I feel like I'm lurking. 
OK, .........so I am lurking. 
And I've been lurking for a week now, and chomping at the bit, wanting to FINALLY get up my courage to go into Home Health Nursing.
Have thought and dreamt about this for quite some time, actually even from the minute I became an RN, as home health, to ME, epitomises everything a nurse is, and should be.
Not to mention the fact that a colleague who recently quit our dialysis facility and briefly went to office nursing (and hated every long, drawn out minute of it) 
has now just entered the home health field and is LOVING every adventurous moment !
Then our beloved Weetziebat (I hate her!) :rotfl: just started in homehealth as well, and I can't stand to sit by and read all this stuff I've daydreamed about and longed for, while others are actually out there DOING IT !!!
ARRRGH !!! 
Living MY dream ! 
SO... decision time. What to do, what to do? 
I've been in dialysis nearly ten years now.. it's all I know !
But I also know that these old bones won't be able to continue the dialysis unit pace for many more years. And I'm wanting more. I want to expand my knowlege base and utilize other skills. But that is also the scary part, I feel so lost when it comes to those "other skills" !
I know so little about the everyday med/surge skills that others use on a daily basis. Can't tell you when I last looked at a stoma, much less changed a bag or taught any stoma care.. same goes for trachs, sliding scale insulin.. etc., etc., etc.
So many things I haven't done and I am seriously doubting my competence now outside of dialysis. And I don't LIKE that feeling ! 
I have to wonder... if I got out there in the field, would I be terrified? 
And yet I know I would love it. The variety, the autonomy, the learning, the interacting, the caring, and the comforting. The feeling of having finally achieved the "complete nurse".
Don't mind my rambling here.. just thinking out loud.. maybe it will help me sort out my desires and my fears.
I think what I may do is wait 6 mos. or so to give my friend/colleague time to feel her way around in home health, as it is new to her as well. Once she gets all the goods on it, she can then give me the full scoop.
I'm sure she's still hovering on the cloud nine of novelty. But I want to find out about any hidden "surprises", surely there are SOME negatives in there somewhere, and I want to know of these, too, so I can make a prudent and well INFORMED decision !
So far, from what she's said about pay, etc., I would break even. Wouldn't be much more OR less than what I earn now. Perhaps a tad more, actually.. still have to find out what RNs make, as she is an LPN.
But to actually have "normal" hours for a change.. OMG, I can't imagine how I'd act not having to get up at 0300, to be able to sit up awhile after dinner and not have to go to bed at 1900 !
And to not have to run, run, RUN all day long.. ten hours a day! To be able to BREATHE, to actually be able to do some teaching, sharing, comforting, caring! *sigh* *yearn*
OK..I'm done babbling. Don't mind me lurking awhile longer. I want to read and learn all I can until the time comes I actually make that decision. I know I will have to do something different in the next few years, 'cuz this child is getting no younger! :uhoh21:
And Home Health seems to be the answer to many needs.... and hopefully to the needs of my future patients as well ! 
jnette, ASN, EMT-I
4,388 Posts
Dutch... you Silly, you !!!
I have been in HH for a year and a half now!!! :chuckle
This is an OLD post !
And yes... HH truly IS Nursing's best kept secret! I love it, love it, love it! Would never go back to anything else. Plus, knowng that someday when I feel I no longer want to "run the roads", I can still work in the office at the agency, so that's a nice plus.
As for our pay.. you must remember I'm here in SW VA., in the Appalacians, and pay is pi$$ poor for ALL RNs, not just HH. I could go across the line to N.C. in minutes and make a good bit more doing the same thing. But I love my pts. here, and I'm happy with our agency, so I'll just stay where I am. :)