will hire me for home health work, but I think I would like to go into it so I'm sort of mentally prepping myself and I'd like to make sure it would be a good fit. My problem is I have a lack of flexibility in the mornings, I really can't leave my house until I get my oldest to school at 8am.

Does anyone else work around this issue? Do you go straight to the patient's homes? or do you check in at an agency/office at a certain time each morning?

I did go on a ride along when I was in school, but it was mental health and I think it was VERY different from the feeling I am getting on this forum. We covered 8 visits in roughly 2 hours, mainly dishing out meds. Then, as it was told to me, the RN would go home (or library etc...) and do charting or sometimes chart at night after her kids were in bed.

Any info/advice from people with children would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks so much.

[B3li3v3~n~nur5ing]

Where I work we call our patients the night before to schedule visit times. So if you can't start till 830 no biggie as long as all your pts you are scheduled for that day are seen.

[caliotter3]

Don't worry about your morning start time because rarely will you find a client that cares to be seen earlier than 8:30 am!

[Holisticlifern]

Ummm I don't think there's really a "routine" morning in homecare. From what I've learned you either call pts the night before and head out in the am whenever your first visit is scheduled or like me I have to go into the office in the morning and get my assignment. Most of the nurses are in the office by 830 but it's pretty flexible as to to what time you come in. I normally come in at 9 because I too have to get a child on the bus.

[LaRN]

the only time you may have to start earlier is if you have a fasting blood work on a patient who insists on having their blood drawn early, or perhaps a diabetic who isn't able to fast through their normal breakfast time. but in my experience, that rarely ever happens

about going to the office: depends on what your employer requires of you. I don't like going to the office before starting my day because a lot of time can be wasted there. If necessary, I go after i see my patients.

If you leave your house for 8 a.m. you are doing better than 50% of the home health nurses that I know. including myself

[ILveNursing]

One of the benefit of doing HH is flexibility. I usually start seeing my patient around 9am but that's my preference. I call my patient the day before. We use Kinnser and I can see my schedule ~ 3 to 4 days ahead. I can also move/arrange my patients around by coordinating with scheduler.

[joy09]

I start my morning at 8am. I get my assignment on my droid st that time. I review my charts, make my calls to schedule visits. That takes about an hour. I start my visits at 10.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Don't worry about your morning start time because rarely will you find a client that cares to be seen earlier than 8:30 am!

You can find these patients in pediatrics. I've had people ask me to come at 6am before. Kids gotta go to school, parents gotta go to work. And in the city I work in, kids start getting on the bus as early as 6-6:30 am. I don't do visits that early, but I certainly have people that WANT it.

[toomuchbaloney]

The morning routine really depends upon the type of agency you work for.

Some will add patients to your schedule after hours so when you get up you have no idea really what the day holds for you until you "check in".

Others allow the RN case managers to more or less manage their own visit schedules and expect them to incorporate SOCs as needed into their routines.

As you might imagine the differences in morning routines between those scenarios can be enormous.

I have worked both ways and preferred the later format, it was less stressful and provided more continuity for the patients as we (the patient and I) developed a plan and they knew what to expect.