I am thinking of Home Health...

jsteine1 · Oct 8, 2005

I am thinking of doing Home Health with an agency, don' t know which one....but was exploring this area and was wondering if the experinced would lend and ear and some advice? Fla and can share info on salary that would be great too!

Congrats new grad! You may want to make some phone calls to various agencies before you get your heart set on this. A lot of agencies who do medicare certified home health care do not hire LPNs because there is a supervision requirement. The RNs have to document "supervision" every two weeks and it strains the resources of the agency and if it doesnt happen, the agency can gave real problems with their state inspections to retain their provider status. Private duty agencies will hire LPNs for home based shifts.

Medicare and Fla state regs require a minimum of one years experience before hiring an Rn or an LPN also. Private duty shifts are paid hourly, with differentials for eves and nights and most medicare agencies pay by the visit.

The rates differ widely depending on where in florida you are as well as what the supply and demand situation is.

newflgrad · Oct 8, 2005

Thank you for your response. Although I have not spoken to the agencies directly I do see post from them a couple of them that are looking for LPN's so I know they are hireing them. For what I don't know.

Congrats new grad! You may want to make some phone calls to various agencies before you get your heart set on this. A lot of agencies who do medicare certified home health care do not hire LPNs because there is a supervision requirement. The RNs have to document "supervision" every two weeks and it strains the resources of the agency and if it doesnt happen, the agency can gave real problems with their state inspections to retain their provider status. Private duty agencies will hire LPNs for home based shifts.
Medicare and Fla state regs require a minimum of one years experience before hiring an Rn or an LPN also. Private duty shifts are paid hourly, with differentials for eves and nights and most medicare agencies pay by the visit.
The rates differ widely depending on where in florida you are as well as what the supply and demand situation is.

queenbeelws · Oct 9, 2005

I worked Home Health in Georgia for 6+ yrs and I think you might want to get some experience and confidence before doing Home Health. Many times you will receive high pay for what you know rather than for what you actually do. BUT if something goes wrong with the patient, you have to know how to handle any situation. Trust me, that can be very scarey sometimes when there isn't anyone around to help you by even calling an ambulance. I worked alot with ventilator pts and there were some emergency situations that popped up occasionally that made me want to rethink about it. Not to scare you off but simply to let you know. Also, you aren't guaranteed regular hours with most cases so it tends to be feast or famine and most agencies don't offer benefits. I worked for 8 different agencies at one time to make sure I got the hours that I needed to support myself and 2 kids. One of my favorite reasons for choosing Home Health was the fact that I could chose what cases I worked, what days, and hours that I worked. That really helps when you have kids. Good luck, whtever you decide.

nursemary9, BSN, RN · Oct 9, 2005

Hi

I worked Home Health for 10 yrs. Our agency was like a previous poster said--LPN's need a Supervisory visit from an RN every 2 weeks. That being said, they still did hire LPN's. However, our Agency never hired anyone unless they had experience. Not Home Health exoerience, working experience. They wanted you to have worked in a Hospital for a set number of years. Home health required a lot of independence & confidence & they felt this was acquired by working.

I absolutely loved Home Health

Mary Ann

homehealth43130 · Oct 11, 2005

We don't hire new grads at all - LPN or RN. We feel there is too much clinical decison making involved that we feel a new graduate does not have. We require at least two year med surg experience before we will consider an applicant. We do hire LPN's but don't hire many due to the limitation with their practice.

luv4nursing · Nov 9, 2005

newgrad,

Im in FL too and Im also a new grad LPN. Here in Central FL its the other way around. Its the hospitals that wont hire new LPNs and home health that will. The LPN hospital jobs are far and few in between and they want experienced LPNs. Ive found many agencies that will hire LPNs with or without experience. They will start you on less complicated patients and/or send u out with another nurse until u get used to it. I also like the idea of being able to give all my undivided attention to one patient, but I wanted to work in a clinical setting to use my skills and keep them current. If u like kids try PSA bc I know they will hire you out of school. They offer a special orientation program for new grads.

