Is a per diem HH job less crazy than most f/t HH posts?

[michiganRN1234]

I have a per diem job offer with a HH company, not sure what to do, I've had my Rn licensce since 2009, one year of p/t med-surg, one year LTC, looking for a not so crazy environment...many of the posts I've read on here seem so so stressful and chaotic but seem to mainly be about a full time schedule.

If I saw maybe 2-3 pts a day, how is the level of stress?

I know I'd be on call once every 5 weeks

Any advice from a per diem HH nurse would be great!

[Isabelle49]

Seeing 3 - 5 patients per day is not bad, really. You do have to stay on top of the paperwork everyday to avoid problems with so much at the end of the week. I wouldn't do HH full time again, it was too hard.

[caliotter3]

If you choose to do extended care instead of intermittent visit work you will bypass almost all of any "craziness". One patient at a time, one nurses note for one shift and that is it. No driving around all creation, using up your time to do charting and follow-up and all the other stress involved with an increased workload. Just a thought.

[HealthyNurse]

I've worked both full-time certified home health, part-time, and per diem. YES- per diem is much less stressful. In most agencies, you will be able to pick and choose your cases, if you want to accept a patient assignment, and then if you want to keep the patient or give them up to be case managed by another nurse. Working per diem will allow you to stay on top of the paperwork easily. The downside is that the agencies usually pay per diem staff by the visit. So, if you case manage a patient, you don't always get paid for the little "extras" that go along with case management, such as making phone calls and coordinating the patient's care. Also, you have to be aware that agencies will make sure their full- or part-time staff are kept busy before giving per diem nurses cases. I really enjoyed the time that I spent working per diem in home health. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Tarastrickland]

I agree with Healthy Nurse.. I 2 have worked PRN and Full time in home health... Full time is crazy busy paperwork,phone calls etc etc.. but thats home health. PRN can also be crazy busy depending on the types of patients that you have. I think administration at times does not realize the time it takes often on a daily basis when u have a patient that calls you NEEDING to be seen that day... Your schedule changes sometimes on a minute to minute basis. The paper work is the absolute worst part of home health:( I feel like at times, I cant even be a nurse for the paperwork.. So .. I spend many hours at home in the evenings,weekends on the paperwork. We are on computers, but the start up time and closing of the computer takes too long for me.. and the patients, a lot of them do not like the computers because most are elderly and do not know a lot about computers... So I double do my work.. first on paper then into the computer... Our charting is very important due to medicare/medicaid and insurances needing so much information for authorizations and to pay for our services. Some weeks I want to pull my hair out and just go back to med/surg nursing and do my 12 hr shifts and go home... Bc I bring my work home ... paperwork and mental wise as well. I go over and beyond what I should for some of my patients.. because they have noone else. (some of them) .. thats just me though:) And at the end of the day, Im still a home health nurse.. lol! Its kinda like once you do home health, Its hard to leave it! Some may have different opinions on that though..