number of visits per day

[Passion for the Job]

Just curious the number of visits per day is required. Where I work, we are required to do 6 visits a day. If I do an admit, the it's an admit and 3 visits. I am a case manager also and we don't have admit nurses. We dont' have LPN's or others to depend on to help. We gather all of our own info for IDT meetings, set up HCA, deal with all of the phone calls, write orders, & drive a 50 mile radius. I am part time and have a case load of 7. Main question is the number of visits a day that you do. Thanks for the feedback.

[andre]

I'm not case managing any longer, but when I did I carried a caseload of 12 and generally did 4 visits and several phone calls per day. Five visits was BUSY and happened sometimes, but I never did more than that.

[Mazzi]

My day sounds like yours. I work three days a week and have had up to eight pt. I felt like I was drowning. Right now I have six and only two at the time are actively dying, so I am OK yet still have to do some work (ex. IDT notes) at home. It is even worse when you have a lot of faxes out to DR for orders and they all come back in about 5:00pm ( that means staying overtime). Home office doesn't like this but

"Oh Well". Yet today I was able to spend extra time with four different Pt/families just giving emotional support. That to me is what nursing is all about. I keep telling myself I would not be able to do this is I had a hall full of pt's wanting their meds. I love my job. That passion keeps me going. And learning to ask for help has helped. Good luck in all you do.

[aimeee, BSN, RN]

3 visits plus an admission is a heavy day. 4 visits could easily be a full day if they are all fairly acute, needing med changes, teaching etc. On the other hand 6 or 7 is quite reasonable if they are in the declining but controlled stage and they aren't more than a few minutes apart. Windshield time is a huge factor in what is reasonable.

[momtotwo]

We can carry up to 15 pts. We see each pt twice in a week for a minimum of 45 minutes. Our pts are at several facilities and some are 25 to 45 miles apart. Some days seeing 7 in a day is possible. All depends on what happens!

[RN4ustat, BSN, RN]

I do 20-22 visits per week and I try to always give myself a day in the office for recerts and other paperwork. I usually see about 5 pts per day but that depends on how much windshield time is required to see them all. I have several patients that are only located within a 2-3 mile radius of each other, so I can easily see 6 on that day and I have several that all live in one facility so that makes it easy to see 6-7. My schedule is in an uproar at the moment however because I'm currently trying to transition my patients to other case managers so that I can move to another position.

[Chaoticdreams33, MSN, RN]

I have not started yet, but while shadowing I learned that 3-4 visits per day is average. The nurses do case management with a caseload max of 12. Per diem nurses do visits every week too, so the case manager RN doesn't see every patient twice a week, but does see each patient at least once a week.

[shrinky]

At our agency. case managers are requried to do 20 visits a week and any visits over 20 are paid extra $$. I am the admission nurse and am required to do 2 admissions a day, sometimes I see a patient also. I also case manage the in hospital hospice patients and any pediatric hospice patients. If I have 2 visits in a day I do 1 admission as well. While one can visit 6 patients a day if they are in the same nursing home, or as others have commented, are within a few minutes of each other. It is important to have a sense of accomplishment about your job and if a patient needs extra time it should be allowed to be figured into the work load. Good luck, you sound like a caring nurse.