After learning the facts about how to become a home health
nurse you will be better prepared to make a decision as to whether this career
is right for you. A home health nurse works in the home with various patients,
providing a wide array of treatments and support. The patients might be
elderly, disabled, suffering from terminal illnesses, recovering from bad
accidents, new mothers or any number of various other situations and
categories. You need to be emotionally supportive, flexible and highly
competent to enter this specialized area of nursing.
The first step to becoming a home health nurse is getting
the education. Home health care nurses typically go through accredited nursing
schools to get their degrees. Some home health care nurses are LVNs, or
Licensed Vocational Nurses, but the things these nurses can do and the salaries
they earn are somewhat limited. If you want more responsibility and higher
wages, it is best to get a Bachelor of Science in Nursing to become a
registered nurse. There are also specialized professional certificates such as
Geriatric Care and Life Care Planning that better equip nurses for the
challenges of this job.
In addition to schooling, all nurses must have supervised
clinical experience before they can become registered to work in their field. A
nurse who wants to go into home health care will want to get as much experience
in this type of nursing as possible before making it a specialization.
Continuing education is also crucial in this career. Staying abreast with the
latest developments enhances patient care in any setting, but when nurses are
working out of people’s homes it is particularly important that they have as
much of the latest knowledge as possible.
The good news is that home health nurses are
highly in demand and earning decent salaries. The current nursing shortage of
approximately 10 percent makes it clear just how badly we need more nurses in
this country. The average salary for home health nurses is around $50,000, and
there is plenty of room for advancement, especially with more specialized
training, certifications and plenty of experience in the field. http://www.healthcareatm.com
No comments:
Post a Comment