New Home Health Nurse

renerian, BSN, RN · Oct 16, 2003

Glad you like it! There are so awesome home health nurses in this forum.

renerian

nursebear · Oct 17, 2003

I absolutely LOVE home health!!!! It is the most rewarding job I have had....Good luck....

CardioTrans, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2003

Welcome to one of the most independent fields in nursing! Glad you are loving your new job. Tons of great info out there about home care......... and tons of info right here on allnurses...... with a great group of nurses for support and knowledge. Good luck to you!

AmyRN1227 · Oct 24, 2003

I thought home health and case manager were totally different entities. You can do this through home health? Can you explain your job to me a little better and how did you find it? I'm thinking of moving out of Hospital nursing (I'm currently working on Oncology) into maybe home health or hospice.

Thanks!!!

Amy:D :D

renerian, BSN, RN · Oct 24, 2003

You can be a per diem RN or a case manager in home health where you carry a patient load and see clients that you have. Per diem staff will help you when your load gets to big to see them all. You do the initial evaluations as a case manager although I have done them as a per diem as well.

Case manager in home health is a patient care role.

renerian

AmyRN1227 · Oct 24, 2003

Thanks Renerian,

So how's the best way to get into this? Just look in job ads or call home health agencies? And what kind of experience would I need. What's the difference between case managers at the hospital and home health? I always thought you needed like a BSN or MSN to do case mgmt.

Thanks!!!

Amy

Traveler · Oct 28, 2003

I work prn but do initial evals, etc. Every single job in nursing requires a bit of case management I think. We coordinate and work with the liason really between all disciplines. I do think that in home health it's best to have some field experience before doing case mgt. in the office.

It helps to know what life is like in the field so you can do the best job of hh cm in the office. Our field nurses do lots of cm, but our office only case manager is the one who takes all of the initial referrals and makes some major decisions. She often decides which patients we should even admit based on their acuity knowing what our limitations are in the field from her own experience.

She also bangs her head against the walls many days trying to line everything up especially for a wound vac, IV, etc. patient and deals lots and lots with the wonderful insurance companies.

Ann

Shell7280 · Nov 1, 2003

My position as case manager involves initial evals, recerts, sup visits, prn SN visits occassionally if someone is unable to. I audit charts, contact MD's, and organize aide , provider and nursing service for all the patients. Right now I'm the only one cause it's a new agency and we only have 16 pts. The owner is the administrator and the DON and the privacy officer all at the same time, and much more. She is training me to be the DON when we have enough pts.

renerian, BSN, RN · Nov 25, 2003

How is your home health job going?

renerian

ays1974indiana · Jan 6, 2004

I am new to Home Health Care. I am a LPN and have only 3 months hosp exp. Was wanting to chat with someone who has been there and done that please. msn messenger-angela00770@hotmail or Yahoo messenger karmelspice4000 would like to chat live please if I could. If not email me and we can go from there. Thanks.

Ellie May · Feb 4, 2004

I would like to post a general question regarding case management for home health nurses (RN'S).

As a manager. I am loooking for good & preferablty free information for my newer nurses on case management. Does anyone have any leads on where i may find tools to help them?Anything from the internet would be especially helpful.

Thank you!