Response to MT to RN Post Below - Mooselips

Sorry...you had asked me a question but I've been away for a couple days.  Yes, Home Health/Hospice is more flexible as far as scheduling.  For the most part, we set up our own schedules, call the patients ourselves with times we expect to be there, and then if by some chance we get done early we aren't required to hang around to get our 8 hours in.

That being said, it's a brutal job.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have some solid acute care experience.  We have chest tubes, ventilators, wound VACs with a wide assortment of wounds, PCA pumps, IV pumps, apnea monitors, EKG machines that we have to know how to use.  We have to draw blood either peripheral or from lines like PICC or CVP lines or even baby heelsticks.  We have patients ranging from babies a few days old suffering from things like withdrawl symptoms because mom was a drug abuser to 100-year-old people with everything under the sun wrong with them.  Yes, we actually do have some patients that only need to be checked out, see how they're responding to their meds, etc.  But it seems that our patients overall are much sicker.

Depending on where you live you could be entering potentially dangerous neighborhoods and homes.  This is occasionally a problem for us, and it's scary.

The worst thing is that nurses have to put up with that crap called productivity, too.  We cover a 3-county area and may drive anywhere from 30 to 160 miles a day but we're expected to be able to do all of that in 8 hours or less.  And, like MTs, we get lectured and threatened frequently if we're not being "productive."

The amount of charting we are required to do is unbelievable.  Medicare and Medicaid have added more and more and more requirements.  An admission visit requires so much charting that it takes at least 3 hours just to chart, never mind driving and taking care of the patient. 

The computer programs crash with regularity.  We're on Epic now--don't even get me started on that one.  Our charts are gone over with fine-tooth combs and the Bosses (of which there are many) let us know every little thing they feel we should have done differently.

So what are the positives?  It's very rewarding, we get to know our patients and families real well, we don't have to be stuck in a building for 8, 10, 12 hours or more, and we rarely see one another (same as work-at-home MTs!) so we don't have to put up with the personality conflicts that can happen in an office/facility.

I guess that's a whole lot more than what you asked but I just kind of started ranting!  I agree with the posters who recommend office-type nursing to start, maybe a local health department?  I hope I didn't discourage you about the Home Health/Hospice but I just wanted to be honest.  Maybe where you live you have a lot of options for nurse jobs--I'm sure you'll find something that works for you!  You can do it!