Thinking about HH and VERY nervous!

[saireyRN]

I've been in nursing for almost 5 years now. The job I have now is the one I took right out of nursing school. I work on a fairly busy med-surg ortho floor. I've been having trouble with my boss lately and have decided to try HH. I love my co-workers, just not my male boss. I am also getting a *little* burnt out on post-op patients, giving pain meds all the time and the running back and forth on our busy floor.

I'm so incredibly nervous about switching to HH nursing. It is such a different type of nursing. I'm not an extremely outgoing person,but I am able to communicate with my pt's quite well. I just love the comfort I have in my job now, but I do think I need to branch out and try other things. I keep telling myself that if I don't like HH nursing, I can always come back to floor nursing, right?

I guess I'm worried that I will be putting in way more hours with HH nursing that I would be now. Now I work FT day/evening and every other weekend and every other holiday. I know someone who left our floor to do HH nursing and she loves it.

I have an interview this Thursday. I keep thinking that I should just cancel it, stay with my comfort zone and my annoying boss. Then I think, go for it! Try something new! It's so stressful for me!

I guess I just want to hear it from people who have done this - am I being silly? Is this just normal "changing jobs" fear?

Thanks for any advice!

[laydeern]

Thanks, I had my interview today and it sounds pretty good, although there is alot more on-call time than I thought, so i'm still unsure. Maybe need to check out some different agencies. Do you have to work much on-call?? I'm not sure what's "normal"..Thanks for the input.

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

Thanks, I had my interview today and it sounds pretty good, although there is alot more on-call time than I thought, so i'm still unsure. Maybe need to check out some different agencies. Do you have to work much on-call?? I'm not sure what's "normal"..Thanks for the input.

That would depend on how many nurses the agency has.

In my case all the nurses take one PM call (from 4:30 pm to 0730 the next am) approx. every 10 days.

For weekend call (Fri PM- Mon AM) we have it about every 6-7 weeks. Hope that helps. :)

[laydeern]

that sounds much better than my deal..its work m-f with on-call 3x week 5p-7a and call every 3rd weekend starting friday at 5p to monday 7am..not to mention covering 4 counties in southern wv...i think i got offered a raw deal..i'm def gonna look else where..thanks alot for the input

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

that sounds much better than my deal..its work m-f with on-call 3x week 5p-7a and call every 3rd weekend starting friday at 5p to monday 7am..not to mention covering 4 counties in southern wv...i think i got offered a raw deal..i'm def gonna look else where..thanks alot for the input

Where in SW Va. are you? You may pm me if you like. I'm in your area, too. :)

I agree.. that's a LOT of "call". :stone

[ragtopnurse]

I've been in nursing for almost 5 years now. The job I have now is the one I took right out of nursing school. I work on a fairly busy med-surg ortho floor. I've been having trouble with my boss lately and have decided to try HH. I love my co-workers, just not my male boss. I am also getting a *little* burnt out on post-op patients, giving pain meds all the time and the running back and forth on our busy floor.

I'm so incredibly nervous about switching to HH nursing. It is such a different type of nursing. I'm not an extremely outgoing person,but I am able to communicate with my pt's quite well. I just love the comfort I have in my job now, but I do think I need to branch out and try other things. I keep telling myself that if I don't like HH nursing, I can always come back to floor nursing, right?

I guess I'm worried that I will be putting in way more hours with HH nursing that I would be now. Now I work FT day/evening and every other weekend and every other holiday. I know someone who left our floor to do HH nursing and she loves it.

I have an interview this Thursday. I keep thinking that I should just cancel it, stay with my comfort zone and my annoying boss. Then I think, go for it! Try something new! It's so stressful for me!

I guess I just want to hear it from people who have done this - am I being silly? Is this just normal "changing jobs" fear?

Thanks for any advice!

I have been in HomeCare for 7 yrs and I love it. It is like anything else, it has it's good days and bad days but overall it is a very satisfying career. I don't really think you will put in more hours than you do now if you are working full time. Our RNs take call one night every other week and about every 5th weekend. Our LPNs take call during the week also and take back up call every 4 wks. I think any time we leave what we know so well we step out of that comfort zone but it is challenging and exciting to learn new things and there are so many areas that you can pursue with nursing. Like you said, if you leave in good standing you can always go back.