Long Post, Sorry, but I can use some encouragement! If you have the time!
Some of you have been reading my posts and answering me through this new chapter in my life and I want to thank you. I wanted to share how my first 2 days in my Peds Home Health went. First all I will give you the run down so you can encourage me or discourage me I am hopeing this is not a "typical" thing that has happened to me, but if so please tell me and I can be prepared for this. I am a new grad as of last summer and went straight into med/surg and got quickly burned out! Home Health has always appealed to me on many levels but one that I can bond with a patient and give them my ALL and not bits and pieces of me! So after going on 3 interviews and all wanting to hire me I decided to go with the one that offered the most per hour and the best benefits, well this is a mom and pops place (which means not a big chain like Gentiva etc..) They never explained any paper work that I had to do and send in to them, they told me it would be on the table and If I had questions to call them.Well my first question of is this right, happened when she told me there would be no nurse on the case to orient me because they had all left because of a undiscovered DUI, and one of the nurses comeing in drunk for her shift (God help us!) and that I would have to get my orientation from mom. I thought no problem, families know thier kid best anyways. That went well, and on the first day I walked into some very unsanitary conditions! I thought, well I am here for the patient and education can be done as long as the child was not in immediate danger, The mom told me stories of the other children in the home (aren't hers) and how one of the smaller child has an STD, and I just was about to fall on the floor. I am not a nieve person and have dealt with almost anything in Med/Surg but this was just throwing me for a loop. Well today after the child's bath I washed her hair and discovered the child was Covered in head lice! I showed mom and after laying her bed today with her, and roleing on the floor with her, I suddenly became so sick! I have to girls to come home to and wondered if I had already infected my self and clothes! As nurses, we are prepared to handle everything thrown at us and a little thing like head lice shouldn't scare me, but it did! I told her I would have to leave early today and gave her instructions on how to handle the hair, room, couches, clothing, pillows...etc. Told her I would be back on Monday because I am sure she would have the problem tackled by then but to call me if she didn't. I may have been wrong in doing that, but I did that knowing I did not want to come back to this Unsanitary house. The child has CP and she is constantly coughing and being suctioned and both parents smoke constantly inside the home all day! I am a non-smoker so I was hateing that! Her suction yanker was always on the floor when I went in, with the dog laying on it, and other household things that would floor the seasoned home nurse, and when I tell you this, my house is a mess so I am not a clean freak at all!! Oh and while I was there today, someone was murdered just a couple of houses down. So my fellow peers, I am suppose to start orientation with a well Known Home Health Agency next week, can it get better than this? Or is it pretty much the same no matter where you go? I am hopeing I can learn to like Home Health the way I have it pictured it would be. Oh yes, and when I called the agency and told them about the unsanitary conditions and I could not work there do they have any other cases, they said not right now, but when they talked to me last week they had 23 cases~! HMM?LOL
{{{{hugs}}}} to you for seeing that side of HomeCare! I did some longer shift type work with Interim here in PA and had both good and bad experiences.
My first case was wonderful! Mom knew as much as the nurses - somedays Once in a while I'd walk in, and find she was trying to wean the little girl from the vent, and she'd be so proud that she'd breathed on her own for 5 minutes before I got there. Yeah, nice game, but we don't play that while I'm here. I talked to her about it, and a lot of it stemmed from her wishes that her daughter just wasn't sick like this. (Kiddo did some independent breathing, so she usually tolerated this little exercise well)
On the other hand......My next case was much like the one you described. Filthy, other children not going to school and not being fed. Supplies and meds not being purchased. Mom got evicted from the state funded housing for having drugs on the premises, and yes, they rolled that little boy out the door in his wheelchair and parked him by his vent battery. (She thought his illnesses would save her from her consequences!) The nurses knew there was potential for that crap the moment we opened that case. (Your case was already opened - the agency knew what was going on - it didn't start the night you got there!) We did get Children and Youth involved (and got nowhere) I stuck with it for as long as I could to support the child, but had to leave once I had strong feelings of packing his stuff in my car and driving away with him.
