shift care vs visits.

rnrg · Feb 6, 2014

I live in new Jersey. I do shift work and LOVE IT. I do infant/toddler trach/vent dependant children. My rate ranges from 28-50$ hourly. I work for three agencies so I can find consistent work if one area/region is slow. Hope this helps :-)

rnrg · Feb 6, 2014

I've done visits too. Its very time consuming and you only get paid a low flat rate per visit. You schedule your own visits but there is a lot of driving and charting takes additional time once your home.

caliotter3 · Feb 6, 2014

I found intermittent visit work to be cost prohibitive. The agency wanted to tack on a flat rate of $10 instead of paying me true mileage and I found out that they added the $10 to a visit rate that was artificially low. Dumb me to agree, but they had just hired me and I wanted to be cooperative. Then, on top of that the staffing person turned out to be a PITA and decided that my cases needed to go to another nurse (they hired an RN and wanted to keep her occupied at my expense). Anything near a consistent source of income for a livelihood has come from extended care work. It might be consecutive "long" term cases that only last as long as it takes for the client family to demand your replacement, but when you find a good work situation, there can be all the benefits of having a pleasant work environment, sometimes for years, or even decades.

kiszi, RN · Feb 9, 2014

Doing visits is very different from shift work. Shift work involves taking care of total patient needs, which often includes tasks that are not nursing-specific, such as personal care and feeding. When doing visits think specifically what you as a nurse can do for that patient. Research your patient beforehand and determine what their needs are, which will stem from their diagnosis. My typical home care visit would consist of a quick head to toe assessment with a focus on whatever their diagnosis indicated, for instance assessing a surgical site. There may or may not be a specific nursing task you are there to do, such as a dressing change. Also look for any teaching needs related to their primary and secondary diagnoses. I did not adhere to a specific time frame when doing visits, though I would say the average was 1/2 hour to 45 minutes for a basic case. Assess, teach, check for new meds, make sure they understand their meds, see if they have any questions/concerns, and out the door. Of course do any hands on tasks that are needed as well. Hope this helps!

Hello_Pretty, RN · May 27, 2017

Hi nurseprice. Did you go from LVN-BSN? I've seen a couple of your posts on AN and just curious. I'm an LVN, almost done with ADN school (3 more weeks!) Wondering if the ADN will hurt my chances of getting a job seeing as most prefer BSNs.