nurse.j.

You got this!! I did my MSN- FNP program, working as a 0.6 in the hospital while having a 3, 5, and 10 year old. My husband was incredibly supportive as well. The school I went to had live lectures 1-2 times a week, plus didactic work, but it was manageable. Once clinicals started (spread out over about 6 months), I just had to do it and still worked 2-12s a week and clinical hours. It was rough at times, but not impossible. Just have to be creative with studying and getting work done. I'm so glad I did it when I did, because even as kids get older and "easier", there's more stuff they're involved in and activities to go to, and with my clinic schedule now, I can totally do it. You got this mama!

I just got my NP at 40 years old. I plan on working until I'm at least 65, so that's still another 25+ years of working and knew I couldn't do it much longer as a bedside nurse. So no, I definitely don't think it's too late. If you're not planning on working much longer, then maybe not, but if you plan on working for another 15+ years, I say totally! Why is it that you are not wanting to continue as a RN? Are you bedside or other fields?

Hello! When I returned to work after having my second baby, I was doing HH CM & pumping in my car in between visits. I wore scrubs to see patients, but always wore a nursing tank top under my top or with a scrub jacket. I didn’t wear a lab coat, but I think that’s a great idea. I would bring antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer in my pump bag. But basically I just lifted my scrub top/unzip jacket, put a blanket over my lap, “washed” my hands and hooked up and pumped. You can use those Medela no water pump cleaning parts wipes in between if you want, but I always have just put all my parts in a ziplock or reuseable bag and in the fridge or cooler with ice packs while out in the field, and washed & sanitized everything at the end of the day. Never had any issues of contamination. Good luck! And congrats on your baby!

Hey all looking for some advice! I had an interview in May and was offered a job at a local hospital in their CCU/CVICU (you can be crossed train to CVICU), but turned the job down d/t starting my BSN program (I’ve been an ADN RN for 6 years now) and not wanting to start a new job with 3 little kids, all at the same time. I currently have worked 3 years on a MTU and am NIH and ACLS certified, charge nurse and began my nursing career in PCU. Originally the CCU managers said because I completed an 18 month residency in PCU with some training on CCU (in the same hospital system), they were not going to require me to do another residency, just some company onboarding classes and possibly rhythm classes or so a residency if I didn’t feel comfortable. I plan on reaching out to those managers in June when I graduate, so I was wondering if there was any recommendations on review materials specific to CCU that I can start on now, so I feel comfortable enough to skip the residency commitment? My current MTU does some drips, but we have certain parameters before they have to be upgraded to PCU. Thank you!

I actually ended up going back to hospital nursing. I'm a 0.6 on 12s and my managers are so flexible with our schedules. It's the best thing for my family right now and I'm trying to get my BSN and would not have time to do it working 5 days a week. Are you looking at doing something similar?

You need to speak up about your training! I work on an incredibly busy Med-Tele floor with a 4:1 ratio (sometimes 5 if we are short) and the charge almost NEVER takes pts. Your preceptor should not be charging also, the days they charge, they need to assign you a different preceptor. CN is entirely different role and one that you won't be needing to know how to do yet, as a new nurse. The first couple years as a new nurse, are really tough, no matter what unit you work on. It sounds like you have a particularly challenging situation, because you aren't getting the training you deserve. Speak up to your managers and know, you're going to make mistakes and things aren't always going to go well. I remember feeling the same way as a new nurse, I thought another hospital or unit, was my answer...it's not, it just time. Time to learn and hone in on your craft. You'll get there, even 5 years into nursing, I still have questions, I still forget things and still make mistakes; we are all human after all. But please talk with your unit managers and tell them, you need more education, direction and training. This is a very unfair and unsafe situation to be starting out in.

Hey all! It's been a long time since I have posted on here and I have had already a few different nursing jobs since I graduated from my ADN program in 2013. I started out as a resident PCU nurse and did a year and half there. I left the bedside bc of an awful experience and did HH Case Management for almost 2 years. I really enjoyed HH, but I did not enjoy the paperwork and never feeling like I was "off". So I got a job on a Med Tele floor at an awesome hospital with a great team. I've been there a year and am expecting my 3rd and last baby Feb 2018. I have been wanting to go back to get my BSN, but I had my second child in Dec 2015. I'm itching to get it done and there's a bridge program at my local uni and I could start Fall 2018...the only thing is my baby will only be about 6 months then. I just don't want to stay on Med Tele forever and would like to move towards my goal of becoming a Maternity Support Services RN, and I can't do that until I have my BSN at least. But going to school with a newborn, 2 year old and 7 year old, while working is a lot to juggle even with my husbands help (he works full time too). Do I just suck it up and start school next Fall or wait until my kiddos are a little older?

