Quitting my home health job...

[SGroRN87]

Fellow allnurses, I need to share/vent/complain/etc.!!!

I am full-time nursing faculty in an ADN program... LOVE my job!!! I wanted to get back to the bedside, but didn't want to be in acute care... 2 days of clinical a week is enough for me!!! So I decided to try my hand at home health... WELL...

I was essentially promised the moon/sun/stars and just shy of the Powerball. I was told that I would be in an area close to my home. I was told that I would not have to take call until I had been at it for at least 3 months... I was told... I was told... I was told!!!

WELL... let me TELL you (all)...

I have been seeing patients about 20-30 miles from my home one day per week. Now granted, this is not close to me, but I didn't really complain (much) because my patients were close together and I drive 30 miles one way for my teaching job... and, well, it was only one day per week.

So I decided... well this isn't too bad, maybe I'll help them out on a Saturday and pick up and admission and a daily patient... the admission was pretty straight forward and "easy"... HOWEVER... my daily patient... EHHH NOT SO MUCH! This woman called and told me that she couldn't be seen at the scheduled time and couldn't tell me when she would be available. I called the on-call supervisor and she basically told me that since I volunteered to fill in (even though it was for 2 people), I had to be available until 5pm (this call was made at 10am, mind you) for the patient if she decided to come home. Well, imagine the heat radiating from my cranium... so lesson learned, will not be helping them out again unless I am B-R-O-K-E.

Well then... fast forward a few days to my scheduled one day of work for the week. I was assigned 8 patients... all routine visits... imagine my surprise that I was seeing a patient 60 miles from my home... 20 miles away from my other patients. Whoops! The scheduler must have assigned you to the wrong team... I'm starting to catch on here, by now! Go about my day and it's actually not too bad... I enjoy my little (long) ride out to the countryside while I'm sipping away at my passion fruit tea from Starbuck's.

After my 5th patient (wohoo, 3 to go!)... I get a voicemail from another nurse asking if I can take his call and he will trade me for the day I'm scheduled this week... Now, mind you, I was just released from orientation 3 weeks ago... and, again, was told that nurses new to home care would not be given call for at least 3 months... NOT TO MENTION, that the scheduled on call was on a Thursday, and I am marked off the schedule every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for my teaching job. So I call the supervisor, and yes this is correct... I question how on call assignments are made and why no one ever bothered to mention that I was scheduled. She informed me that if you don't tell them any days that you are unavailable, it's just a random assignment. AGAIN, I am marked off the schedule Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Still trying to figure out the logic behind that one?!?! So, of course, I am left with no choice but to take call... and I am told that the likelihood of me getting called out is basically slim. Imagine, my surprise when I received a phone call from the scheduler 5 minutes later telling me that I already had one admission (out by the 60 miles away from my home place) and a routine visit 5 miles from my home. Needless to say, I had a few choice words about that one! So I call back and ask, "What time is this on call thing going through?"... well, 8am but they try not to send anyone out past 10pm... and, yes, they do know that I am supposed to teach at 8am the next morning.

So 10 patients later... 8am to 10:30pm... 179 miles total for the day... I have decided to resign from this place! I think being burned about 5 times in the course of a few days is a sure indicator of things to come. I don't need a second job, but it's sure nice to have for a few extra bucks and something to do during summers off! Sadly, I was somewhat warned about this place before I went there... but I though, "Oh heck, what's one day a week?!?!"

Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me!

And, now I must go to bed... I am lecturing on stress and coping tomorrow!!!

[tcvnurse, BSN, RN]

Yes that sounds like home health. I did it for six years. It was only until I got back into hospital nursing that I realized how much I had been burned out on home care. I now work on an insanely busy cardiothoracic surgical unit, and folks always blink at me when I tell them that THIS is easier than home health.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

There are so many bad agencies like this out there. They will always twist your schedule to fit their needs. I have worked with two agencies and I quit both once I got sick of the nonsense.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

This agency sounds poorly run. I don't encounter ANY of those issues in my job. We have an on-call nurse to answer urgent calls after hours but we don't go out to make visits on demand. If a patient doesn't call back or agree to a visit when the nurse is available, they don't get seen.