Where to go from home health?

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Looking for advice on what my resume is good for.

I never planned on doing home health, but graduated during the recession and it was either home health or SNF drug monkey. Now I have 10 years of home health and feel like my education is too rusty to go to med sure even if they are willing to take me.

the only nurses I have seen advance in HH have gone in to HH management and I can't imagine any dollar amount being worth the 24/7 life drain that HH DON looks like. I can't participate in the required corporate double speak anyway.

I have become very good at wounds, head to toe, documentation, care planning, setting goals and completing a POC. BUT I feel like experience never helped me become more efficient. Any efficiency I gained was more than replaced by learning more about my responsibilities that I need to do. It also seems like in the past 10 years they have piled more and more responsibilities on nurses as the internet enables them to have nurse do things like ording supplies that otherwise would be done by hourly office staff. The worst thing is that PPV means nurses who do a million visits instead of actually doing their job get $ and praised by management while I get paid half as much by actually discharging patients who can verbalize how to manage their disease processes.

any advice for someone who just wants to work an honest 8 hour shift and feel like I'm having a positive impact?

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From years of home health I tried telephone triage in a doctors office and or in the evening in the urgent care clinic for a large clinic system. That job was wonderful because it gave me a true work life balance. I also tried working as a director in an assisted living facility but doing that full-time did not give me a good work life balance. Your home health experience can all transferred to like a care manager position in and the insurance company but may not be as rewarding.

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Specializes in ICU/ER/Med-Surg/Case Management/Manageme.

Oh, my goodness! If you've survived 10 years of HH - and especially entering and surviving as a new grad - you have skills that many of us with 20-30-40 years of experience don't have. DO NOT sell yourself short.

Really...sit down with paper and pencil and start delving into your skill set. Wound care? Bet you have a lot of experience with that. Perhaps you might want to consider becoming a certified wound care nurse. Hot commodity. OK, I'm betting about 98% of your patients have been geriatric patients. Hospitals around here are actually opening specialized geri-care units because they're realizing caring for this segment of the population requires a certain skill set. Another hot commodity. Betting your venipuncture skills are good. Maybe a bit rusty on IV insertion. But skills are easy...practice 1-2 times and you're good.

Assessments/organizational skills/documentation skills/coordination skills (family, doctors, PT/OT, other team members). And let me mention organizational skills again. And again. And one more time! You have so much to offer.

We nurses aren't too good at selling ourselves. Work on your resume, certainly, and maybe some professional help with that. But also, keep in mind at time of interviews all you can bring to the table and let them know about it. Take that paper and pencil list with you.

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Specializes in Hospice.

I personally went from home health to hospice.

Please do not refer to SNF nurses as drug monkeys. I know intelligent, excellent nurses providing care for SNF patients. They are specialists in their areas and deserve tremendous respect and more support than they get.

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Specializes in ICU/ER/Med-Surg/Case Management/Manageme.

Good point, Kaisu, on the "drug monkey" thing. I didn't pick up on that. We all have preconceived ideas about things we've never done/experienced. In my case, I started my career as a "hot shot" ICU/ER nurse and thought Med-Surg was on par with "drug monkies". Far beneath this "hot shot". Yeah, that was me. Then, years later, and to satisfy a particular goal, I went to work on a Med-Surg unit thinking it would be a piece of cake. Planned to stay no longer than 6 months. Well.

Med-Surg kicked my fanny! Stayed several years. Loved it. Most Med-Surg nurses have a skill set that most "hot shots" don't have. Major lessons learned.

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Specializes in 8 years Telemetry/Med Surg, 5 years Stepdown/PCU.

Look into Chronic Care Case Management with local hospitals or community health. Population health management is becoming the next big thing

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Thankyou for the advice!

@Kaisu - sorry. I did not mean to disparage the entire SNF field. That's just the job I had! they hired me as a PRN admission RN which i thought may help sharpen my assessment skills BUT between hiring and starting, a new DON started and I spent a month running around for 8 hours handing out pills and being taught to not bother with VS before digoxin "cuz you don't have time and I know that guy is stable."

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Specializes in Home health PEDS.

Hi, I know how you feel. I've been in home health for 6 years and feel like I've lost a lot of skills. Anyway hospice will hire you, I did that for a couple years in addition to peds home health but the hisoice environment/energy caught up to me and i quit. Hospice generally pays better too.

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