I just wanted to ask you since I saw your response on this thread...maybe you can help me out here? I worked in the PCU at a very terrible managed hospital/unit for 1.5 years as my first nursing job. It was hell, so I got out and started HH Case managing. The family friendly hours are what attracted me to the position. I've been doing it for now 1.5 years and the paperwork, call, being attached to my iPad/phone...working alllll the time is getting old. I miss having coworkers to commiserate and lean on during the day also. I have a young baby, almost 1 & a kindergartener and trying to figure out if I should give the hospital a try again. Different company, hospital may help. I'm just trying to find the best work/life balance and job that I'll enjoy. I think my first job scared me away from hospital nursing. Any advice is greatly appreciated! TY!

Yeah I have a friend who is in the sales part (non clinical) and she said that she couldn't imagine doing her job with small children. I know everyone is different but I'm looking for work/life balance and I don't think the liaison position would give me that. The big money sounds nice but my family comes first. I have a second interview with both companies this week. DaVita is very interested in me and I did some more research and the job sounds like something I'd enjoy, plus for room for advancement in the company. AND I can just go to work and come home. I have a friend who works for the company and she really loves it and says the company is great. We would also both get a referral bonus, should I be hired and accept the job. Doesn't sound too shabby to me. Will keep y'all posted. Thanks for your replies! :)

Hello everyone! I've been trying to search this board for some help, but can't seem to really find what I'm looking for. I am a nurse of 3 years, stared my career in a step-down/PCU unit and after about a year and a half, began my HH career as a RN Case Manager. I really have enjoyed HH, for the patient education/1:1 interaction and flexible schedule. However, the agency I have been working for is not paying me enough and the paperwork is endless. I'm also feeling like there is something else out there for me. I have been applying to different positions that are similar to mine, however not in a HH setting. I have been moved on to the next level of interviewing for a RN Clinical Sales Liaison position with CVS (recently bought out Coram) infusion and a Patient Educator/CM with DaVita. The recruiter and manager explained that my role for CVS would be primarily going around to local hospitals that have accounts with us, educating patients and families that will be discharging home with infusion. My second role would be to assist the Sales Liasion (who is not Clinical) with maintaining and marketing referrals. They said the first 6 months is tough, but after the training and getting the job down, hours can be flexible (M-F & no weekends or holidays) and allow for work/life balance. It sounds like an exciting job with more career advancement and nice pay, benefits etc. But I worry I may get in over my head and be doing a lot of work at home too and I have two young ones (almost 6 & almost 1) & my fiancé (who also works full time). The second job is an in office job with DaVita, making calls/coordination of care/case management & patient education over the phone. It's more set hours M-F, with a little flexibility, just as long as I clock my 40 hours a week. The job doesn't pay as much and possible could be an adjustment being in office all week long. However good benefits, work/life balance guarantee. Does anyone have experience with either of these types of jobs and is it impossible to have a family/life/work balance with the liaison position? Thank you! :)

Hey hopping on here because I'm interested in breaking into L&D, M/B also. I worked on a busy step down unit for almost 2 years and then started HH case management for the past year and half. I want to get back to pursuing my dream of L&D but not sure how to get a job! All the jobs say experience required, so how do you even land an interview? Thinking about taking doula course and then possible certification. Would that be helpful for my resume? Thank you!

