What is a Home Health Nurse?
What is a Home Health Nurse? - Travel Nurse Source Blog

What is a Home Health Nurse?

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The field of nursing is extremely diverse. The registered nurses, healthcare settings, and daily responsibilities vary in countless ways. This is, perhaps, most true within home health nursing. What is a home health nurse? Well, the short answer to this question is a nurse who provides care in the patient’s home. However, there are many other nuances to home health nursing worth considering! Whether you are a nursing student considering specialties for the first time or a veteran nurse looking for a way to shake things up in your career, home health is an incredible option. So, without further ado, let’s answer the question “what is a home health nurse?” more fully.

What is a Home Health Nurse? 4 Things to Consider

What is a Home Health Nurse

1. The Setting

Potentially the primary difference between home health nursing and other specialties is the setting of care. As a home health nurse, you will truly be traveling every day. Obviously, here at TravelNurseSource.com, we’re huge advocates of travel nursing. However, when we say you’ll travel as a home health nurse we don’t necessarily mean it in the same context. Home health care is a term that covers a wide range of medical services offered in the patient’s home. Home health nurses travel to and from their patients’ homes to check in and provide medical services. Because of this, home health nurses must be able to adapt to a variety of different healthcare settings. Since patients will all have different lifestyles which are reflected in their home life, home health nurses will work numerous different environments every day.

2. The Responsibilities

While the healthcare settings for home health nurses are very different than other specialties, the responsibilities are not always. Much like other nursing specialties, your main responsibilities as a home health nurse will be to work with patients on a long-term basis, help patients regain physical independence, and manage their medication. Ultimately, home health nurses are meant to help patients manage their health with relative independence. Usually, one of the primary goals for home health care is to help patients stay out of acute care. So, even though your day to day responsibilities will vary based on your patients’ needs, you will be making a huge impact on your patients’ quality of life.

3. The Coworkers

One of the unique things about home health nursing is the fact that it requires high levels of both independence and collaboration. On a day to day basis, you’ll be working primarily independently. However, you’ll also communicate closely with physicians and other nurses to coordinate care. At the end of the day, you are the eyes and ears of the entire healthcare team working with your patients. Of course, this means that you will have a great deal of responsibility in the care. Yet, it also means that you will have a great deal of input. Physicians will often defer to your professional recommendation since you are the one who sees the patient on a regular basis.

4. The Salary & Job Outlook

The median annual salary for home health nurses is $68,450 which is roughly the same for all nurses. However, it is important to keep in mind that your actual salary will be largely affected by geography and experience. For example, veteran nurses typically earn more each year than their novice counterparts. Regardless, home health nursing offers a lot of great career opportunities. As the US population ages, home health nursing is not one of the fastest growing nursing specialties. Given the nursing shortage, it should come as no surprise that home health nurses are in high demand.

What is a home health nurse? A home health nurse is a caregiver. Whatever you do and wherever you work as a home health nurse, you will make a drastic impact on every patient you meet. Are you interesting in becoming a home health nurse? Let us know why in comments below! Also, feel free to take a look at the thousands of home health nursing jobs we currently have available.

Author: Travel Nurse Source

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