per diem vs. full-time HH

[meriposa]

Hello!!

I began my nursing career in HH 2 mon. ago. When I began w. the agency I knew they had been bought out by Amedisys and would be transitioning in the near future.

I was hired as a full-time salaried employee- 62,000/year (w. no HH exp) w/ 30 visit prod. per week. Mileage reim. 45cents, on-call every seventh weekend for 250/weekend + add'l per visit.

The census has been SUPER LOW since I've started and I'm only making about 11 visits per week. To top that off our office is dropping several of its busiest zipcodes, which means even less pts. They announced today that Amedisys is to begin paying us per visit, w. 25 prod./week. Supposedly they will figure our per visit rate by dividing our salary into the amount of visits per week.... On-call is now going to be expected on the weekdays and weekends, 25 dollars/day.

I feel like we are all going to take a serious pay cut....Im thinking of going to per diem for a couple diff. companies....

Can someone give me feedback about what they would do?? Do you enjoy per diem??

[caliotter3]

You can work for agencies waiting to be called to fill in shifts or visits, but I would recommend doing shift work for specific patients. That way you will have a set schedule and you can make plans to have X amount of shifts per week with X amount of income. You can arrange as many or as few shifts or visits per week that you want in order to supplement your income that is dwindling with your current agency. Shifts can be arranged for 4 to 16 hours per day, depending. I'm as happy as I'm gonna be doing shifts in home health. Sure beats working in a facility. Like most of us say, hh is nursing's best kept secret.