The post about alerting the doctor is a very good idea too. I definitely wouldn't keep working for them! There's too many other good places
The mom adopted them (they are all from her family) and mom told me the younger girl got the STD from her mother while giving birth to her. It just raises alot of questions and makes you wonder what is going on. Thanks for the input and listening if anyone else has anything to share.
The Mom adopted them? There had to have been home studies done for the adoption. I wonder how they ever got approved. CPS has to have records of the old home studies and can compare them to new studies if they are reported. I really think this needs to be reported. Then it is no longer on your coscience or liscence if something happens. It is also the only thing you can do to at this point to protect the CP child.
I have a disabled child myself. I hear stories from time to time about parents that are definately not looking out for their child's best interest. There may or may not be enough to take the child from a home, and maybe the parent just needs some education, but as a health profesional you have the responsibility to report things you think may be dangerious for a child, not just to the agency, but Child Protective Services.
Some of you have been reading my posts and answering me through this new chapter in my life and I want to thank you. I wanted to share how my first 2 days in my Peds Home Health went. First all I will give you the run down so you can encourage me or discourage me I am hopeing this is not a "typical" thing that has happened to me, but if so please tell me and I can be prepared for this. I am a new grad as of last summer and went straight into med/surg and got quickly burned out! Home Health has always appealed to me on many levels but one that I can bond with a patient and give them my ALL and not bits and pieces of me! So after going on 3 interviews and all wanting to hire me I decided to go with the one that offered the most per hour and the best benefits, well this is a mom and pops place (which means not a big chain like Gentiva etc..) They never explained any paper work that I had to do and send in to them, they told me it would be on the table and If I had questions to call them.Well my first question of is this right, happened when she told me there would be no nurse on the case to orient me because they had all left because of a undiscovered DUI, and one of the nurses comeing in drunk for her shift (God help us!) and that I would have to get my orientation from mom. I thought no problem, families know thier kid best anyways. That went well, and on the first day I walked into some very unsanitary conditions! I thought, well I am here for the patient and education can be done as long as the child was not in immediate danger, The mom told me stories of the other children in the home (aren't hers) and how one of the smaller child has an STD, and I just was about to fall on the floor. I am not a nieve person and have dealt with almost anything in Med/Surg but this was just throwing me for a loop. Well today after the child's bath I washed her hair and discovered the child was Covered in head lice! I showed mom and after laying her bed today with her, and roleing on the floor with her, I suddenly became so sick! I have to girls to come home to and wondered if I had already infected my self and clothes! As nurses, we are prepared to handle everything thrown at us and a little thing like head lice shouldn't scare me, but it did!
I told her I would have to leave early today and gave her instructions on how to handle the hair, room, couches, clothing, pillows...etc. Told her I would be back on Monday because I am sure she would have the problem tackled by then but to call me if she didn't. I may have been wrong in doing that, but I did that knowing I did not want to come back to this Unsanitary house. The child has CP and she is constantly coughing and being suctioned and both parents smoke constantly inside the home all day! I am a non-smoker so I was hateing that! Her suction yanker was always on the floor when I went in, with the dog laying on it, and other household things that would floor the seasoned home nurse, and when I tell you this, my house is a mess so I am not a clean freak at all!! Oh and while I was there today, someone was murdered just a couple of houses down. So my fellow peers, I am suppose to start orientation with a well Known Home Health Agency next week, can it get better than this? Or is it pretty much the same no matter where you go? I am hopeing I can learn to like Home Health the way I have it pictured it would be. Oh yes, and when I called the agency and told them about the unsanitary conditions and I could not work there do they have any other cases, they said not right now, but when they talked to me last week they had 23 cases~! HMM?LOL
Once in a while I'd walk in, and find she was trying to wean the little girl from the vent, and she'd be so proud that she'd breathed on her own for 5 minutes before I got there. Yeah, nice game, but we don't play that while I'm here. I talked to her about it, and a lot of it stemmed from her wishes that her daughter just wasn't sick like this. (Kiddo did some independent breathing, so she usually tolerated this little exercise well)
quiltncatch
20 Posts
Congratulations!
I'm very proud of you!
Natalie