Healthcare is needed in hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices, nursing homes, and even in people's own homes. This sometimes is attributed to the fact that people are afraid to enter a hospital, but this is not the case. People need extended care that does not qualify for hospital or 24 hour nursing home care. Often financial reasons drive people to seek care from their own home, and depending on how much care needs to be performed, sometimes a nurse is only needed for a couple hours a day.
People who are given the option between hospitalization, nursing home, or home healthcare will have to meet certain criteria. While hospital settings are extremely sanitary, and considered the best environment for those who are sick and suffering, people have a right to choose where they receive medical care. Home healthcare nurses are expected to give the same quality of care that every other nurse gives patients, and often better. They only have one patient to see per shift, so their attention is directed fully at them. There are several different certifications you must obtain in order to be a home healthcare nurse.
There is no special nursing school for a home healthcare nurse verses any other type of nurse. There are a few differences in the types of certifications you must obtain though. (We will go through these later.) Just like any other schooling program, you must check and make sure each program you consider attending is accredited.
What is a home health care nurse?
Home health nurses provide essential care to patients in their home. Examples of care provided are: cleaning and dressing wounds, caring for patients in comas or who are bed ridden, patients who have dementia and need to be taken care of 24 hours a day in a home setting, patients on a ventilator, or hospice care. Those are just a few of the jobs that home health nurses preform in home settings. These jobs can range from just a couple hours a day, to around-the-clock care switching shifts with another nurse. All of the duties preformed in the home will be exactly like the duties preformed in a hospital except without med carts, doctors, nurses or other patients to deal with. The nurse will still be required to document, and/or chart about the patient's care and in some cases make care plans. All of the nurse’s notes will be looked over by the patient’s doctor, and is a critical part of the patient’s care.
What’s it like to work as a home health care nurse?
Nurses who work in a home health care setting will generally be the only people on staff at the time. You will have a lot of interaction with family members if the patient lives with members of their family. Most home health nurses often describe getting attached to patients they care for on a long term basis, as well as their family on an emotional level. Since you will only care for one patient on a daily basis—for months and sometimes years at a time—this means that there is less stress involved. Often times though, the benefit of this is canceled out due to the attachment nurses develop towards their patients. Nurses take it a lot harder when their patients get sick due to the emotional attachment they have developed.
What kind of education and training are needed to work as a home health care nurse?
Any type of nurse can work in homecare services. Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) and Registered Nurses (RNs) both have the ability and training. During your schooling to become a nurse, know that there is no special training that is required to work in a home health setting. It takes 12 months of intense schoolwork and clinicals to become an LPN. After graduating you will have earned the ability to take the NCLEX for LPNs to get your nursing licensure. Schooling to become an RN is offered in a two- or four-year program. After graduating each program you will be able to take the NCLEX for RNs and practice as an RN.
After you have graduated from nursing school, it is a good idea to become certified in basic, cardiac and pediatric life support. Having training in ventilators and tracheas is essential to be a home health nurse. Working on a med-surge unit, ICU or step down unit will give you the proper training you need with tracheostomies and ventilators. However, wound care is a highly sought after skill that you learn in nursing school.
While you can perform wound care without gaining certification, nurses who are certified through The Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing Certification Board (WOCNCB) are generally paid more and hired primarily for wound care jobs. Contact the WOCNCB to see how much classes cost and when they are being held.
How much do home healthcare nurses earn?
Home healthcare nurses make a good salary for nurses. LPNs can make up to $45,000 annually doing home health care. RNs have the ability to earn up to $65,000 annually. Annual salary will be dependent upon what type of home health care the nurse provides, and of course how many hours are worked on a weekly basis.
While providing nursing care in a home environment can take a lot from you emotionally, you can change the lives of people. People often prefer having excellent care provided in the comfort of their own home when one-on-one comfort cannot be done in a hospital environment.