There are many things to consider when it comes to choosing or shifting a career. While it’s common to just pick something by default, true fulfillment comes from opting for a path that gives you a sense of purpose. Getting out of bed every day to make a positive impact in people’s lives is present in most areas of healthcare. However, pediatric home health care provides many opportunities to improve a family’s life long-term, while developing the connections sometimes missing in clinical environments. Yet, this career path is not for everyone. Home health provides one-on-one care in the client’s home. How do you know if it’s the right career choice for you?
7 Signs a Career in Pediatric Home Health Care is Right for You
1. You Enjoy Helping People
Pediatric home health care is meaningful work. It comes with the rewarding feeling of knowing that everything you do is improving someone else’s life. You are also making things better for the entire family, since having a home health care nurse allows everyone in the household to have an increased sense of security in knowing someone is helping with their loved ones. It also provides their loved one with one-on-one care in their home that is so often needed when a family member suffers from a complex medical condition. This helps them to live their best life possible.
2. You Enjoy Working Independently
In a hospital setting, you’re often a small part of a much larger team of healthcare professionals. In pediatric home health care, you’ll enjoy a degree of autonomy, allowing you to really develop your clinical skills as well as your one-on-one relationship with your client. This type of position can be empowering and educational.
Of course, you’ll still enjoy the support of a much larger team. Care Options for Kids offers completely integrated technology, which allows its nurses to access in-depth information on every patient at the touch of the button — whether it’s a plan of care, medications, or the time of their last bowel movement.
If you do need additional help, some agencies — like Care Options for Kids — have 24-hour, 365-day, on-call phone support and other on-demand clinical resources to support their staff and encourage teamwork, even remotely.
3. You Want to Establish Lasting Relationships
While working in a hospital setting can be rewarding, you have more of a revolving door of clients. And often, once they get better, you don’t see them again. Pediatric home health care provides the opportunity to truly get to know a client and their family — from their favorite foods and TV shows to their life stories.
You get to become a part of their everyday life and see how treatment progresses. Some pediatric home health care nurses provide services to the same client for years — to the point where they start feeling like part of the family. At Care Options for Kids, this typically means you’re working with pediatric clients — from infants to young adulthood. Some will have basic medical needs and others will have more complex medical needs. You’ll get to watch them grow, both physically and in their health care journey. And, you’ll play a key part in their life.
4. You Want to Provide Quality Care
In a hospital, you’re constantly running around to different blinking call lights — popping in to check a client’s vitals, charting for multiple clients, passing meds, making sure that they have everything they need, and seeing to the occasional emergency. Although checking on clients and documenting notes is required in all healthcare jobs, pediatric home health care shifts may require that you monitor a client for the duration of their night’s sleep, or that you provide care for a client throughout the day.
This means that you’re providing longer, more dedicated care to a single pediatric client. Your attention can directly impact the health of someone’s child or other loved one. For example, an infant may require a g-tube. But, if the child rolls around while they sleep, this tube could become kinked or dislodged. Your knowledge and assistance with this care can make a significant difference in their life and health journey.
5. You are Proactive
Some people work best by waiting for someone to provide them with instructions. Every Care Options for Kids employee is provided with an individualized Plan of Care tailored to their clients’ needs. Each nurse has their dedicated Director of Nursing for clinical support as well as a 24-hour on-call phone support. We also provide other on-demand clinical resources to support you in a home environment.
As with a hospital setting, being able to think on your feet when things get difficult is crucial to such an essential job to provide top quality, compassionate, and personalized care. With home care, you get to work independently in a home environment with full support to allow you to provide the best care possible for your client.
6. You Want Out of the Clinical Environment
Being a pediatric home health care nurse means that you’ll be working in someone else’s home. While this has many benefits, it also comes with adjusting to the family’s rules, tastes, and behaviors. You may have shifts where family members are around all of the time — with a wide range of personalities. You’ll also have to be mindful of different cultures and languages.
This is similar to interacting with families in a hospital setting, except with home health care, you become part of the same team. Instead of family members putting their stress on you to help their loved one, you’re typically working hand in hand to provide a healthy life for your client. Instead of the mundane hospital room, you get to watch your client thrive in their own comfortable and safe environment — wearing their favorite PJs, listening to the song that makes them smile most, and interacting with the sounds and smells around them.
7. You Want to Avoid the Spread
If you’ve already been working as a nurse in a hospital or other medical facility for many years, then you know first-hand the risk you face treating clients — especially if your clients have COVID-19, the flu, or other transmittable diseases. The risk, stress, and lack of resources can leave you feeling burnt out.
Some home health care companies — like Care Options for Kids — want to do everything they can to contribute to the health of you and your clients. This means leveraging technology to make your job as a home health nurse easier. We put COVID-19 screenings in place and provide the resources you need to stay safe while tending to a pediatric client, such as masks and other PPE. Shifting to a career in pediatric home health care means that you can step away from the front lines. And, you won’t even have to sacrifice the fulfilling career you’ve chosen to go into. You will be making a difference in your clients’ life and helping them live life to the fullest.
Benefits of Working at Care Options for Kids
In addition to working in home health, it’s essential to choose a team that’s right for you. Working at Care Options for Kids provides all of the benefits listed above, as well as additional advantages for healthcare professionals. These benefits include:
- Home health nursing opportunities throughout the entire state of Florida
- An easy online application process
- Education center to comply with yearly CEU credits
- Paid time off (PTO)
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match
- Employee nurse referral bonus
- Competitive and weekly pay
- Direct deposit
- 24/7 on-call for support
- Flexible schedules
- Training opportunities
- Follows CDC guidelines
- An opportunity to make a difference every day in people’s lives
If You’re Thinking About a Career in Pediatric Home Health Care Contact Care Options for Kids
At Care Options for Kids, we are always looking for experienced, compassionate, and caring healthcare professionals to join our team. We have 12 locations throughout the state of Florida. If you are an RN or LPN and are ready to improve people’s lives, we would love to hear from you.
Call today at (888) 592-5855 or view our open job opportunities.
