Need Advice!!! Home health job

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Need Advice!!! Just applied for home health nurse job. Going in tommorrow to get my first nine patients for next week. Don't know what questions to ask....What should I expect on my one hour vists with patients. Any experienced home health RN???? :)

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Are you going to be accompanied by another nurse who will be showing you the ropes? Sounds as if you are new to this. You should not be going out on your own without some training. Speak up.

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They said my first few visits I will be with someone, but still super nervous and want to be prepared for what to expect. :)

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Specializes in School Nurse.

I haven't done HH in about 5 years, but this is how we did it. I was oriented for a week or so - I did have 10 years of nursing experience behind me. I think they had an orientation check list - make sure you feel comfortable with things before they let you fly on your own. The most complicated thing was learning the paperwork :) Care-wise, its alot of physical assessment, so make sure you feel comfortable with that.

Our agency would get together once a week and get our patients. We also did a daily phone conference. We would then call, talk to the patient or family, and make our appointments. If there was a condition, medication or treatment I wasn't sure about I would send time either at home or at the office looking things up (this was before the mobile internet so you probably could do this from anywhere). I was always a bit nervous meeting them the first time. On admits, we would do all the various paperwork and assessing. Followup visits were vital signs, education, treatments, etc etc. Whatever they were getting home health for.

Make sure you have plenty of supplies and keep your bag or whatever you carry your supplies in well stocked. And if you feel you can't do something, ask for help. I had a bad run of not being able to get blood from my patients. Had my original mentor come out and give me tips. Never did get that skill back, and its funny because I was GOOD when I was a newer nurse, but that was with young and healthy people, and most of the ones I tried to get blood from in HH were elderly.

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There is a home health forum here, check it out for lots of information from current and seasoned home health nurses.

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Thank you so much Heidi. I love this forum. I feel so much better :) So what should I stock my bag up with or what did you feel like you used the most?

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Specializes in M/S, ICU, ICP.

your agency will usually have a list of what you show carry as far as minimums. the rest will be learned as you go along. i did hhc for about 7 years. you either really fall in love with it or find out rather quickly it is not your cup of tea. i loved it until they closed down many of our rural offices and expected us to take larger areas and more counties. i spent more time driving to the patient than i did with them. it was not unusal to have to go as far as 120 plus miles one way to get to the first pt. rural communities are good to work in but the driving and paperwork finally got to me.

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you either really fall in love with it or find out rather quickly it is not your cup of tea. i loved it until they closed down many of our rural offices and expected us to take larger areas and more counties. i spent more time driving to the patient than i did with them. it was not unusal to have to go as far as 120 plus miles one way to get to the first pt. rural communities are good to work in but the driving and paperwork finally got to me.

the agency itself can make or break how you feel regarding home health care. i've worked for 2 agencies and they were completely different.... one of them i really hated, the other (where i'm at now) is pretty good and for the most part i like it. i do know this....i don't think i could ever work in a facility again.

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I worked for a home health agency while in nursing school. I can't tell you what you will need as a nurse in home health, but I would encourage you to bring only what you need. In some homes, you can pick up nasty little hitchhikers (bedbugs, fleas, roaches) if you bring in a bulky bag with lots of places for creatures to hide.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

moved to the Home Health Nursing forum

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