med/surg vs home care with small children?

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I am so torn between staying on my busy med surg unit or switching to home care I work 3 12s day shift a week, every other weekend and every other holiday. With home care it would be 5 days a week one weekend a month and one winter and one summer holiday,probably a more of 8 to 4 type of schedule it's salary 80 hours plus plenty of opportunity for overtime I was told and they work one weekend a month. I have a 3 month old and 3 year old. Childcare is not an issue. Although I would like more time on the days I work with them I love having 4 days off a week with them too. I'm so torn and I literally have a couple days to make up my mind.. Ugh thoughts, suggestions and experience please!

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

In my view it depends upon the agency that you are going to work for.

There are a couple in that are that are horrible, also IMV, and there are some that are okay.

Personally, I enjoy being out of the acute care hospital version of bedside nursing. Home care and hospice can often afford the RN a flexibility in work scheduling that is difficult to match in a facility setting. It can also be home to unprecedented greed on the part of some companies which will cause you pain if you work for them.

Good luck.

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I agree, it really depends on the company. If they're a known straight shooter then I would consider it. It's always worked well for me but it is tough the first year, the learning curve will rock you a bit.

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That's a tough one. I like homecare so much more than hospital, but I work per diem for a great agency and my kids are a bit older.

The agencies reputation is a big factor here. If you have one of the bad agencies those 8-4 days will quickly become much longer, and you will be overbooked, requireing you to chart during your home time. I hear it can get quite overwhelming. As someone else said the transition is harder than you would imagine as well.

Is is there a reason you want to get out of the hospital? As much as I love homecare, I would say with kids that young I don't think I would personally make the switch unless the hospital job was bad.

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@athomenurse it's a pretty reputable agency with one of our major healthcare systems here in Michigan. And the hospital is actually not that bad some good some bad like any other specialty I would say. I've actually been having pretty decent days since returning from maternity leave. I'm think I'm just gonna stay put here for awhile longer... Thanks everyone

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I have two young kids and my home health work schedule is similar to what you have described. I love the flexibility. I can stop at the school between patients and bring my kids lunch, do parent teacher conferences, pick up a sick kid from school and drop off with the husband or a grandparent, go to a doctor appointment, etc. Plus, I start from home so I get to see my kids off to school and get home shortly after the youngest and around the same time as the oldest. I do my charting in between patients so I don't have charting to do in the evening. It has been great for our family. I do wish I didn't have to be on call, but it's pretty easy and I've only had to go out to do a visit while on call a couple of times.

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Specializes in Long-term/Geriatrics, Home Health.

I recently went from a full-time 12hr LTC job to a home health job and while I work Mon-Fri 8am-whenever my last patient is, you often have to chart from home. Depending on how busy or your patient load, you could chart for hours. So some days, you may technically work from 8am-8pm including your chart time. I have a small child at home as well, and it can be hard to finish work AND pay attention to your little one as the same time. I feel like I honestly have less time with my child and do run my errands than I did when I worked my 12 hour shifts. This may or may not help you at all.

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