Where do I go from here?

[RN276]

I'm a new grad (May 2010) and have found that I landed in home health. Although there is A LOT I like about it, the paperwork is overwhelming - especially admission paperwork (99 pages - yikes!). I already found myself wondering where can I go from here? In other words, what other specialty can I apply the experiences I've gained from home health? I'm not particularly interested in LTC or med surg.

[lovethis]

Rehab nursing- a lot of teaching is involved, usually a low pt load and pt usually stay around for a while../

[caliotter3]

If you want to cut down on the paperwork, (and driving around), do extended care instead of intermittent visit work. If your agency doesn't offer extended care cases, there are many out there that you can go to. It might be a little stop gap change until you can find another area of nursing to change to.

[suri_wild]

I second extended care idea! Or I am not sure how hard it would to be to do this as a sort of new grad, but you could be adventurous and try travel nursing taking positions in different areas to see what you like. Or try shadowing a day without pay for the same reason...both I know in some areas might be hard to get. I feel you on the home health thing, I worked for maybe a month for a home health agency on the office side of things, my job was to "audit" the patient charts. Eeek I didn't like it. Looking back I am wondering if it was even legal HIPPA wise, I was fresh outta high school no certificates or anything.

[OldNurseEducator]

I would suggest Hospice if you really enjoy the freedom of doing home health. The caseload, at least in my experience, was considerably less. A lot of teaching, learning, caring...Good luck!