Frequently Asked Questions About Home Health Nursing at VNA
Home Health Nursing is a specialized field of nursing where nurses provide a wide range of health care services to patients in their homes. This includes administering medication, monitoring vital signs and providing patient education on disease management among other responsibilities.
Many nurses are ideally suited for Home Health Nursing, especially if they are good problem solvers and work well independently. They just don’t know it because they don’t understand what Home Health Nursing is or may have concerns about the role. We’re here to provide some information on what it’s like to be a Home Health Nurse at the Visiting Nurse Association of Kansas City (VNA).
What basic responsibilities do Home Health Nurses have?
Their main responsibility is to be the leader of the interdisciplinary care team for their patients. They provide assessment and treatment for the holistic care of the patient, which includes psychosocial needs that can extend to the family.
Office workers cover other responsibilities such as accessing medical records, scheduling visits and staffing with initial calls to admit patients, referral intake, acquiring supplies and all activities to support the staff.
What specific responsibilities do Home Health Nurses have that they may not be aware of going into the role?
Home Health is delivered in what are called “visits,” which make most people think of sitting down to talk in a positive social experience, which it can be, but it can also mean trudging through the snow with a nursing bag on your back in the winter, dealing with multiple family members under stress and split-second critical-thinking when you don’t have the same resources as other environments.
How many patients is a Home Health Nurse responsible for on average?
Our goal is to maintain caseloads of 25-30 patients, but this all depends on the location and complexity of the patients. LPNs also assist with patient care during times of an increased census.
What does the Clinical Manager do, and what is their relationship to individual Home Health Nurses?
Clinical Managers bring structure to the clinical teams and provide great support to our Home Health Nurses. They provide guidance on procedural or patient care questions, obtain billing authorizations, oversee scheduling and provide guidance to make the best decisions possible on any given patient care situation.
What types of socioeconomic areas will Home Health Nurses work in?
We work with all sorts of people in a wide range of economic, living and family situations. The only situation in which we don’t stay is when a staff member’s safety is at risk.
How wide a geographic radius will a Home Health Nurse have to travel around?
We try to keep all staff as close to home as possible, and territories are assigned by ZIP code. Even if a staff member doesn’t live close to their territory, when they drive to the area, their patients are grouped together.
What kind of transportation assistance will Home Health Nurses receive?
We have a fleet car program for which staff have to qualify with their mileage volume. A mileage report is run at intervals to assess which staff meet the requirements, and a fleet car is offered if available. For nurses not in a fleet car, we also have mileage reimbursement.
We like to refer to Home Health Nursing as the “McGuyver of Nursing.” If you want to continually learn, be autonomous and challenge your critical thinking skills on a daily basis, home health is a good fit for you! We are looking for Home Health Nurses with compassion, integrity, grit, critical thinking skills, self motivation and positive attitudes that help them persevere when faced with adversity. If you think this sounds like you, visit our careers page to learn more.
