Home Health

Maria Hernandez

College of Western Idaho

HLTH-290: Exercise and Health Science

Tim Curry

May 5, 2020
 I am majoring in health science. I hope to go into the nursing program when I transfer;

because of this I wanted to see what my option were when it came to becoming a RN. I looked

into the different jobs the nurses could have I thought I had a pretty good idea about all of them.

Until I found home health. I had no idea what an RN would be doing in home health. That’s the

route I took. I met this amazing nurse named Sarah and she let me take a peek into her world.

I was looking forward to learning everything home health had to offer. I didn’t know

what to expect. I wanted to learn what a nurse would have to do in home health. But mostly I

was looking forward to seeing the environment and how it would affect the work that Sarah had

to do. When I thought about a nurse, I always pictured her in a hospital or in a clinic, but with

home health you never really knew what kind of environment you were going to have to work in.

I was intrigued to see how she would handle patients who needed certain equipment. I soon

learned that in order to be a home health nurse she had to be very flexible and adaptable.

A day with Sarah started about the same every day. But after the first couple of hours

anything could happen. At first, we would all sit in the team leader’s office and decide who is

seeing what patients that day. There was a mix of professionals in there. It wasn’t just registered

nurses. After everyone had their patients, the phone calls began. They had to call all their

patients and set up a time to come by that was more convenient for them. There weren’t any

premade appointments. They had to call all their patients that morning and set up a time that they

felt most comfortable with; work around their patience schedules. Once that task was complete,

they could start seeing patients. But this could take a long time; sometimes they simply wouldn’t

pick up or nobody would want to be seen at 8 am. Going to see the patients is where the real fun

began. We would get into Sarah’s car and drive to each patient’s home. All the equipment Sarah
needed was carried in the back of her car. She had a bag she would carry into most homes that

had the essential in it. She has a second bag that was much smaller and was designed to hold

only the stuff she needed for that specific patient. This bag was for homes that were more

cluttered and didn’t have enough room for her big bag. Everything she did had to be able to be

changed to fit the situation. You could have a verity of patients and you must be prepared. There

were all sorts of different wounds. Your day could be filled with packing wounds or filling pill

holders. It all just depended on who needed to be seen that day.

After each patient there was a lot of charting to do. Sarah had to fill out what seemed to

be endless pages of information. From what she did to everything the patient told her. It was

interesting to see how she did it. A traditional nurse has a clipboard or a laptop and fills out

information as they are being told about it. But Sarah went into home and had conversations with

the patients and just stored it all in her head. When we got back to the car, she would pull out her

tablet and put all the information into it. I was impressed with her ability to retain all the

information correctly. She filled it all out and then it was on to the next person.

Her day could be over at 1 p.m. if everyone answered their phones and made

appointments at times that just fit perfectly after the last one. Or it could be over way at 6 p.m. if

nobody wanted to be seen during the morning. Those days seems to drag on the most because we

would just sit in car and wait around until it was time to go to the next home. Or if the time gap

was big enough, we would go back to office and have lunch. But those days also allowed me to

be able to ask her more questions and see what the background of home health was all about.

We talked about how there was really only 3 registered nurses with bachelor’s degrees.

There were a few nurses who had associate degrees. There were some LPNs ends and some

CNA's as well. The RNS had to make specific trips to see the patients of all the other nurses to
make sure that they had the health assistant that was required. This doesn't mean that the nurses

were seeing them every day. They would pop in once in a while to make sure everything was

running smoothly. This gave them the opportunity for the registered nurses to be able to go see

patients who needed more urgent care or who have specific treatments that only registered nurses

are licensed to do. This allowed a lot of flexibility for the staff members to take on different sorts

of patients and have different experiences throughout their career.

The demand for nurses is very high all over the country. They need people in this line of

work. The demand for nurses is only expected to grow within the next 10 years. We have really

seen the impact of the nursing shortage effect the world right now. This pandemic has put our

health care workers in the spotlight, and it’s been apparent that they need help. Not only that but

it has proved how important their work is.

A nurse’s salary in Idaho can range anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 depending on what

you do. Everything comes into play when you’re a nurse. You can have certain certifications that

means you have extra duties. This all plays a role when they’re determining their pay. Another

very important variable is where you live. Nationally, nurses can make up to 90,000 but they

average around 51,00 dollars a year. It may seem like a lot of money but for the work they do,

they deserve every penny they earn.

Nursing isn’t just filling up pill bottles or taking someone’s temperature. It’s making

patients feel heard and comforted. It’s about building a bond strong enough to let a person trust

you with their life but not let them cloud your judgement when making medical decisions. That

has to be the most challenging part of nursing, especially home health. When a patient is in home

health they aren’t expected to die. When you do go make a visit and they’re found dead its very

unexpected. But even when it is expected, like it is now during a pandemic. It’s still so difficult
to hold a dying patient’s hand and know you’re the only support system they have around.

Another difficulty would have to be being able to build that bond with people who aren’t

interested in the help you’re providing. The people who would rather be left alone but need

medical attention either way. It’s hard to be able to have the intimate conversation nurses need to

have when your patient is guarded. The hours nurses work are also very hard on them. They

work long shifts with barely any rest because of the shortage and it will probably remain that

way for a long time.

Even with all the difficulties nurses face every single day I am looking forward to

becoming a registered nurse. Probably not a home health nurse after I first graduate, I would like

to experience nursing on a different level. Later in life I would most consider going into home

health. I look forward to impacting people’s lives every day even if it’s just in a small way.
 References

Average Home Health Nurse Hourly Pay. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Home_Health_Nurse/Hourly_Rate

Registered Nurses : Occupational Outlook Handbook. (2020, April 10). Retrieved from

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm

Salary.com. (n.d.). Staff Nurse - RN - Home Care Salary in Idaho. Retrieved from

https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/staff-nurse-rn-home-care-salary/id

Writers, R. N. S. (2020, May 2). How to Become a Home Health Nurse - Salary. Retrieved from

https://www.registerednursing.org/specialty/home-health-nurse/