skyvortex01

Wow!! That is low for an MSN prepared nurse! I'm a May 09 RN BSN new graduate doing home care and get $75/hr for opening a case and $55/hr for revisits. I would try another agency. Good luck!

Thank you for your comments. NRSKarenRN, I did checked out the wound, ostomy, continence forum and found it very helpful. Love your posts:) Also, I would love to shadow a CETN nurse but our agency is fairly small and we don't have one on staff. But it did give me the idea of asking a local hospital if they will let me shadow one of their CETN nurses for a day. Any other suggestions on how to expand my knowledge/skill base are welcome.

Although home care is not the ideal first job for a new grad, it was the only one i was offered so I was wondering if some of you seasoned home care nurses could answer some of my questions. Today, for example, the visiting dr saw a pt that has a 0.5in x 0.5in x 0.25 in wound on his lateral malleolus. His (first) primary care dr said that it was a venous stasis ulcer and to just put bacitracin and leave OTA. THen the visiting dr took over and said that it's cellulitis and ordered Keflex po, a wound care nurse, and a wound care specialist. I asked him if he wanted me to put anything on the wound and he just said to have a wound care nurse see the pt and treat. Am I missing something? Does the wound care nurse make decisions on her own as to what should be put on the wound, dressing-wise? Also, don't primary care dr's treat wounds like this also? I'm just wondering if he was just trying to pass off the responsibility to someone else, when he could have taken care of it himself. I feel a little bit guilty since I'm the one that referred the pt to this dr after the family asked me if I could find them a visiting dr. Anyway, it's times like this that I honestly wish I was in a hospital setting with a nurse by me, where I can just ask her questions. I did notify the dir of nursing and told her of the situation. She said that as a home care nurse, I am also a "wound care nurse" and that I can see the pt. But I asked her if she can go out to see the pt, to placate the dr that a wound care nurse was there to see the pt. (She has more experience than me with wound care but she's not a certified wound care nurse). Apparently she just used nursing judgement and placed a hydogel dressing on it. Thanks for your thoughts, comments. PS-Do a lot of private home care agencies have certified wound care nurses? I'm assuming that majority of the home care agencies affiliated with hospitals have them..