Is home health hard?

caliotter3 · Feb 2, 2008

It depends on what the lady was specifically talking about and on the perspective of the person making that kind of statement. Of course, it will be difficult to the new grad just starting out when they are new to nursing as well as hh. As one works in the field, one gets more at ease as experience grows. That is the same for all specialties. It is a ton easier to work with one patient at a time, than to be responsible for 80 or more in a nursing home. I can tell you that from personal experience, my perspective.

Pocahontas98_21 · Feb 2, 2008

I am a new grad and I had an interview today with home health and the lady kept stressing to me that home health is not an easy job and that it is very hard. I was very interested, and I still am interested, but to be honest she has kinda made me scared about getting into home health. Is this really true about home health being very hard?

Home health has it's pros and cons. Pro - easy work. You have one patient and you do all the work ( you don't have to worry if the patient was turn or what their bottom looks like because in some situations you do all the work). You usually don't feel overwhelmed becasue like I said u have anyone patient and you don't have to rush anything you do for the patient. Con - As a new grad you wouldn't have anyone to ask questions. Like if you have someone on a vent. or have someone with a tracheostomy. But if the place you will be working for gives you a good orientee then you will be ok. FYI home health is one of the jobs I presently do and I love it. Easy work and stress free.

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Feb 2, 2008

Thjen again, if your agency does "visits" as opposed to shift or case work (where you care for just one pt. all the time), then you would certainly benefit from some nursing experience. When you see a variety of pts. every day, each will be individually different as far as dx., what to look for in assessments, etc.

As far as it being "hard work", no, I don't think so. But you do need to have your eyes, ears, and senses tuned to pick up on things and to correctly assess potential problems.

HH is far, far different from hospital nursing.. a real breath of fresh air! :)

hannah111 · Feb 3, 2008

I am a new grad and I had an interview today with home health and the lady kept stressing to me that home health is not an easy job and that it is very hard. I was very interested, and I still am interested, but to be honest she has kinda made me scared about getting into home health. Is this really true about home health being very hard?

i wouldnt recommend home health for new grads. u have to be very autonomous and have above average assessment and critical thinking skills. u dont learn these skills in nursing school . u learn them through experience. i would recommend at least 1 yr med surg . that will give u a great diversity of experience and then u can work anywhere. i did medonc for 10 yrs and i now do home infusion. the skills i learned are very valuable to me and i am actually going to go back to hosp nursing a medonc unit 1or 2 shifts a month . i miss the codes and excitement. hope this helps u.:cheers:

RN1263 · Feb 4, 2008

I graduated in May and started working in July. I've been doing home health for 6 weeks now. I spent 2 weeks in E.R., one month in Psych and two 1/2 mos. in Med/Surg.....

....I'm doing good in home health and haven't had a time yet when I didn't know what to do. The paperwork is daunting at times w/ admissions, recerts, but I DO like it better than anything else I've tried.

You may want to consider a few mos. in Med/Surg then switch to Home Health. You'd surely appreciate it more also once you see how demanding working the floor really is ...I know I do.