What are the pros and cons to homecare nursing positions?
Asked by Cami 518
I am wondering if anyone can explain some pros and cons to home-care nursing positions? I am considering applying for this type of nursing position, but I don't have any experience with home-care. The pay is great, but sometimes it is not about the money looking at the bigger picture of the career as a whole. Thanks for the feedback!

Best Answer:
Your question sounds basic yet actually gets into lots of things, so this puppy will be long for an answer. Home care nursing positions have various categories which those outside the industry may not realize: 1. Untrained care givers; minimum wage with part-time PT, to full time FT, needs. Often done by those needing $, experience, and such. OK for discovering if you can deal with body care and clean up. Often you don't have to do any or much medical paperwork at this level.These folks should not put anything into a patient due to not being licensed and often are asked this and other things. You will probably do house hold chores even cooking, laundry, and personal driving for errands. 2. Certified/Licensed Nursing Aid/Assistant, CNA/LNA; certified by state and each state has different requirements. Minimum wage- $12/hr. Same as the above for duties and able to do some internal body care, no medication passing in many states. You will write patient notes unless told other wise. If you don't, you won't work long. 3. Licensed Vocational/Practical Nurse, LVN/LPN; Licensed by state Nursing Board with each state having standards. Generally everyone goes by the "Big Three" (CA, TX, NY) because other states follow their lead in licensee and laws, generally. 2yr programs usually though you may take "speed/advanced" college programs. Be mindful of what you do and do not study in these, some states don't allow liscence for speed programs and they don't tell you. You have to find this out. Now you can do all the above with medication passing, no class 3 drugs or blood products, usually. That means barbituratess, "mood alterators", and such. You have to do patient note writing, which you may or may not be legally held responsible for given the state you work in. All the workers above this area are often "not held accountable." that means you are likely to not be sued for malpractice, incompetency, and such. Check on this in your area through the state nursing board. 4. Registered Nurse RN; 3-4 year degree, speed programs possible again, often home care is a specialization AFTER serving 1-2 in a basic hospital environment. $10-55/hr for HOME CARE depending upon experience/training/area. Private families may have you work at a home for them, but not a professional nursing "service. " If they do ask you to before your license, then be careful of laws in your state (you are liable not the service). You are held accountable for your actions and anyone "under your purview;" translated any of the above folks working on that patient at any time, even without your knowledge, will be working off your license in many states. So you are accountable for their actions by medical and legal regulations/laws. OK, now that I scared you, realize I did nursing in all these jobs and other licensed areas for over 15 years. I loved home care with certain folks and hated it with others. Like any job it makes a difference of each employer, patient, and time/energy involved. General home care is often post-operative patients or transitional patients, 1-3 weeks. Elderly ,quadriplegicss, mentally disable adults, and other general care is what "home care" starts with. These folks often can tend themselves in many ways, you can set more livable hours, and you can do short to long contracts; one day to 1 year, usually about 1-3 mos. is normal. Providers doing this often want job variation, look at liscensure, and want not connecting too much with clients. Hospice care with long-term disease clients. I preferred the longer relationships, 6 months to 2 years often. The down side is you will become emotionally attached and patients will die eventually. This emotionally "burns out" many nurses due to loosing friends. That is the basics with more nuances being added as you specialize into to days home care nursing. I recommend going and talking to some nurses doing home care, apartment living, visitation nursing, and hospice to get the overall ideas of home care.
15 years doing nursing care, patient training, patient planning. Now Business Coaching in my own training company. http://www.antontraining.com
Answered by antontraining