New to home health and the only places hiring are places like

caliotter3 · May 19, 2009

Both mentioned employers are red flag employers. If you can hold out for better opportunities you should do so.

changeofpaceRN · May 19, 2009

Both mentioned employers are red flag employers. If you can hold out for better opportunities you should do so.

Isn't that sad? I just want a nice agency that treats nurses and patients like they deserve...

caliotter3 · May 19, 2009

I have met individuals, or several individuals, who acted as you describe, at different times, but the person or the behavior never lasts for long. Six months down the road, new people come in with different attitudes or the person changes, and their actions are not characteristic of the person when you first met them. Agencies build their reputations based on the behavior of their internal employees, but most don't seem to care how they come across to others, employee or patient.

ArwenEvenstar · May 19, 2009

Maxim and PSA and other companies like this. I guess I have to get my "experience somewhere". I'm willing to do private duty since I'm new to HH but I don't want to work for a company that cares about the money before the patients- does that even exist? Any companies to recommend that hire with no HH experience? I've tried them ALL it seems.

Hi! I initially worked for a "mom and Pop" home health agency. The owners were a husband and wife, and the wife was an RN. They were the best place I have ever worked for - they truly cared about the patients and nurses too!! They went the extra mile! Unfortunately, they retired and sold the company to a big national chain company. Things changed then....I ended up leaving, as did a number of other employees.

Now I work for Maxim. Truly I have mixed feelings about them. I do private duty (RN). The nurse supervisors are great. But the "staffing guys" are complete dingbats and mess things up all the time. The incompetence is overwhelming....

I have heard NIGHTMARE things about PSA! I would avoid them for sure.

For private duty, general nursing experience is enough. You don't need "home health experience". By the way, if you really need work, there seems to be a lot of private duty nurse cases available. At least around here at my agency. I am constantly called and asked to work!

There are stressors to private duty (families can have coping issues) but I like it better than the hospital where I burned out. You don't necessarily lose all your skills, as some cases are pretty high tech. Like one patient I care for is vent dependent, trach, nebulizer treatments, etc. It is busy and challenging. Other cases are so boring you want to cry!

Good luck!!

changeofpaceRN · May 19, 2009

With the cases that are boring to death, are you allowed to bring a personal book or something to pass the time?

caliotter3 · May 19, 2009

With the cases that are boring to death, are you allowed to bring a personal book or something to pass the time?

This is totally up to the family/patient. Some allow you to read, watch TV, do homework, knit, etc., as long as you keep an eye on the patient and do your responsibilties. You will find most free time when you are on night shift. There are even places where they want you to keep the lights out in the patient's room at night and/or sit outside the patient room. I had one patient tell me that he wanted the lights out and he allowed the nurses to sleep as long as they could respond to his vent alarms. I told him that I couldn't do that because part of the job is to monitor the vent operation, so I stayed awake (hard as that was with the lights out), and did the job the way I saw fit. Some nurses take advantage of a situation. There are always things to do for the patient to take up most of the shift time. If I don't disturb the patient, I clean equipment, do light housekeeping in the patient room, spend time looking up stuff for the patient, and do paperwork. I go out of my way to keep "extracurricular" activities out of sight of the family. It tends to present a poor image, no matter how much you do for the patient.

ArwenEvenstar · May 19, 2009

With the cases that are boring to death, are you allowed to bring a personal book or something to pass the time?

Oh yea, you can bring stuff to do! It is nice to be able to get "stuff" done while working. I don't have a lap top but I know nurses that bring their lap top, connect to the wireless access, and surf the web! I get a lot of reading done. (I am working on a masters degree- not in nursing- and I always have a ton of reading for classes.) I get other little personal things done that I bring with me.

At first, a boring case can be great. But after awhile the "novelty" of getting paid to read a book and do just a little nursing care can wear off. I was on a SUPER BORING case for over a year, and after about a year I just couldn't take it anymore. There were other issues, but the monotony was really getting to me. I dreaded going to work thinking about sitting there reading a book. It was time for me to move on to other cases...which I did.

ArwenEvenstar · May 20, 2009

This is totally up to the family/patient. Some allow you to read, watch TV, do homework, knit, etc., as long as you keep an eye on the patient and do your responsibilties. You will find most free time when you are on night shift. There are even places where they want you to keep the lights out in the patient's room at night and/or sit outside the patient room. I had one patient tell me that he wanted the lights out and he allowed the nurses to sleep as long as they could respond to his vent alarms. I told him that I couldn't do that because part of the job is to monitor the vent operation, so I stayed awake (hard as that was with the lights out), and did the job the way I saw fit. Some nurses take advantage of a situation. There are always things to do for the patient to take up most of the shift time. If I don't disturb the patient, I clean equipment, do light housekeeping in the patient room, spend time looking up stuff for the patient, and do paperwork. I go out of my way to keep "extracurricular" activities out of sight of the family. It tends to present a poor image, no matter how much you do for the patient.

Yea, things can vary with different cases. On one case I worked, the family was super involved and took complete care of things like cleaning equipment, keeping the patients room clean, etc. So the nurse only had direct care nursing to do. And this particular patient only had about 15 minutes of needed care per hour. The rest of the time you sat there. There really was nothing else to do. The family had no problem with the nurse reading, using a computer, knitting, whatever. I find most families are fine with this as long as the work is getting done. There are exceptions...One case I worked, the family was rather demanding. They did not like to see the nurse not actively doing something related to the patient's care. But sometimes you would just run out of things to do!! I always "hid" my "extracurricular" activities. I'd hide my book in the patient chart notebook for instance! haha!