By ShirleyAnn Janulewicz RN, BSN, PHN
Becoming a home health nurse was one of the best choices I made after having practiced as an RN for 23 years in various areas of the hospital. I spent many years as a Registry Nurse where I gained invaluable experience on the various types of nursing practiced in the hospital, from Critical Care to Orthopedics, Labor and Delivery, Telemetry, Medical-Surgical, and Pediatrics. I was then approached by a friend who asked if I wanted to do private duty nursing for a set of preemie twins in the home. That started my home health work, though I then went from private duty to intermittent visits, where I would see 5-7 patients a day, depending on the acuity of the patient and the skilled need. I realized the benefit of doing home health, as I was generally able to make my own schedule and was able to switch my patient visits around if one of my children became sick, had a presentation at school, or needed to go to an extra-curricular activity.
Becoming a home health nurse was one of the best choices I made after having practiced as an RN for 23 years in various areas of the hospital. I spent many years as a Registry Nurse where I gained invaluable experience on the various types of nursing practiced in the hospital, from Critical Care to Orthopedics, Labor and Delivery, Telemetry, Medical-Surgical, and Pediatrics. I was then approached by a friend who asked if I wanted to do private duty nursing for a set of preemie twins in the home. That started my home health work, though I then went from private duty to intermittent visits, where I would see 5-7 patients a day, depending on the acuity of the patient and the skilled need. I realized the benefit of doing home health, as I was generally able to make my own schedule and was able to switch my patient visits around if one of my children became sick, had a presentation at school, or needed to go to an extra-curricular activity.
Being a home health nurse isn’t for everyone, as one needs to be competent in their assessment skills and knowledge base since one never knows what they will find when walking into a patient’s residence. You, as the home health nurse, are the only licensed person present; you have no back-up in the immediate vicinity as you do in a hospital. You can always call your supervisor/case manager or the director of nursing at your home health agency if you have questions or concerns, but the satisfaction of knowing that you possess the skills and knowledge necessary to care for a myriad of patients every day makes each day special and rewarding. Patients come home from the hospital a lot sicker today than they did in the past. And, as our population is aging, the home health patient generally has many comorbidities in addition to the specific disease process for which they became a home health patient. Caring for home health patients can be very challenging. However, the gratitude and thankfulness expressed by our patients more than makes up for that challenging experience; we get positive feedback at every visit. All in all, it’s a very rewarding type of nursing practice, one which I highly recommend!
