NurseKel

So I was contacted from my agency about a new case they could have coming on. I agreed to the potential hours and they set up a meet and greet. The baby can't come home until all 40 nursing hours are filled. The day before the meet and greet the family cancelled on me and wanted to reschedule via zoom. I attended the zoom, waited in the waiting room, and no one else showed up. I contacted the agency and they tried to reschedule and now Mom will only "meet" on a voice call. I was really pushing for an in person, in home meet and greet. I told the agency I didn't feel comfortable with agreeing to a case with just a phone call. I want to meet in person and see the work environment. The agency responded that the family can not meet in person, at all, because "their child is in the hospital".... Uhm yeah I understand that, but the parents can't ever leave to meet me? They never leave? Just seemed off because they apparently have other children and jobs, but couldn't stop by home to meet me for 10 minutes. The hospital is 15 minutes away. No one from the agency ever visited the house either. IDK just put a strange feeling in my stomach that something at home is very off or that they're hiding something. The house is in a potentially bad neighborhood and I feel like I'm being left in the dark to walk into complete unknown. Is it smart to pass on this case? Anyone encountered I know the agency potentially will shun me for turning away a new case and causing them to lose the case.

It's actually that overseeing physician that has a lot of say in cases keeping private duty nursing. I imagine most doctors sign the 485 for re-certification without even reading it, I also imagine a lot of families when visiting the doctor play everything up and make it seem like private nursing is still necessary when it's not. There's tons of fraud in private duty and tons of cases that have private nursing, but don't need it. I've ran into many cases where apparently the kid only has bad seizures when nursing isn't around, but absolutely none with the nurse for years. I've also encountered wealthy families who pay out of pocket for nursing, when their kids have CP diagnoses and just want a nurse around to help. I tell agencies that I'm no where near retirement and need to keep up on my skills so I need cases with actual medical care. I refuse cases with patient who eat by mouth, who just need transferring, or are just seizure precautions. I'm not a babysitter, maid, or personal companion for entertainment/stimulation/conversation for patient or parents. In the beginning of my career, I stayed at a basic case that was really pretty much babysitting for a year. When I left and tried to find a new job I found that I gained no skills and pretty much wasted my time for an entire year spoon feeding, playing legos, and changing diapers. Advocate for yourself, its your career. Demand higher skilled cases.

I make it known that I won't go out to anything unless they pay my hourly base wage while I'm at these meet and greets. NJ minimum wage is $12/hr and the big agencies in the state are all paying $10/hr for trainings and meet and greets!? Not sure how that's legal, but they're definitely not taking advantage of my time. If I'm getting fairly paid I have no problem staying as long as the family would like me to. 10+ years ago meet and greets weren't a thing, you went and shadowed or just worked the case. If agencies want to make meet and greets a thing make them pay you for it! They need you more than you need them! Tell them you'll only go out if the full hourly wage or you just won't work the case and see how quickly they bend for you. Every meet and greet I go to I get paid for an hour of my time, no matter what. Just demand it. I work for a large nation wide company and they gave in pretty quickly to me when they realized that they needed me, but I would absolutely not be taken advantage of. We're educated and licensed professionals don't let anyone treat you otherwise. I also won't go out to any case before reading over the 485 and speaking with the clinical RN supervisor about the case, these used to be standard, but now it's often skipped over. The college aged men in the offices of these agencies are no different than used car salesman, they know nothing about healthcare or the cases, but will try to up sell every case to you regardless of your skill level or personality. I wish all nurses in home care would start advocating for themselves and demanding fair pay all the time. Too many nurses are scared of upsetting the office staff when 99% of the time they will bend for you if you make them because they need you.