Travel Home Health

[armesm89]

Hello fellow nurses. I am looking at possibly doing home health as a traveler. I have 1.5 years experience in the ER and now going on 2 years as a home health nurse in a compact state. I feel that I have enough experience to travel and am dying to GO! There are multiple agencies and I was wondering if anyone has any tips at all.

I have looked things up and tried to figure out all the lingo and get a sense of how it works.

I am more concerned about finding a great company to start out with, one that works well with HH, decent pay, housing and pet friendly. Also, for those experienced, what are cities and areas safer for HH? I want to stay in a compact state just until I get an assignment or two in. Looking to go mid April. I am soooo nervous about it all and wanna be as organized and ready as possible.

Thanks in advance!!

[nrcnurse]

I am a Hospice nurse and took my first assignment in March. The agency had a large drop in their Hospice census, so they "lent" me to their Adult Home Care division. it was a little bit of a transition for me, but I got the hang of it quickly and have enjoyed the HH assignment. I learned some new skills that I'd never seen in Hospice patients (Unna Boots, for example). And, it's actually been fun to discharge patients because they have recovered, as opposed to sending them on to "their next great adventure."

Core is the agency I am using. They have a number of HH openings in many states, from coast to coast. Pay has been good, and prompt, includes hourly taxable, per-diem housing and mileage, and they are pet-friendly. They reimburse for licensure if you need to get another license, and pay travel stipend for the trip from where you are, to where you need to be. I think that's probably standard for all agencies.

I was very nervous about taking a travel assignment, but got into the rhythm very quickly.