For anyone considering a remote - work from home position that does not require direct patient care feel free to message me or ask me questions here.
For a VERY long time I have wanted out of direct patient care in any form, away from the 12+ hr shifts and all that goes along with it.
The M-F positions were better but still not what I wanted - which was 100% remote, working from home. Took me some time but I finally landed a position and could not be happier. Unless something major happens I will stay in this position for years. Which is saying a lot since I job hopped frequently before.
Working remote is not for nurses who like the stress of the hospital, it's not for nurses who like the celebrating holidays, birthdays, free meals that come with working in an MD office or being BFFs with some of the people at the office, it is not for nurses who don't want to work but just get paid.
It is for nurses who are mature, trustworthy and want flexibility, are proactive without being micromanaged. Yes, there are benefits like health and PTO.
Being a more introverted nurse this position works well for me in that my interaction w/patients and families is via email/text or telephone - same with my coworkers - so it a breeze for me.
Not having to work the 12+ hr shifts, juggling multiple patients, dealing w/doctors, families, mountains of paperwork and other disciplines is a huge plus. I am not knocking working in the hospital or an MD office or anywhere else, but what I am saying is for those that none of that seems to fit, there is a place for you. I found it and it's wonderful.
For the first time in MANY years I am actually excited again about being a nurse and see a future w/my employer. I didn't expect this opportunity but I am grateful for it beyond words.
I work 100% remote for a home care company (40 hours/week full time position) and I have the option of doing unlimited per diem field visits for the same company outside my M-F 9-5 hours. Super low stress job. Good deal.
The thing I would have to note in my situation and probably many others is that I have been with the same company for a decade. Flexibility and options open up when you have been in a position/company for some time that will not be there for someone new applying. But also the opposite can happen where you be in a company for many years and nothing opens up or gets flexible over time. My advice is to get a full time position and get as much part time (but more specifically per diem positions) with different companies. Like the kind of job where you do visits only if you feel like it and get a feel.
Another tip. There are very little reliable healthcare workers in home care and health care outside a traditional setting in general. Most don't last or do a poor job. Majority also have poor patient/customer service skills. Make sure you are reliable and you will be seen as an asset that the company will not want to get rid of. This will give you leverage and with leverage you will get flexibility.
Very, very interested in remote nursing. I retired 2 years but want some extra money without getting back into direct patient care. Any other suggestions?
I'm an after hours on call nurse coordinator for a company that provides private care in homes (not a home health agency). I handle issues if an employee is injured, questions a client may have about medications or if they are ill and uncertain if they need to go to the ER or if there is something we can manage at home. It is not an emergency service nor so I see patients face to face, its via phone.
Congrats on your perfect fit wfh job!
Now this was the type of job I was looking for. I spent 4 years at a home health company after hours on call, 7 days on, 7 days off. When I started it was 5p to 8a. It was supposed to be mainly phone on, on call and if I had a call at night and it wasn't ER material or patient couldn't be helped by phone, I would go to their home, and believe me 9 times out of 10 it was "I need you to come" and when I got there it could've been done over the phone. This usually happen about 2-3 times a week. Sometimes I'd get calls at like 6p to do wound care. Yeah they were slick, didn't want to call during the day so waited for the "night nurse" to do it. 🤦🏻♀️ But some weeks, very few, I had no calls.
Then the company said I had to start doing an admission at the start of my shift so I was out of the house every day (they said they couldn't see paying me to sit at home even though that's what they hired me to do). Next they had me starting at 3p (with no change in pay 😡) and doing 2 admissions at the start of my shift and some days it was regular/follow up visits "that didn't get completed during the day" 🙄 sometimes up to 4 visits plus my daily admission. Quite a few times I didn't get home til after 1a. A few times, well more than a few, calls would come in at 7:45a. One time I did go and didn't get out of there til 10a plus an hour drive home. Other times I told them they'd have to wait for day shift.
