Looking into my options (peds HH/Private Duty)

[Duckyaryj]

Ive been an LPN for a year and am looking into different options. I have 6 months experience on a skilled nursing unit, and 6 months as a peds nurse in an office setting. I also have 1 year med surg experience as a tech. I would like to stay in peds but I would like a little more flexible schedule so that I may go back to school at night as hospitals wont hire me for a peds unit. THere are a few home health agencies in the area that deal with peds (the main one is Integrity). What is a normal schedule for hh/private duty in peds? What kind of requirements are needed? Do you know of any good agencies in the KCMO/Independence, MO area?

TIA

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

I've been doing home health private duty nursing for around 3 months now to supplement my hospital income. It's wonderful, I set my own hours and pick my own cases. I'm with Interim, and they mainly do pediatrics. Most of the agencies I'm familiar with will hire LPN's or RN's for the same cases, except IV therapy. The job is very low stress, one-on-one nursing. I love it. If you have any more questions, I'll try to answer.

[caliotter3]

When you work for a home health agency you can arrange any kind of a schedule as you like and can be accommodated by the case load of the agency. You work as much or as little as you want/need. You can tailor your hours to suit the client and you. You don't have to come at the normal set hours. Maybe the client needs you to come at 5 am instead of 6 or 7. Maybe you need to leave at 2:30 to pick up a child from school. Maybe you can only work, and they only need you for the hours from 6 pm to 10 pm. Flexibility is the operative word when it comes to schedules in home health. I am talking about shift work. Intermittent visits is a different story, depending upon your needs and that of the agency. But you can still work out a part time schedule that suits you. You just need to let them know what you are willing to do when you are hired and keep everyone informed as your needs change. Also, you can typically find night shifts in peds cases if it is night shift that you want to work. HTH

[ArwenEvenstar]

In theory, private duty through an agency should be very flexible! But my experience has not been that. It may just be the particular cases I have been on, and the agencies. I worked one high tech peds case for a long time where the case hours were set very firm, related to the child's schooling and parent's jobs. No flexibility was possible. Being on time and working the set hours was imperative. I was also the ONLY nurse on the case for awhile, as the agency could not find any other nurses to work it. When I needed time off, there was no back up help and the family would have a fit! On my current case through a different agency, it is a totally different client situation. Flexibility is indeed possible with this client's particular situation. However, this agency itself can be annoying to deal with. If I call to let them know I need time off, they often give me a hard time and hassle me to no end. Hello?!! Home health is suppose to be flexible!!!! They just don't "get" it....

But, OP, I think my experiences are the exception. As the other responses have said, flexibility is usually a great option with private duty. You can find a case or cases with hours that work for you. It sounds like your background would be fine for private duty. I encourage you to give it a try!