I know this an old thread but my heart keeps calling me to L&D or M/B. After having an amazing experience at a wonderful hospital with my second birth, I knew I wanted to go back to pursuing my dream of being an OB nurse. I just am not entirely sure how to get there because "I don't fit the mold". I graduated in June 2013, with my senior practicuum experience in Pediatric Nursing. After a terrible experience in the pediatric ED, I had no idea where to go in nursing. M/B was something I had always loved but was highly discouraged to begin my career there, so I settled for a step down unit as my first job. It was a crazy, stressful, surreal year and half! Though the knowledge I had gained was infallible, I was burnt out so quickly due to a continually short staffed unit and increasing ratios/acuities of patients. I had a friend introduce me to the field of home health nursing and the schedule appeal and no weekends drew me in. I began as a home health case manager RN, working with mostly geriatric patients. A month after I started my job, I found out I was pregnant with my second child. The job was amazing for the flexibility with my then 4 year old son, and the days I wasn't feeling well due to being pregnant I could schedule my patients around that. It was great - for a while. However, I never stopped working. Always answering emails, phone calls, scheduling, paperwork, somehow still even on my days off. After I returned to work from maternity leave, I decided to just work per diem to lighten my load of work, now with having two children and a household to manage with my husband. However, it's the same thing still...not only do I never stop working, I'm no longer fulfilled by my job. My heart still keeps calling me to OB nursing. I've applied to some jobs but never get any bites. I have been recently looking into doula training and then possibly midwifery. Would the doula training help my resume when applying to L&D jobs? All of them seem to require experience. Any knowledge or advice is greatly appreciated!

I'm not a new nurse but looking for a way into MB also! I did a year and half on a PCU/tele step down and then left the hospital to do HH case management for the last year and half. Needless to say, the paperwork is becoming too much for myself and my work/life balance and I have 2 small children. Any recommendations on breaking in? Ty!

I'm hoping to make the switch to a job like this in the next couple of years. Was a PCU nurse for almost 2 years and then have been a HH Case Manager the last 1.5 years. Is a BSN or higher education preferred?

I'm a Home Health Case Manager and although it's not hospice, I know it's very similar. There is a lot of charting...but that's the trade off for making your own schedule and not working hospital hours. In the beginning the charting does take a while, you do spend some of your "free time" charting, however, once you find a method that works for you to get your charting done in a timely manner, you won't be spending your evenings after work or weekends catching up (not that you won't ever have that again...I do that when I've been lazy and just wanted to be done early). The way I schedule my patients is, I leave a couple of hours at the end of my day (try to see my last patient by 2), where my kids are still with the sitter, to make calls, catch up on charting and look at the next day. That way, when I'm home and my kids and husband are home, I'm there 100%. Not to say that a coworker won't ever call you after hours or you won't look at a chart...but I do that when my kids are in bed or being taken care of by my husband. I couldn't imagine going back to hospital nursing...I love the flexibility of Home Health and the patient care. You have 1 on 1 time with them and their families...time that you never have in the hospital. Not every day is great, you still have patients and family members that are a**holes or treat you in an unpleasant manner...but there are far more pleasant and very appreciative patients and families out there than their are rude. People that really love their home health clinicians. Another thing to get used to, is nursing in an uncontrolled environment. You have to be able to think on your toes, get creative in people's homes and be a strong advocate for them. Sometimes you are the only eyes on that patient. It can be frustrating at times, you may get a last minute order for a lab draw and not have supplies to complete...you show up to another colleagues patients house to provide care and the supplies you think they have, aren't there. You can spend hours tracking down the correct physician to get an order...but you take the bad days with the good. My ex MIL is a hospice RN and has done it for years. The cards and letters she'd get from families of past patients and the way she'd light up about helping them in a way you just don't have time for in the hospital, really turned me on to HH and Hospice. It is it's own beast and a totally different type of nursing... it's not for everyone or an "easy way out" , but it is where I feel like I belong in the world of nursing today.

I decided I'm going to stay with my agency when I return from maternity leave and see how it goes. I want to at least make it to my 1 year (mid March) before I make any decisions about checking other agencies out/jobs. HH is something I really enjoy and the flexibility you just can't beat.

