How to become a home health nurse: Training, pay and job outlook Care com Resources

Table of Content

• Follow Us on Social
• What is Home Health Nursing like?
• Nursing assistant
• What Degrees Are Best for a Home Health Nurse?
• How to Become a Home Health Nurse
• Jefferson Community and Technical College: Medicaid Nurse Aide
• How many years does it take to become a home healthcare nurse?
• How Much Does a Home Health Nurse Make?

All Integrity Network members are paid members of the Red Ventures Education Integrity Network. Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below. First, enroll in the GCTC Medicaid Nurse Aide program, maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA, and document your financial aid needs. Get information on programs by entering your zip code and request enrollment information.

Working in a home setting means you're typically caring for individuals who can't leave their homes. As a home health nurse, you feel you can truly make a difference by bringing life-changing care to homebound patients. Home health nursing is a very rewarding career that provides tremendous flexibility and independence. Nurses can create their own schedule and practice different types of care, forming strong relationships with their patients in the setting in which they are most comfortable. Home health nurse salaries vary significantly based upon their level of education, their geography, and other factors, but according to Payscale.com, the national average annual salary is $67,160 per year.

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Because the home environment can often be unpredictable, a sense of humor and a positive attitude can come in handy as well. Below are occupations that have high affinity with Home Health Nurse skills. Discover some of the most common Home Health Nurse career transitions, along with skills overlap. After getting your degree, you’ll have to take the National Council Licensure Exam either for Practical Nurses (NCLEX-PN) or Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). You will need topass the NCLEXin order to become licensed to work as a nurse. Manage an Alzheimer patient daily care including bathing, feeding and administer any medication.

Promote excellence in nursing by enabling future and current nurses with the education and employment resources they need to succeed. Confused or angry patients, such as those with dementia or Alzheimer's, can become agitated or violent with a stranger in their home. The risk increases if the nurse must do something that will cause pain, such as injections or lab draws.

What is Home Health Nursing like?

Hawkes says home health nurses have a great deal of professional autonomy. The skills you develop while needing to make choices on your own, field new variables and respond to different patient and family situations are extremely valuable skills for the nursing field at large. It’s an excellent role for people who like to work with more independence and have more agency in how they do their job. Though home health nurses still care for multiple patients, they only visit one at a time, giving them the opportunity to get to know their patients and their families on a more personal level. This can foster connections between nurses and patients that may not have developed in a busy hospital, making home health a rewarding career choice.

Home health nurses provide individualized care to patients in the comfort of their own home setting. They may be healthy patients recovering from surgical procedures or they can be chronically or terminally ill. Becoming a home healthcare nurse can pay well, especially in areas with high demand. If you enjoy working on your own and do not mind or even like a lot of driving, it can be very rewarding. Home health nurses who are bilingual have some of the highest earning opportunities in this specialty. While they are still part of a healthcare team, they work on their own far more often than nurses who work on-site in healthcare facilities.

Nursing assistant

Earning a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration can take 4 years to complete. People that have earned their Bachelor's Degree typically make $83,221 compared to $40,639 for those without that type of degree. You can now earn the terminal degree in nursing with Herzing University. We are proud to offer our first doctoral degree, the Doctor of Nursing Practice , designed for nurses who hold an MSN. Becoming a licensed home health nurse usually require a college degree.

Some Nurse Practitioners do indeed visit patients in their homes, but such positions may be relatively hard to find at this time. They provide critical care to patients in their own homes and help them recover from illness or injury. The education and training required to become a home health nurse could be rigorous, but the benefits of this career are many. Home health nurses enjoy a flexible work schedule, the opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives, and job security. Nurses must be able to manage difficult situations and communicate effectively with patients and their families.

What Degrees Are Best for a Home Health Nurse?

As an in-home care nurse, you can work with fewer staff members than when in a hospital setting, giving you more autonomy and allowing you to take leadership roles. Additionally, there is job security in working as a home health nurse since there will always be a need for these services. Home health nursing allows nurses to provide compassionate care while making an impact on the lives of patients and their families without sacrificing one’s career goals or growth opportunities. While additional education is not required, registered nurses can advance their practice by becoming a home health clinical nurse specialist by obtaining their master's degree in nursing . Additionally, they can pursue advanced practice nursing by their state board of registered nursing.

However, you will still need to obtain your RN license from the state in which you practice. An LPN/LVN is the minimum requirement for becoming a home healthcare nurse since it takes just one year of education. Home healthcare nurses provide care to patients in the patient's own home.

Additionally, a home health nurse can provide services for people who are recovering from an accident, surgeries, or have a chronic disease like diabetes. CNAs are nursing assistants, and cannot fill the same role that a home health RN or LPN fills. However, becoming a CNA is the first step toward a full nursing career for many people. CNA work can give you a feel for what interacting with patients is like. It can also help you get your foot in the door with an employer who may later hire you as a nurse if you continue your education.

Home healthcare nurses have the same core training and skills as other licensed nurses , but they choose to apply their skills outside of hospitals. They typically work for home care agencies, and their patients are often seniors who are disabled, are adjusting to new diagnoses, or are recovering from an operation or illness. As well as practical nursing skills, a BSN degree covers nursing theory in more detail and prepares students to enter graduate school to earn a master's degree in nursing.

Getting into a career in home health nursing will require a lot of hard work, but for the right person, it can be very rewarding in both practical and intangible ways. Below you can explore compensation, and you can also consider some obstacles so that you’re fully prepared for challenges you may face. Being a home health nurse helped Pourron cultivate new perspectives on patient behavior.

Even if you don’t prefer it, it will give you the experience that you need in order to later do the job you really want. If the job market for nurses in your area is highly competitive, you may even wish to consider a temporary location change. In addition to the net costs in the table above, you may face other costs that are difficult to calculate. You’ll need to buy numerous textbooks and supplies, including scrubs. You’ll probably be affected by lost wages since participating full-time in both work and school/unpaid training hours won’t be possible.

Once you've acquired a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration or a related field, you'll typically begin your career as an entry-level Home Health Nurse. In general, you can become a Home Health Nurse after completing your 4 year Bachelor's Degree in a related discipline. Depending on the type of Home Health Nurse role you’re pursuing, you may want to explore certification in certified home health aide. Below are the steps generally required to begin and advance your Home Health Nurse career. Are you thinking of becoming a Home Health Nurse or already started your career and planning the next step? Learn how to become a Home Health Nurse, what skills you need to succeed, how to advance your career and get promoted, and what levels of pay to expect at each step on your career path.

Home health nurses must be skilled at working one-on-one with individual patients. Providing personalized patient care should be their top priority and skill they've honed. If you're driven to lead, this online nursing degree will provide you everything needed to make that career a reality. If you don't currently have an RN and don't qualify for your nursing prelicensure program, consider getting our Bachelor's Degree in Health Services Coordination instead. This degree allows you to work inside the healthcare industry in a unique way. If you don't live in one of our prelicensure states or don't qualify to apply, consider getting our Bachelor's Degree in Health Services Coordination instead.