Travel on cruise with patient

Specialties Private Duty

Published

I am a peds homecare nurse and have been asked to accompany my patient for their make a wish cruise. My nursing agency was very unsure about how this could work and is looking into it. Meanwhile they asked me to look into getting a Florida licence. Is that doable? Im in Colorado. The cruise leaves from florida and goes to the Bahamas and Disney's private island. Any tips, stories advice about traveling out of state and internationally welcomed! This sounds awesome but first need to see if doable.

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Be aware that your agency will only pay you for X amount of work hours per day, however, your client will have access to you the entire time. You need to be ok with the situation before you agree to do this. No idea how the family is about things in general, but once was associated with a private client who went ballistic because his private duty nurses had no idea how to access health care in various countries on a trip to Europe, partly because they could not speak the languages. So, he thought he should fire his staff and go with my agency. I don't know what made him think that the agency would take better care of his out of country needs. I would be very wary of this situation and might be convinced not to do this. Start out by contacting your malpractice carrier and find out if you are going to be covered for the excursion.

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Ask your agency if they are going to pay for your FL license. It is almost useless to you except that you need it to do the work of the agency. They should pay.

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Specializes in Home Health, PDN, LTC, subacute.

I know a nurse who did this. She got paid 16 hrs a day and took care of all his needs. The mother got angry she refused to be on duty all night too. She thought it was her vacation and the nurse should pay for everything since she was getting 16 hrs a day pay. It was a bad situation. I would find out their expectations before you sign on.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

You don't need a FL license. They have a provision for make-a-wish, etc for nurses accompanying patients "temporarily living in FL for less than 30 days". Your 485 would be your standing orders. See the requirements here:

http://floridasnursing.gov/forms/visiting-nurse-per-req-info.pdf

. MAW will often supplement nursing costs if the child truly needs 16hr/day. A 5-7 day trip would be 2 nurses from my local MAW.

Have expectations clear up front.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Ask your agency if they are going to pay for your FL license. It is almost useless to you except that you need it to do the work of the agency. They should pay.

Unnecessary if you fulfill these requirements:

http://floridasnursing.gov/forms/visiting-nurse-per-req-info.pdf

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OP, make sure you read post number 4!

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Hello all! Thank you for replies, so sorry was away unexpectedly for a few days....Ok gotta check this out about the special exception for Make-a-Wish, I was really starting to think this just wouldn't come together... going to go read more now. I'll let all know what I find out as I move along in this process

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Hello all! Thank you for replies, so sorry was away unexpectedly for a few days....Ok gotta check this out about the special exception for Make-a-Wish, I was really starting to think this just wouldn't come together... going to go read more now. I'll let all know what I find out as I move along in this process

It's not just make a wish it's any nurse accompanying a patient to Florida for

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