I’m an RN and recently started a new job in home health and I already am experiencing issues. I love the home health setting but this company is a mess. I started a month ago and got paced right through orientation in about a weeks time. I am on my own now, which is fine, I’ve been a home health nurse for quite some time already so none of this is new to me. I’m PRN only which means I tell them the days I’m available to work and if they need me, they schedule me for that day. The thing that bothers me is that I might as well wipe my ass with it though because they’re scheduling me for days that I did not agree to. Every week, I’m messaging someone to tell them that I am not available those days and I did not schedule for those days so please take me off the schedule.
This past weekend, I was thrown into a situation that had me on the clock for 26 hours straight without my consent. And they still wanted (and scheduled me against my will) to do on call after already working the 26 hours, totaling 36 hours straight. This week alone, I see that I’m scheduled for more days that I did not agree to do and I’m getting sick of it. On my off time, I’m getting messages all the time that I need to do this or that, when I’m not even the usual clinician for that patient. I even had a manager sign me up for several on call shifts throughout the week without my prior consent, knowledge or approval. I’ve just never worked for a company, being PRN, who dismisses my availability so much.
My husband keeps telling me that I should just quit. My daughter hates that I’m gone all the time and wishes I was home more. The laundry has backed up, there’s always dishes in the sink, the house and garden are getting neglected because when I get home after driving all over the tri-county area seeing patients, I have several hours of charting to do. On my days off, I’ll get blunt text messages from management that will say, “Charting please”, if there’s tasks that need corrected. This is always binding me to my work device on my days off because they expect it to be corrected immediately and if I don’t get to it right away, I’ll receive more 2 word text messages demanding that I do them now.
The price of gas is over $5/gallon where I live and I’m getting reimbursed $0.47/mile. At this point, I’m probably losing more gas money than I’m making per mile and the company refuses to pay the national average of $0.58/mile.
I hate this. On my days where I do work, they’re bogging me down with so much work that one person couldn’t ever complete in a normal timeframe. My husband makes an amazing income and I don’t necessarily need to work but I just feel so guilty if I don’t! Like I’m not doing my part to help financially and we’re able to save and get ahead so much if I am working as well. It’s only been one month and I’ve just seen soooooooo many red flags, I don’t know if I can keep doing this.