Question about a new LPN getting into HH

meagansmom · Jan 23, 2008

Most home health's won't hire LPNs without at least 1 year of experience. The reasoning behind that is in the home you have to make at times spur of the moment decisions without anyone there to help, either in the home or on call over the phone. With experience your assessment skills improve tremendously and are far more likely to have better nursing judgement in that type of situation and in my opinion you learn just as much once you are out of school as you learned in school.

Patients are now coming home as sick from the hospital as they used to be when they were admitted years ago. Home Health patients are much sicker than they used to be and this requires a lot of skills that you learn on the hospital floor.

At my home health we do most the same things as the RNs with some exceptions. They do admissions, supervisory visits and recerts. LPNs can not access ports or d/c central lines ( I may be missing a few things here) and some procedures vary from agency to agency and state to state I assume. Some agencies the LPNs case manage a certain amount of patients others do it differently.

Some agencies pay by the hour some pay per visit.

HTH

Shelley

vonsay · Jan 24, 2008

Yes, that makes perfect sense. I guess I wouldn't want to be in a situation where my license is jeapordized because I wasn't experienced enough to know how to do something.

I'm anxious to get on with my career, not anxious to have to work in a nursing home for a year to get experience! But I've come this far and I suppose a year is not such a long time......

RN1989 · Jan 24, 2008

When a prospective employer is happy to have you and lets you know - think about WHY they are so happy and want you to work there. The worse the working conditions, the happier they are and the more they will try to flatter you into taking a job there.

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Jan 24, 2008

When a prospective employer is happy to have you and lets you know - think about WHY they are so happy and want you to work there. The worse the working conditions, the happier they are and the more they will try to flatter you into taking a job there.

hmmmmm... not so sure I agree with that. :)

My agency was pleased to have me interview and happy to take me on from the start, and I have had nothing but good experience and support with this employer.

Sometimes, it's because they recognize a good nurse when they see one!

But I do understand your point.. you do need to do a little investigating before you jump right in !

vonsay · Jan 24, 2008

So did you get the job right after school or were you experienced?

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Jan 25, 2008

So did you get the job right after school or were you experienced?

Oh, I see. No, I had experience (but not in HH)... but I see what you meant above now. I thought you meant that in a more "general" way. I didn't take the "NEW" nurse aspect into account in what you were referring to.

My bad!

caliotter3 · Jan 25, 2008

I have worked for agencies that hired LPN/LVNs right out of school, just like they hired RNs right out of school. You have to go to them at the right time and impress the people doing the hiring. Mostly it is a matter of the agency being desperate for personnel. Anyone can be trained to a case, if you do case work. You have to be thoroughly oriented by a good nurse who will see that you are properly prepared to work on that particular case. Otherwise, it is always up to you to make certain that you receive a thorough and appropriate orientation to each case you consider working. If the agency is quick to hire you, but throws you to the dogs as far as training you for your case, then you should look for a different agency that gives better time and effort to seeing that their personnel are properly prepared.