homehealth_rn

Hi everyone! I'm new to home health and it's been a big change going from hourly to salary. My question for those of you who are not paid hourly, do you get paid for your staff meetings and/or case conferences? At my agency we don't get paid for eith...

I would absolutely REFUSE to go back!!! Your agency should put your safety first! I had a situation in which I suspected a patient's son was running a meth lab in her home. I spoke with management and we reported it to the sheriff's office and did no...

I used mapquest when I first started. Now I'm pretty familiar with my area and never have to use mapquest. Mapquest will give several different routes and give you the travel times so that you can figure out which will be the most efficient.

We had a meeting last week and our director basically told us that we need to be spending more time in the home because of how it looks when we bill. She said that we need to spend more than 30 minutes in the home, but she didn't say it was a rule. S...

We haven't had pay cuts yet, but we have had layoffs. Last month, a nurse manager and secretary lost their jobs. It's scary. 15% is a huge amount! Sorry to hear that!

Never heard of that! I know what you mean though about the "little things that only take a few minutes." Due to job cuts, our secretary was laid off and now we have to do our own faxes and I swear the fax machine hates me. So I spend a good ten minut...

Wow, I can't believe it's been 7 months since I posted that. Several nurses voiced their concern regarding the lengthy meetings and case conference during that time. Management has cut back on the length of time of the meetings. A big problem was tha...

If you go to Denny's every morning for breakfast and tell the nurse "thanks for making me late to an appointment to look at a house with my son"

I have an almost 2 year old who goes to daycare and I try to finish all of my charting while she's at daycare so that I don't have to bring it home with me. If I do chart at home, it's after she goes to bed. It's tough, but it will get easier! I try ...

We have 3 physicians who do not allow point of care PT INRs. All of the other doctors are fine with it.

Thank you, indbletrble. This is exactly the point that I made when I went to management. Our supervisor called the patient and caregiver and spoke with them, and they have agreed to apply a wet to dry dressing if this happens again.

Hi all! I want to find out what your agency's policy or protocol is for malfunctioning wound vacs after hours. I'm asking because I was on call last night and had to drive 45 minutes to a patient's home at 2 a.m because his wound vac was leaking. I w...

Thanks paddler. I can understand why you would have made that visit, and I would have done the same thing. I wouldn't have had a problem if the pt or cg's were physically unable to remove the vac and apply a saline dressing due to vision, dexterity, ...

Does she not know what standard precautions are??? And I really don't understand how you could teach everything on the 485 in one visit.

I use plastic containers. The nurses who drive SUVs have the plastic containers with drawers. I wish they would fit in my trunk.

I agree with Kate. Sometimes I may have several PICCs and then go for months without having any. Then we seem to get wound vacs in batches too. I live in SC, so we're in diabetic country down here.

If you have concerns, you should contact your supervisor. If you still aren't comfortable, then refer to your state's board of nursing. You should never have to do anything you feel isn't ethical or legal.

I have to be honest, this would gross me out. Seems like the person who had intercourse with her should be the one cleaning it up.

We get 0.56 per mile and it is tax free.

When I give a 9-10am window, I'm confronted with 'can you make it 9:30?' When I get that, I just say I will try my best, but I can't promise. As far as the lady demanding you to come right then when you are 45 minutes away, I would just politely tell...

There's really no way he could drive you around without you breaking a HIPAA law. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm on my cell all day calling MD offices, supervisors, MSW, other nurses, lab, etc regarding patients. Your husband would hear ev...

If the office nurses are trained to be in the field, then they should absolutely help you guys out! We had a really bad week last week. We're down one nurse who quit. Then one was on vacation and 2 called out sick. Our nurse managers made a few routi...

I agree with kiszi. I didn't work in home health while I was pregnant, but I worked in a hospital. I was also very paranoid about taking care of any pts on contact or airborn precautions. I spoke with the hospital's infectious control doctor, and he ...

I also try to document as much as I can in the home. I like to chart everything except the narrative in the home. If it's a nasty, stinky home, then I just make notes and chart at home and it's usually at night after my child goes to bed. If I don't ...