I have been in the field of Home Health Care on and off for 17 years. It truly is a world of its own, because its really has nothing to do with skill or competence for a 1 to 1 shift, its more or less if you can stomach the family/ client for 8 hrs straight, and if the family/ client can stomach you. That brings me to past vs current practice. In the former (past), a home care company sends a nurse or an aide to an assignment to work a shift. Hopefully, all goes well, and you return for continued long term employment. If after 1 shift, either party decides its a no-go, then you do not return, and the employee has no recourse at all. Its just the way the ball rolls in homecare.
Fast forward to what is now becoming the norm...its no longer a shift, its a 20 minute "meet and greet" where you basically job audition to see if the family likes you. Not only is this insanely degrading as a professional care provider, costly in commute time and gas, but it gives a family/ client from hell repeat opportunity to return the care giver like inventory, no questions asked, where they will be furnished with another in short order. Talk about feeling like a ham sandwich that was sent back to the deli counter, or a contestant in a beauty pageant.
I get it, that you need to "mesh" with the household, but please name even one other industry that degrades its employees like this? If I hire a maintenance company to maintain my lawn, I do not expect them to send out workers until I find one I like. If I hire a maid service, and I dont like how the job was done, I can call and cancel. If I hire a painting company to paint my rooms, I take who I get. This brings me to my next rant, the nursing surplus. It has tilted so far in favor of the employer, that nurses and aides are actually putting up with this.
The agency did not do anything that would warrant an EEOC complaint - they HIRED me. Where they fell short was that they should have discussed my possible assignment with the family BEFORE they hired me. caliotter3 is right, the family rightly decides who enters their home, no matter how despicable the family's character. If it were a company, and not a home, that's a different story.
An EEOC complaint won't fly unless the complainant has clear cut, provable evidence that the agency is guilty of something. The bottom line: the family gets to say who enters their home and who does not. They need NO reason whatsoever.
We spoke of this earlier in the discussion. Some agencies continue to grow the beast by catering to it, with an endless parade of nurses, after an endless rejection by same family. I think the best thing for the agency to do here, is to can the client.
I have been with agency's that insist on the meet and great. I like to turn it around on them. Before I take my time to meet and great I want to see a 485, speak to the clinical manager, have a quick call with one of the regular nurses. Then I decide if it is worth my time and effort to go put on the song and dance. I also let them know I don't mind just being thrown in, I'll figure it out. Once I put more work on them, the number of meet and greets decreased.
Agency work is way more people skills and games then it used to be. That said that's how the business is run, I am working in that business, so I play the game.
I'm an LPN with two years experience in LTC and almost a year in a medical group home for intellectually and developmentally challenged. I applied to my first home health agency, responding to an Indeed.com posting for a 1:1 40hrs/wk. It was a perfect match - for the past year at the group home I cared for a resident with nebulizer treatments, vibrating chest vest treatment, and feeding tube via feeding pump; and, the client had the exact same treatments. I interviewed Wednesday, got my employee badge, schedule, daily forms, direct deposit on Friday; and, was told I orientate Monday.
Saturday evening I was called by the agency, "We have a problem. I'm sorry, the client does not want a male nurse [for her 26 year old SON]. They're not as forward thinking as we are." I couldn't help but wonder if the fact that I am a Black male nurse came up in conversation, it makes NO sense that the mom didn't want a male to care for her son.
They called me back about 2 weeks later with a case that had only 10 part-time shifts a month. That's not what I applied for - I applied for a 1:1 40hrs/wk position. The end of the phone call, "I resign as of now."
The family might not have wanted a male nurse for other reasons. I had one single mother who didn't feel at all comfortable sleeping in her home while there was a man she didn't know in the next room. He was a nurse, he had gone through the background check, he was there to care for her child. But she wasn't comfortable with a man in her home.
Or maybe the mother is married, but her husband works nights.
It isn't your fault, but some of us are intimidated by men.
I guess I am seeing this from the other side. You are going to be in their home for 8, 12, 16 hours a day. It is important to meet, hear what the parent/ loved one wants for their loved one. You will be touching and caring for their loved one. I don't blame families for wanting to meet you ahead of time. I think because as families talk to other families who have Private Duty nursing, they hear the stories of the PDN who state they have skills, only to come and find out they do not.
Families should be able to ask you questions about your experience, and you should feel proud to tell families about your experience. After all, especially if you have X number of years of experience, that could be very comforting to a parent. Don't look at the meet and greet as a negative, it can actually be quite positive, especially because it will give you a chance to get to know the family. If a family did not want you, it could be a blessing in disguise. Don't try and personalize it too much as they do not know anything about you and you don't know anything about them.
I think it should be like an interview, they are interviewing you to see if you have skills and personality they want, and likewise, you can gather a lot of information about the family, and ask questions about them. It could be quite insightful on your end. I don't see it as the negative you are.
This agency I was going to work for did their meet and greets backwards.
They had me do a meet and greet on a potential patient,then if I was OK with the case,the nurse manager would come open it. So I had no idea what I was walking into their home about. Only was told their age and diagnosis.No 485. or face sheet. At times the only thing I had a an address and a name. I declined to work for that agency due to other things.
moretonel
54 Posts
The agency did not do anything that would warrant an EEOC complaint - they HIRED me. Where they fell short was that they should have discussed my possible assignment with the family BEFORE they hired me. caliotter3 is right, the family rightly decides who enters their home, no matter how despicable the family's character. If it were a company, and not a home, that's a different story.