I start home health Thursday!!!

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Hey everyone!

Well, I finally did it, I put in my 2 weeks notice at my current job, and I start my new home health job this Thursday!! I'm terribly excited and nervous, but I don't think it can be any worse than my job now!!!!! Anyway, just wanted to let y'all know another home health nurse has joined the ranks! Wish me luck!!!!!!

-Colette

Specializes in Lie detection.
wow, $84k sounds nice!!! i'm actually taking a pay cut as of now....i'm getting paid hourly until i am able to take on a "full load" of pts, then i will be paid per pt.

[color=#483d8b]yes but i'm in the northeast and i bet your not paying $1200 a month for housing either:chuckle !!! i have a friend in la, she lives in shreveport.

[color=#483d8b]we get paid per pt. when we do overtime, it's called "fee for service". our per diem nurses get paid that way as well. whe i did per diem it was kind of nice, i could see 8 pt's in a day and no case management!!!

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

wow...*84K/yr??? I too live in the northeast and I didn't make that much as a DNS!! I took a huge pay cut to move to home health...hope it's worth it in the end. Just had my first day of orientation and already am having 2nd thoughts.

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Welcome to Home Health Care! I was an aide in home care for 20 years before becoming an rn. I stayed in the hospital long enough to have some good solid med/surg skills and off to home care I went.

I love being able to set my own schedules, I love meeting new people and using my god given brain along with the skills we all have to assist families meet their highest functional abilities after surgeries, diseases, infections have intruded upon their lives.

I work for two agencies at this time and about a year ago I was working for four of them. (paper work sucks) Suggest you own your own car and one that is good on gas, make sure that who you are employed by pays gas mileage, hazard pay, insurance, has a 401 or competable retirement plan and for goodness sake, do not work out of a hospital home care, go private duty, pay is X3 and 1/3 the stress.

I like my life, my profession, my peers, and my agencies but most of all I love my patients. Good luck and if you have any questions, give a holler

Solvey123:smilecoffeecup:

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Specializes in Transplant.

Dutchgirl, I agree. Home Health care is the best part of nursing. CapeCod, be careful. Working per diem, you may have some problems with making that 5-6. IT is hard to do it with no case management. You may find that in order to keep that 5-6 patients a day, you may have to case manage. The good thing is you can chose where you want to case manage. I did that for a while but even that started to get slow and was working for 3-4 agencies to make my financial quota. I finally went full time with one of the agencies but unfortunately, got laid off. Just food for thought. Good luck!

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Specializes in Transplant.

$84,000.....That is GREAT! Where in the northeast is that? I work in Philadelphia, PA and do not make that much. Please PM me and let me know where you are located. Thanks.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
Dutchgirl, I agree. Home Health care is the best part of nursing. CapeCod, be careful. Working per diem, you may have some problems with making that 5-6. IT is hard to do it with no case management. You may find that in order to keep that 5-6 patients a day, you may have to case manage. The good thing is you can chose where you want to case manage. I did that for a while but even that started to get slow and was working for 3-4 agencies to make my financial quota. I finally went full time with one of the agencies but unfortunately, got laid off. Just food for thought. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I was hired as a full time (37.5hr) float had 1 day of orientation and was asked if I want to be a case manager. I'm expected to see 5-6 people a day...admits count as 2. I shadowed one of the nurses today and it seems very doable. I'm not sure I'm going to like it but....

As an aside, from what I hear, this agency is cranking and not likely that anyone will be laid off....they are ALWAYS trying to hire nurses.

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Hi Paravell,

I am on my way to a "ride along" to see if I might like to be a home infusion nurse. How's the new job going?

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

I work 4 days a week. I'm off every wed, every weekend, every night, every holiday. I make much more money than I did at the hospital full-time.

When I'm hungry....I stop and eat, when the weather is nice, I eat at the park and take a sunshine break. I get to the office when I want to. Usually 8:30-9:00. I'm done seeing patients between 1:00-3:00. I get paid to chart at home. I make my own schedule so I can work around just about anything. I go to my daughters OB appts, my parents doctors appts, garage sales, consignment sales, do my banking, run an errand. It is liberating!

True, some nurses don't appreciate what it is that we do out in the field. Some don't even have a clue. Think we're settling for less. Well......I am not stressed, my patients, as a rule, appreciate me, I am my own boss and I have more money in the bank so I say "shhhh" don't tell too many others what a sweet deal we have.

HH does have it's drawbacks. I once ran over a chicken. I felt really had about that. My worst day in HH wouldn't ever come close to my best day on med-surg. I'm Home Health Happy!!!

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Sounds like a breath of fresh air! I think I'm in!

Thanks!

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Hey! How was the ride along?

The new job is going pretty well; I'm definitely liking it a lot better than my old hospital job! I'm still figuring out all the paper work mess, but it is getting easier. The only "Bad" thing is that another company that I had applied to called me to say they are hiring now..and there company pays up to 300 bucks a month for insurance...I would hate to leave a new job after only a month or so, but I'm the only one working in my family right now, and I don't have health insurance anymore, so this could be quite attractive!! Ugh, I hate decisions!!!!!!!! Anyway, what are the details of being an infusion nurse? Hope all you new (and no so new) home health nurses have a great week!!!

-Colette

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Hi Colette,

The ride along went great. Home Infusion nurses give most any kind of IV therapy, chemo,etc and do some wound care. Seems like a great job. Most patients have Picc Lines. The case load here is 5-6 cases per day. I should know next week if I get the job. Everyone seems really nice.

That is a bummer about the insurance issue- You have to do what is best for you. If you really want to stay at this company, maybe they would offer you more pay to cover the difference if you explain the situation? Couldn't hurt to try.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Case Managemnt, Utilization Review.

Hi everyone, New to this forum. I did home care for 12 years and loved it. I did shift care. Some busy folks said, oh that would be boring, I had about 4 clients that I filled in for regularly. I worked for a large agency and made $25.00 p/hr but always only had 1 patient. I loved the rapport with the family. If my patient died, I just asked to to orient on a few new ones. I was the coverage nurse when the regular was out. I worked full time sometimes or part time or what I call appliance time. That is when you work just to attain a certain thing for the house, like a washer 2 night shifts and I was good. The only thing I hated about shift care was that the agency was ALWAYS calling me asking me to work. What a wonderful thing (job security) I had a great orientation on pediatric trach and vents and did it as an RN for 10 years. Then one day, they sent me to a school, and I fell in love with school nursing. YEA!!! AGREE, Best Kept Secret!

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