Interested in dialysis- need advice

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I am a RN who has recently moved to the Miami area after taking some time off from nursing to care for a sick family member. I am interested in pursuing dialysis, but find employers are almost exclusively looking for experienced people. I had 2 years critical care experience where I became proficient in setting up and running Nextstage CVVHD but have no other dialysis experience. Should I enroll in a training course at my own expense or continue trying to find an employer who is willing to build on my existing experience? The other thing is that there are many independent dialysis centers and a few major players. I'm not sure if it makes sense to apply to the smaller ones because they may not have the capacity or willingness to train someone. At first glance it also seems like the job market is not so strong in this area. Any advice or information on these issues would be very helpful.

Thanks,

Dave

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

Out of hospital dialysis centers can be scary for someone who does not have a solid foundation in inpatient dialysis. Often there is one RN covering many patients and most of the machine set-up, on-off if done by the unlicensed techs. It's far better to get a good foundation in an inpatient environment to learn all that you can before you try to move out to a stand-alone. My last hospital gig was inpatient dialysis and what I've seen of the clinics, you couldn't pay me enough to work there--too much liability. Have you considered home health care?

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Hi Kate,

Thanks for responding to my post. I actually had been doing home care just before I took some time off from nursing. I was taking care of ventilator patients in their homes. I'm not sure what part of the country you are from but the home care market at least at first glance here in the Miami area does not seem to have many openings. Most of the opportunities seem to be hospital based. I have been applying to home care for several weeks now without much luck and so am trying to expand the search to include other areas of interest that I could potentially get into. Since this post, I have been doing some reading about the dialysis clinics and your sentiments are echoed in most of the discussions I have read. Thanks again for taking the time to write. I definitely find that insight from other nurses informs my search.

Regards,

Dave

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do you have information on starting a home health care? Please help!!!!!

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Specializes in ED.

Same here i applied at a inpatient dialysis.

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Specializes in homecare and rehab.

Well I am a LPN and I am a licensed Certified Clinical Hemodialysis Technician .I decided to do the hemodialysis class in 2009 after meeting another dialysis lpn. I attended atlantic technical center in coconut creek,fl close to broward college north campus. 7543215100 the class m-f 7-145pm. I did clinicals at kru dialysis(kidneys r us) which is a chain of dialysis units. Another nurse that worked their told me as a lpn her pay was 19per hour. Work schedule. .mwf or t th s.sometimes u can start work as early as 4am. Most place claim they hire without experience. I heard private place pay more. The private places ususally pay more and are owned by doctors. Google these companies davita, kru medical venture, and frecenius north america. On kru website get the don's email her name is c.collins and enail her. Kru does not post all there jobs those job postings are old. Also go to indeed.com and type in dialysis rn.

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HI! Did you ever find a job in dialysis?

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