I had a lot of difficulty with home health the past year. Is it this area or something else?

[Mintezia]

I've been wanting to get something off of my chest and it's been bothering me for a while. It seems I've had a lot of diffculty getting a home health case the past year, and I'm not sure why.

I am not a new grad. I have been in this field since 2018. I worked in NYC and Seattle and in either place I've had far less trouble getting a case there with relatively little experience. I have trach and vent experience with peds and adults. In the past year I lived in SC and currently reside in NC but my experience getting a case here has been a nightmare.

I go to meet and greets, waste my time and gas and be told that I'm not a good fit. I know they are usually required but my experience has been to go to a case where there was a need and train right away. Usually I would start work on the case and would only leave if they weren't a good fit for me. 

The clients here are so extremely picky to the point where it would be near impossible to find a job. It seems I lucked out at my current two cases mainly by the grace of God. I am not saying the clients shouldn't have a say in who is their nurse. It just seems scary how things work here. And I really worry what would happen if either client went to the hospital. I just need to know if I am missing something here.

I became friends with a nurse that trained me and she told me how 2 of her friends that moved here have left and one that came from Texas is miserable.

The wages I am getting paid for an LPN are great, but at this point I am so emotionally burnt out from the past year. I am not sure if NC is a good fit for me but I've debated on moving back to my home state of TN. I am a little worried how things will work there. I don't see a whole lot of variety of nurses out here. It seems like many of the nurses are older, white, so I am not sure if this is the preference for nurses here. I hate to make this about race but none of the other places I've worked were like that.  Sorry if this post was long.

[LeChien, BSN, RN]

I don't know what company you are with, but I've had prior connections with "Continuum Pediatrics" when I lived in VA. Maybe give them a try. I checked and they have offices in NC and SC  ?

[guest1143647]

I went through the same thing in 2011. It’s the rural area of North Carolina and South Carolina I had trouble with the most. In my case, I didn’t get rejected from cases, they just did not have that many, esp cases that wanted a night shift nurse. On top of that, as an RN, I did not get paid that much, and got the same rate as the Lpn’s. I want not used to all of that. Nj has cases galore, all shifts, so I was confused when I went to practice nursing in that state. I quickly hightailed it back my home state of Maryland, then eventually back to NJ where my maternal family was staying,and been here since.
 

As far as race, I’m not white but in my case I think it was an RN vs Lpn thing.  I could not get hired in long term care facilities as an RN even though they were advertising for nurses.  I always though why does it matter which type of nurse is hired,then it hit me that they did not want to pay for an RN. I confirmed my suspicions when I took a look at the North Carolina nurse practice act. Yup, barely any difference between the two licenses.

Meanwhile, Nj  nurse practice act is severely restrictive for Lpn’s. I was not allowed to do anything as an Lpn in Nj. Not even change a gtube. This was in 2005,things have changed since then. 

To be honest, I think success in PDN depends on the state. From what I’ve heard, some states have better funding than others. I think the state of NY provides additional funding for children needing PDN, whereas NC does not. So whatever  Medicaid is paying, NY pays additional, which means a higher hourly pay for the nurses.

My PDN pay is actually better than what the LTC facilities are paying in my corner of South Jersey. 

Wow that was long.

Feel free to PM me.