Im going to stick with this for about 6-8 months and then try to get some hospital work at least part time. Im getting my RN thru Excelsior so the down time Ill have in home health will allow me time to study which is great. Maybe I can get a hospital RN externship type position when I get towards the end of my studies.

newflgrad · Nov 9, 2005

thank you for that, I was wondering if you can tell me who PSA is because Pediatrics is all I really want to do!

luv4nursing · Nov 9, 2005

They are called Pediatric Services of America. I am working for Children First which is a similar agency. PSA is spread out all over though, while Children First is only in this area. The ads they put up online say they require one year experience but they do hire new grads too. They came to my school to recruit. here is a link to their site, and they do have jobs in tampa/st pete! good luck and let me know how it goes if u start working there. If I dont like nights I may go to PSA bc they have more variety of shifts. CF has mainly nights and weekends available right now, esp for newbies.

http://www.psakids.com/

suzanne4, RN · Nov 9, 2005

My suggestion? Don't even consider Home Health until you have some experience under your belt. The children that are at home are usually what we term "medically fragile" with multiple procedure that need to be done. Most have trachs and G-tubes. Would you know what to do if the trach became dislodged or the the G-tube fell out. These both need ot be replaced immediately.

Even though an agency may offer you a position, the insurance companies are paying for experienced nurse in that area, so run the risk of being sued for insurance fraud, if it would come down to it. Especially since they are paying for someone with experience.

Some things to consider.....................:)

Remember the agency is considered with placing a body so that they make money on the shift, your license is at stake and you have worked too hard

to get it. An dcould just as easily lose it.

Please do a search on the Home Health site for other threads on this same topic. And you will hear the same things that I am saying form the experienced nurses on this board.

And Yes, I have done Home Health for pediatrics, as well as new born check ups. And HH for adults.

caretaker · Nov 9, 2005

i am co-owner of a home health agency in oklahoma. i believe in home health. a career in our industry is one that will be very rewarding. there is a place for lpn's in home health today. the job is perfect for hardworking, single mommies. a good home ehalth nurse spends lots of time on follow up!!

luv4nursing · Nov 11, 2005

newflgrad,

just wanted to add a side note. I dont think they are just putting you out there in peds home health. It depends on how confident u are in your skills. In my program we worked with those types of kids during peds rotation and also had lots of trach and g tube patients on neuro during med-surg. There are many nurses on different floors who have never even dealt with trachs bc even if they do get a trach patient then they have R.T. take care of it as far as suctioning,care, etc. We were forced as students to learn it so its one of the things Im actually more comfortable with. Also, the agency makes you take a class that teaches you how to change the trach and g tube bc they have to be changed around once a month. When I oriented at one of the group homes there was a kid that pulled his trach out all the time so I got to put it back in a few times, its not that bad really.

If anything, I feel that this is less of a challenge than a hospital setting. For right now its easy money bc as long as you are comfortable with trachs and g tubes there isnt much else to it (except vents which u can train on if u want). Im on nights right now and Im literally just twiddling my thumbs trying to stay awake. Its not that I dont like it, its just that I think I may prefer the hustle bustle of the hospital setting bc Id learn and grow more as a nurse there. Except they dont hire LPNs much in the hospitals here and the pay sucks. And in LTC the nurse to patient ratio is ridiculous and that is the place I would worry about losing my license the most. So Im in a little of a dilemna. Im gonna start working on my RN soon thru Excelsior and towards the end Im gonna try to get a externship type position in a hospital which will help me get my skills back up to par. At least I can study while I work home care.

good luck in whatever you decide to do! Ive found this position to be the highest paying for the least amount of work and the atmosphere will allow me to easily continue working full time while I get my RN, so Im all for it. Hey, I worked 10 times harder at Starbucks for 7 bucks an hour while I was in school , so I feel like I won the lottery.