New to HH, Happy but nervous.......

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Hi there. I have 2.5 years of RN hospital experience. I have had a love/hate relationship with it from day one. I am about to start a new HH job/case manage. I really think I am going to love it, even if it is long hours. I am just a little nervous about being on my own. I think I will do well with the organization and I am confident about my abilities. But I am still nervous about it. Is this normal? I will be given a good orientation period. I have been wanting this for so long, why am I freaking out now? I am leaving a good job but I don't like hospital nursing. I will never know if this is for me until I do it. I just hope I have strong enough assessment skills with my limited experience! Any advice?

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Specializes in Ortho/Peds/MedSURG/LTC.

Of course its "norm" to feel nervous about a job you expect to do well at. My imagination makes every patient much worse than they really are prior to seeing them for the 1st time. You know you are going to be pretty much alone in the field. Murphy's Law kicks my derriere..without giving me a break every time. Be prepared for the worse and your day will run smoother. My worse problem is the mileage/lunch thing. I have to squeeze lunch in the time somewhere...hate it, because I eat on the fly. I don't like putting 200-300 miles on my vehicle every day either. 47 cents per mile. However I like being my own boss out there. Good Luck hope you love it.

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Its normal to be nervous and orientation will help. Even though you are alone in the patients home you will always have a supervisor to call if needed. Also, even after you're off orientation ask the more experienced nurses questions about time management etc. I'm sure they'd be willing to help. The biggest challenge in HH seems to be finding time to make necessary calls and time to catch up on charting. If you can deal with those things I'm willing to bet you'll never go back onto the hospital once you leave it.

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Nervous is normal. Give yourself a chance.

some people are more ambivalent about decisions than others. Some seem to always know exactly what they want and go straight for it. Does it ever not work out? Sure. So you get up and try again, do something else.

It will be alright. Just take time to get used to something new. Let us know how it goes, please?

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Just want to say that although It's only been a couple weeks and I am still orienting, I love it!!! Yay! Feeling a little overwhelmed but so happy, I really feel like I found my perfect job. I feel like I got my life back, less stress and more sleep!Yay!

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Good for you!!! I'm very glad you are happy with your new job. I totally agree with you, that's the reason I went to home health, a lot less stressful. When I worked LTC, I would leave feeling like I didn't take good enough care of my patients. I always felt like I could work 24 hours and still not get done what needed to be done in an 8 hour shift. Not to mention the physical and emotion stress that never went away even when I got home. It was really affecting my home life with my hubby and children, too tired to do anything! Now all my attention goes to one patient and they get all their needs taken care of immediately and I don't go home feeling like a horrible nurse or too tired to take care of my family. And the bonus is I get to do peds which I absolutely love!!!

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