I've been doing HH now since March of this year with a smaller company and working as a RN case manager. I do mostly admits and RN visits but do quite a bit of reg visits too. I see sometimes up to 7-8 patients a day. I'm very efficient at charting and most days it's easier for me to do some documentation in the home and finish the rest at the end of my day. I do enjoy the job itself, the patient interaction, the flexibility and all the other reasons everyone loves HH. However my agency is very unorganized. Supplies are a disaster all the time and trying to get them on time to patients...poor communication and management always seems to be flying by the seats of their pants. They don't train employees well and sometimes seem to do things that are a little shady. My territory has changed several times and some days when they have me help out in other areas, I'm spanning like 30+mi radius. It makes for a very long day. There's just a lot of things management could do to make everyone's jobs much easier and patients happy. I'm leaving for maternity leave in 3 weeks and wanted to go back as PRN until my son is in school fulltime next Fall so I'll only have to worry about childcare for my baby (we all know expensive daycare is). I'm trying to decide if I want to go back to my agency or if I should give another agency a try as the same problems that have been there will most likely still be there. I am slightly concerned about charting after work and the time it does take away from my family some nights. But I am not required to have my phone on after 5, so I guess that's when I have to have the discipline to chart before I go home and turn my phone off at end of the day. I have thought about leaving HH all together but the flexibility for when my son is in school and I go back to fulltime, you just can't beat. Any thoughts or encouragement is greatly appreciated! I do not want to job hop and don't want to be naive to think that other agencies don't have their issues too. I do have the opportunity to go back to the hospital, to a similar unit but different hospital if I should choose (my friend is the manager there) But then at the same time, I left the hospital originally for a reason and I don't want to think going back (different hospital) will be much different either. Thank you for reading :)

Recently my caseload has become more difficult and they're sending me out in the field to do procedures and care I have never done before. My training was very limited and there was no checklist of skills to complete with my preceptor before I was allowed to go out in the field alone. Recently was sent out to change a wound vac....never done that before and literally had to wing it...like run out to my car and watch a quick youtube...I felt so uncomfortable and ended up having to have another nurse come out because I couldn't get the seal correct. I told my DON I would not go back to see that pt until I had proper training. Another pt they want me to manage is a trach patient which I have no experience with. I'm starting to feel more and more like my license is at risk and they just tell me to ask other people or look up videos but that is not the same as an in service or class on ways to complete procedures and then being checked off. Not sure what to do :/

Thank you! Yeah I've been going back n forth with all the different options and I'd rather be tighter on money and home with my kids more than working all the time. When I had my first I wasn't in nursing yet, just school and part time work and was thankful for all the time I got to be home with my son. Wants and needs...def been discussing that lately too. Kids are on little for so long and grow up so fast. Plus a newborn and breastfeeding and trying to work fulltime....idk how that even works. Lol

Thank you for your reply. Of course money will be tight if I only work PD. Of course would be nice to stay full time after maternity to have full pay...but as you said it's hard to work full time with 2 little ones. I guess I can just plan on taking my leave, come back PD and see how it goes and should I need to go back to full time sooner, do so. I'm a planner so of course I want to figure out all my options beforehand and have time to weigh the pros and cons.

Anyone?

So we found out a few months back that we are expecting a little bundle of joy at the end of the year. Made it past the first trimester so I told my team at work and they are all very excited. Completed my evaluations with management as well and was offered a generous salary + bonus (I have been PPV). Finally been quite busy, feeling so much more confident being a Case Manager on my own. STILL lots to learn, but I love it. I love the patients and the flexibility and the schedule can't be beat. The only trouble I am facing now, is after maternity leave (6-8 weeks) I've only been planning on working very part-time, as a newborn and preschooler in full time daycare is a large chunk of change. My DON said I could be per diem until I am ready to go back fulltime and originally my plan was to go back full time when my son starts kindergarten Sept 2016, but with the generous salary they've offered, I am not sure we could go 9ish months without it. My fiance and will be able to save a lot before I leave on maternity leave and we have minimalized our expenses, but when you're used to having a certain amount of money and then won't for a while, it's scary. I guess I have some numbers to crunch, but did anyone else who had babies while HH nursing leave for PD for a little and then go back to full time? What's everyone experience with all this? Thank you! (:

Congrats!! Let us know how its going when you start

Yeah. I'll finally be getting a laptop this week so I can have more control of my schedule but of course there's always new admits. I suppose I should also be a little more assertive and let pts know I do my best to accommodate however due to referall timelines, etc sometimes I am restricted on availability.

Most days though, I wake up and my schedule is different than the night before. But I'm going to request they get my admits lined up earlier so I'm not calling the day of or push them to the next day to give the pt a bit of a heads up.