Dear Cassandra 12,

I am a LPN in Florida, and here you have to get 1 year of experience before finding a position in Home Health Care. I think the nursing home will give you the needed experience where you can make decisions on your own while consulting other team members, too.  Home Health is an expanding field and they need nurses with experience. Along with Home Health, have you thought of working in a dr's office or maybe a local clinic, all of these are probable job choices. You may want to look at your local hospitals. I hope my 2 cents helps, GOOD LUCK and GOD BLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Cassandra,

The biggest obstacle that I have seen going from a facility to home care is: What confidence do you have in your skill levels?  Home care, for the most part - if you want to consult, you can call your home care supervisor; if you have an emergency, you call 911.  Some nurses have trouble with that.  I loved it.

Look into what area of home care you want. It can be like saying that you want to work in a hospital. Lots of sub-choices to go for.

My own experiances in home care included: IV care, general med/surg home care, pediatric home care and high-tech home care (central lines, blood transfusions, ventilators).  Within each of these areas, I dealt with Hospice at sometime or another.  Each agency is different, so when you do interview, be ready with your questions for them. 

You HAVE to know what you are getting into.  Sometimes, you can even get a family to give permission for you to do a site-visit with a supervisor to get a handle on what it is like.

Please keep us informed on what is going on and if you have more questions, please post them.

Tom

Thank you Teresa.  Bowing and general worship might be over-doing it a bit.

But, thank you for the compliments.

While I am thinking about it, go to Cassandra's pictures.  She has a really fantastic picture of her, black-and-white blowing a kiss.  It looks like an ad for a fashion magazine.  Very cool.

Tom

Hi Cassandra!

I'm a newly licensed LPN. I have been having such a hard time finding work it's really ridiculous. Since I passed boards in March, I've applied to countless nursing homes/assisted living, clinics, md offices... u name it. The only place willing to give me a chance is a pediatrics home care agency. I have to say I am very nervous, but excited as well. They will not let you out in the field w/o any training! I begin my training classes next week which cover everything you learned in nursing school & then some, they also require you to give return demonstrations as well! I was told I won't be thrown to the wolves until I pass all my training & am absolutely ready (don't forget you are a liability if you don't know what your doing). I believe you go out the first few times with your preceptor too. Anyway, this is not where I wanted to start my career, but I figure it's where I'm supposed to be right now & great experience for the next door that opens. Good luck with whatever you decide, I hope it all works out for you! Keep in touch

Michele

Great advice from all.. Good luck to youin your future endeavors.. Keep in touch andlet usknow how you are doing...Teesa