After 4 years of this I retired due to back injury/surgery/back surgery failure. The home care work should not have been my experience but with the population I was working with, most kind of used the ER as a primary care and that then extended to me, they wouldn't take my advice/help over the phone, wouldn't go to the ER even though a few times I did send them to the hospital, they wanted me there. Once I spent about 2 hours trying to get family members to take the mom to the ER because her freaking foot was very dark, no pulse, and I told them it was likely a blood clot! Turns out it was. This was before Covid. I once had a lady call me like midnight or 1a for her mom (in her 80s) that was screaming in pain. She had cancer and was on 3 different pain meds. I told her to take her mom to the hospital as nurses don't carry drugs. She kept refusing, I had to go. Come to find out she was withholding her morphine because she supposedly didn't want to get her mom addicted. 🙄 She kept saying her mom only quieted when she rubbed her back. I told her she needed to follow doctors orders regarding her mom's meds and giver her the meds. She was supposed to be on a set schedule not PRN. Her mom started screaming in pain, daughter didn't move to rub her back. I rubbed her back and held her hand and told the daughter to give her mom her meds. She was still hemming and hawing. I told her listen I'm not going to sit here rubbing your mom's back all night because you won't give her the meds, I'm calling 911 to take her to the hospital. She was pissed and gave her the meds, mom dozed off and I left. That was the type of calls I had to go on. I believe she called the office the next day and complained. Thank goodness I put a VERY detailed note in her chart. I'm so glad I don't work there any more.
Anyway, thanks for listening/reading. And OMG sorry for the length. Now on to indeed to find my perfect wfh job. ☺️ And congrats again!
Now this was the type of job I was looking for. I spent 4 years at a home health company after hours on call, 7 days on, 7 days off. When I started it was 5p to 8a. It was supposed to be mainly phone on, on call and if I had a call at night and it wasn't ER material or patient couldn't be helped by phone, I would go to their home, and believe me 9 times out of 10 it was "I need you to come" and when I got there it could've been done over the phone. This usually happen about 2-3 times a week. Sometimes I'd get calls at like 6p to do wound care. Yeah they were slick, didn't want to call during the day so waited for the "night nurse" to do it. 🤦🏻♀️ But some weeks, very few, I had no calls.
Then the company said I had to start doing an admission at the start of my shift so I was out of the house every day (they said they couldn't see paying me to sit at home even though that's what they hired me to do). Next they had me starting at 3p (with no change in pay 😡) and doing 2 admissions at the start of my shift and some days it was regular/follow up visits "that didn't get completed during the day" 🙄 sometimes up to 4 visits plus my daily admission. Quite a few times I didn't get home til after 1a. A few times, well more than a few, calls would come in at 7:45a. One time I did go and didn't get out of there til 10a plus an hour drive home. Other times I told them they'd have to wait for day shift.
After 4 years of this I retired due to back injury/surgery/back surgery failure. The home care work should not have been my experience but with the population I was working with, most kind of used the ER as a primary care and that then extended to me, they wouldn't take my advice/help over the phone, wouldn't go to the ER even though a few times I did send them to the hospital, they wanted me there. Once I spent about 2 hours trying to get family members to take the mom to the ER because her freaking foot was very dark, no pulse, and I told them it was likely a blood clot! Turns out it was. This was before Covid. I once had a lady call me like midnight or 1a for her mom (in her 80s) that was screaming in pain. She had cancer and was on 3 different pain meds. I told her to take her mom to the hospital as nurses don't carry drugs. She kept refusing, I had to go. Come to find out she was withholding her morphine because she supposedly didn't want to get her mom addicted. 🙄 She kept saying her mom only quieted when she rubbed her back. I told her she needed to follow doctors orders regarding her mom's meds and giver her the meds. She was supposed to be on a set schedule not PRN. Her mom started screaming in pain, daughter didn't move to rub her back. I rubbed her back and held her hand and told the daughter to give her mom her meds. She was still hemming and hawing. I told her listen I'm not going to sit here rubbing your mom's back all night because you won't give her the meds, I'm calling 911 to take her to the hospital. She was pissed and gave her the meds, mom dozed off and I left. That was the type of calls I had to go on. I believe she called the office the next day and complained. Thank goodness I put a VERY detailed note in her chart. I'm so glad I don't work there any more.
Anyway, thanks for listening/reading. And OMG sorry for the length. Now on to indeed to find my perfect wfh job. ☺️ And congrats again!
You were absolutely taken advantage of in your previous job.
I 100% don't make visits, for these clients an emergency would constitute 9-1-1 being called or going to the emergency care themselves or by a family member.
It is very rare a call comes in after 8 p.m. or before 7 a.m. I don't handle staff scheduling at all so if a staff member is late, calling out, no show, whatever, that call is directed to the schedulers.
I don't not get a lot of money for simply being on call but whenever there is a call - even if it's only 10 min - my hourly rate kicks in.
