New to HH NSG, I'm killing myself..advice?

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Specializes in Hospice.

I'm a salaried RN doing mostly admits, recerts and ROC's. Every single patient I see since I started this job last month has called and told the agency they no longer want any other nurse but me to see them, or asks repeatedly to replace their visiting nurse with me. A lot of our nurses are from foreign countries and I'm American, so I attribute this phenomenon with the cultural issue.

THis stated, my salary is quota based which is actually illegal. But I'll handle that once I figure out a way to diplomatically broach the subject with my boss. Who I'm sure is aware that she's not allowed to do this. If not, she will be soon. I

f I don't do 7 f/u visits, or 5 admits/recerts/ROC's per day, my salary is docked. I'm not per diem, not hourly. I have a yearly salary and I'm working 7 days a week. At 1 point, my boss had me doing PDN NOC shift, then demanded I come in during the day right after a 10 hour shift and do 5 visits or have my pay docked. I'm actually looking for another job which is heart breaking because i'm finding that I TRULY LOVE hh nursing.

Is this kind of quota normal? I live in Houston. To drive 40 miles between patients, which is the typical distance, usually more but usualy not much less than that, with traffic, I'm not getting home until 8 pm most nights then we have a 24 hour turn around time for charting. So I'm not sleeping either.

What is the normal patient visit that you see during the day, is this quota thing normal? and what are some reasonable expectations that I can have of my employer as far as my workload and responsibilities? I'm reading through all of your threads now, just looking for a little more insight for when I get to work tomorrow.

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

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There are literally hundreds of home health agencies in any state. I am sure this is a smaller privately owned agency that has no qualms making the big bucks off the sweat of your back.

No, this quota is NOT normal or legal. What does your contract say?

Demand to cut back to the required load that was agreed on. There are state agencies, hospital based agencies, county agencies, (and more) that would love to have you.

I hope you are not in a situation where you would have to stay to get a required amount of experience.

They are using and abusing you.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Thank you very much for your insight. I don't have a contract. I'm on their payroll, but no contract. Should I be asking for one? We never had a load that was agreed upon so I'm having a really hard time having to get this done and then come home and chart it all. I am having to stay to get experience. I have zero.

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i work private duty home health but i only work 40 hours and i signed a non compete but never a contract. you should not be working 7 days a week. that is illegal if it is long term. in wisconsin the law states that the most one can legally work without a day off is 21 days with two days off or 14 days with one day off. i would look into what is legal in your state. i know that the agencies out here only run about 5 visits a day plus rotate call nights. there are also legal issues with having so many hours off after a shift. i know when i lived in iowa you had to have at least 8 hours off between shifts and could not work more than 16 hours in a day. did you sign a non-compete form? if you didn't and you love HH then i would look for a different agency. i landed this job with only a year of LPN experience but i was a new grad RN. if you do have a non compete signed i would say suck it up and do your dues in a LTC and try HH again in a year or however long your non-compete is for. mine is 6 months. our HH nurses also get reimbursed for milage and i know the agencies around here offer that too.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Im an exempt employee. It is not illegal for me to work 7 days a week. I dont get the breaks or time off that hourly employees do. Im a visiting nurse, I don't do PDN except as a one time event when the lvn that normally worked hadhad to go to a funeral out of state. I do NOT love pdn. Lol I have tons of experience with it and would never ever go back to that. I love hh. And i dont know ablut wuere you are, but to be a salaried rn in hh here, you need quite a few years experience. I can't go to another agency except as a per visit nurse. Can't afford to live on that. :(

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according to the fair labor standards act an exempt employee can work up to 24 hours but after that 24 is required to have at least 8 hours of sleep time, subject to no overtime, and from what i found in texas law is that you can work any amount of days in a row legally as long as you are not working in retail. retail in texas is required 2 days off in a 7 day workweek and it's a misdemeanor if they do not allow it. weird, huh?! but being exempt is only about pay. i would check to see if you really should be classified as exempt. the fair labor standards act as the list of duties that allow you to be exempt. they said that a lot of employees are misclassified. may give you another leverage. you can find the list of duties on the FLSA website. my dad works as a vp of hr in wisconsin and i guess there are 6 or so states that actually state that you can only work so many days in a row. i would try to get a contract in place so that there are some boundaries if you need to stay there. otherwise you are going to be miserable! sorry this happened :(

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Specializes in Hospice.

I talked to an investigator with the wage and hr. Div. Of.the board of labor. She has to pay me base pay that doesnt change.unless.ive actually.missed a full day of work. Otherwise, youre right. Shes treating me as an hourly employee and must then pay me.for my hours worked. Which is....astronomical at this point.

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Specializes in Pedi.
Im an exempt employee. It is not illegal for me to work 7 days a week. I dont get the breaks or time off that hourly employees do. Im a visiting nurse, I don't do PDN except as a one time event when the lvn that normally worked hadhad to go to a funeral out of state. I do NOT love pdn. Lol I have tons of experience with it and would never ever go back to that. I love hh. And i dont know ablut wuere you are, but to be a salaried rn in hh here, you need quite a few years experience. I can't go to another agency except as a per visit nurse. Can't afford to live on that. :(

Not exactly. In Massachusetts, labor laws say that employees must have one full day of rest per week. Every state has different laws in that sense... there is no federal law about time off, as far as I know. Being "exempt" just means you are exempt from the employer's obligation to pay overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 hrs/week. HOWEVER, if you are being docked pay, you are not being treated as a salaried employee and they owe you overtime if you are working greater than 40 hrs/week. If you are salaried, they must pay you your full salary for any week in which you do any work with only a few exceptions.

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Specializes in Hospice.

She changed my pay after being told I needed it in writing. I'm now looking for a new job, and, as I'm more.than familiar with the fair labor standards act....monday, (payday) is going to be a tragic day for her if my paycheck isn't correct. We shall see.

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