What does your week look like as a HH nurse?

love2banurse89, BSN, RN · May 17, 2021

I worked in Home Health for several years, in a rural area, and had a lot of out of town patients. The full-time nurses generally had our own patients who we saw every week (or more than once a week if necessary). One of us also usually had all of the patients in the towns in a specific geographical area. Our schedules were pretty flexible; of course recerts had to be done within a time frame, as did lab draws and some dressing changes.

I scheduled all of my patients in one town on the same day, and did several towns in a geographical area on the same day. Some patients needed to be seen on a certain day or at a certain time (to do a dressing change before the home health aide got them out of bed, for example), but there were enough patients who were more flexible as to when they were seen, that it all fit together.

I also had enough "in town" patients that I could switch around if I had extra time on one day or was running late another day.

We had a great team and if one of us needed to get off early, or had a heavy day, another nurse was always willing to trade or take an extra patient if they could.

Of course home health is always unpredictable--admissions or an extra needed visit are unpredictable, but in general we were able to set our schedules to have "heavy" and "light" days. Check with the Office Manager at your facility to see how flexible they'll allow you to be, and maybe talk with other nurses to see if they're willing to trade when necessary.

Good luck! Home health was one of my favorite jobs!

Avill, BSN, RN · May 18, 2021

Thank you for replying! I actually live in a small town so they are all in town, not super far from each other. I've been with this company for years as a PRN nurse and like you mentioned above, they have a great team and will see patients for each other ect. It's a small town company which I really like and feel. They are honestly great people.

I think I will ask the boss lady a bit more if I'm serious about it. I had already asked a few questions regarding on-call but not about specific "light" days. I just want to be home with my kiddos a bit more.

Thank you!

Anonymous666 · Jun 17, 2021

On 5/17/2021 at 11:11 AM, Avill said:

Hello!

Just wanted some insight on full time HH nurses. I have worked PRN for YEARS, but I have been thinking of doing full time in order to have a more flexible schedule.

My main thing is that I'm wondering if It's doable to have 3 heavy days and 2 lighter days. Here in one of the agencies I work for wound care is usually M/W/F and the weekly assessments are usually Tue or Thur. So in my mind, I'm wondering if I do full time, I can MAYBE have 3 heavy days and two lighter ones. IDK.

Input?

Hi, I was just curious. When you say a more flexible schedule, are you talking in contrast to your current schedule as PRN?

What is your schedule like as a PRN home health nurse?

I used to work “PRN” as an LVN and would take a full load and then was even on the call roster. Basically full time without benefits.