I am very new to the position, am going to see how it works out for the next few months because it is REALLY nice not having to get up, be at an office, work 12+ hrs and have low stress. Even my training/onboarding was remote and didn't start early and didn't run late. That being said, I agreed to being on call literally 365 days so I can get the income and do cover multiple offices in 3 states. Again, this is not home health or hospice, its private home health and some VA so the call volume isn't - at least hasn't been - the point those areas of nursing are.
Hope you are able to find something too - but no way should you ever agree to what you were doing before - thats just crazy.
Very, very interested in remote nursing. I retired 2 years but want some extra money without getting back into direct patient care. Any other suggestions?
Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com you can search remote positions. Insurance companies (health as well as others) also utilize remote nurses but often times those require CCM certifications but it doesn't hurt to check. A lot of hospices now have after hours triage nurses as do home health agencies but the call volume would be high depending on the size of the company. You'd need to make sure it's 100% remote.
Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com you can search remote positions. Insurance companies (health as well as others) also utilize remote nurses but often times those require CCM certifications but it doesn't hurt to check. A lot of hospices now have after hours triage nurses as do home health agencies but the call volume would be high depending on the size of the company. You'd need to make sure it's 100% remote.
Marshall1 said:
You were absolutely taken advantage of in your previous job.
I 100% don't make visits, for these clients an emergency would constitute 9-1-1 being called or going to the emergency care themselves or by a family member.
It is very rare a call comes in after 8 p.m. or before 7 a.m. I don't handle staff scheduling at all so if a staff member is late, calling out, no show, whatever, that call is directed to the schedulers.
I don't not get a lot of money for simply being on call but whenever there is a call - even if it's only 10 min - my hourly rate kicks in.
I am very new to the position, am going to see how it works out for the next few months because it is REALLY nice not having to get up, be at an office, work 12+ hrs and have low stress. Even my training/onboarding was remote and didn't start early and didn't run late. That being said, I agreed to being on call literally 365 days so I can get the income and do cover multiple offices in 3 states. Again, this is not home health or hospice, its private home health and some VA so the call volume isn't - at least hasn't been - the point those areas of nursing are.
Hope you are able to find something too - but no way should you ever agree to what you were doing before - thats just crazy.
Yes I know I was completely taken advantage of. But the pay was decent at the beginning and I did like the 7 on 7 off. But after all the additional tasks they piled on I talked to them and wanted to cut back to strictly on call again and I was willing to take a pay cut, a pretty drastic cut. They agreed at first then covid hit and they were all like we need you doing visits. I stayed until end of 2021. Thankfully, but not really, my back got worse and I went on FMLA, then a medical leave through 2022, surgery then pretty much disability and retirement. I'm sure they were not able to find someone as gullible as me because when I was looking for remote later they popped up with a completely reworked schedule, with less work than I was doing at the end but at a very good pay rate, more than I was making. They had it listed as a remote position. 🤪 Anyway, I hope your position works out for you and it sounds like it is. It sounds like a dream.
Concerning remote jobs, do you need compact nurse license or only if requested?
For my particular job yes, I had to get a compact license but also had to apply for a single state license in another state that doesn't recognize compact licensure. It all depends on the position requirements.
Concerning remote jobs, do you need compact nurse license or only if requested?
As far as I know its only if requested but you would obviously have to be licensed in the state you would be working from. For instance if you like in Ohio but work for a company remotely whose patients are in NY you would have to be licensed in NY as NY as well. Some states are compact, some aren't. I know NY is not a compact state.
linuxRN
4 Posts
I work 100% remote for a home care company (40 hours/week full time position) and I have the option of doing unlimited per diem field visits for the same company outside my M-F 9-5 hours. Super low stress job. Good deal.
The thing I would have to note in my situation and probably many others is that I have been with the same company for a decade. Flexibility and options open up when you have been in a position/company for some time that will not be there for someone new applying. But also the opposite can happen where you be in a company for many years and nothing opens up or gets flexible over time. My advice is to get a full time position and get as much part time (but more specifically per diem positions) with different companies. Like the kind of job where you do visits only if you feel like it and get a feel.
Another tip. There are very little reliable healthcare workers in home care and health care outside a traditional setting in general. Most don't last or do a poor job. Majority also have poor patient/customer service skills. Make sure you are reliable and you will be seen as an asset that the company will not want to get rid of. This will give you leverage and with leverage you will get flexibility.