Trauma ICU to Home Health?

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Progressive Care/Telemetry.

Hey everyone,

I am an RN with 2 years experience. 1.5 years on a Progressive Care/Telemetry unit and currently 6 months in a Trauma ICU but I'm considering leaving ICU for home health care. I really like my current job but the pay is not great, it's night shift, and the schedule is not very flexible. I think I would really enjoy the autonomy of Home Health. I have a bit of an idea of what it will be like because I worked as a home health aid for a bit during nursing school and I was able to spend a day with a Hospice home health nurse and observe her job but I still have some questions.

1. Does anyone know what the pay is like in Florida?

2. Can you make your own schedule and can you work 12 hour shifts?

3. Can you home health nurses describe a typical day to me?

4. I see people posting that they have their own thermometers etc that they carry with them. Am I going to have to buy my own supplies like that? Shouldn't patients have supplies in their home? What if they need wound care? Are there supplies I'll be expected to carry (i.e. gloves) or are these in the home already?

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Supplies are supposed to be in the home. Sometimes the agency will provide some of the supplies. It depends. As for 12 hour shifts, only if you are doing extended care, also known as shift work. You will probably spend 12 hours working if you do intermittent visits, but you won't be paid for the time you spend charting at home. Shift care usually occurs in 8 hour shifts, though, not as many 12 hour shift cases, unless the agency is having trouble staffing a case. Extended care hh is especially flexible. You coordinate your desire to work with your client's needs and the agency. It helps if you are the first nurse assigned to a case, otherwise you get offered the open shifts.

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

To answer your first question, pay for all areas of nursing in Florida sucks. But like everything else, it depends on your agency, the area of the state, visit requirement, etc.

For Medicare home health, aka intermittent visits, there are no "shifts." You have a certain number of patients to see in a day and you see them when and as you can. What surprised me when I moved here from the midwest is that our patients don't want early am visits. In the midwest, I dealt with patients who were up with the chickens, but here they sleep til noon. Good luck at getting started before 10am.

See stickies at the top of the forum for ideas about what a day is like in the life of a home care nurse.

In most cases, you will be expected to have your own equipment for vital signs except for a pulse ox which the agency should supply. The agency should supply all other routine and non-routine supplies for patient care.

Read through the threads in this form and you'll find out a lot about home care!

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I work in the Tampa Bay area. My pay is good. I start seeing pt's around 0730-0800. I work until about 12 or 1 in the afternoon. I do have paperwork to do at home and it can be extensive depending on my day and the clients needs. I am full time but per diem. Accepting or rejecting cases as they come in with a certain amount I must do each week. This is at my discretion as to when I see them of course meeting their needs. Depending on their insc. supplies are ordered form supply companies or provided by your agency. Your tools of the trade that you use to complete your assessment are provided by you; ie. stethoscope, pulse ox, ect. I went from years in the ICU to home care and will never look back. It is truely the very best job I have ever had. :hpygrp:

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Progressive Care/Telemetry.

Tangobango those hours sound great. That sounds like just what I want. Can I ask what agencies would you recommend?

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