Have you heard? Home health is on the rise! Home health care trends show a growth rate of 33% for home health jobs over the next decade. This demand will only continue to climb as the population of older Americans aged 60 years and older increases as one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country. Here’s how you can take advantage of this industry growth and get into the home health field!
What is home health?
Home health care is a wide range of health care services that can be given in your home for an illness, injury, or medical condition. While you may think the only home health patients would be the elderly, COVID has actually shifted this patient population to all sorts of demographic. Due to the pandemic, more people than ever prefer to receive medical care in their homes.
Home health is usually more convenient, less expensive, and as effective as care patients would receive in a hospital or other medical facility. Home health nurses and other healthcare workers work in patients’ homes and provide home health services such as:
- Wound care for pressure sores or a surgical wound
- Patient and caregiver education
- Intravenous or nutrition therapy
- Injections
- Monitoring serious illness and unstable health status
Not only does in home health care allow people to have more accessible healthcare, but it also has patient benefits like:
- Quicker recuperation and recovery
- Increased independence
- Maintaining or improving of current condition or function ability
- Improved self-sufficiency
- Slowing the decline of serious conditions
- Enhanced symptom management
Jobs in home health care
With the influx of home health jobs comes an influx of travel home health jobs. Getting into home health is a great way to find job security while also traveling the country! Curious about how you can pivot into the home health field? Here’s a list of travel home health jobs and how you can transition into them!
Home health RN
What does a home health RN do?
A home health nurse provides a wide range of medical services including basic hygiene such as bathing, feeding, monitoring patient conditions, and ensuring compliance with physicians’ orders. A home health care nurse also provides wound care and pain management, administer medication, and help develop and direct other medical professionals like HCAs and LPNs/LVNs through education and experience training.
How to become a home health RN:
- 2-5 years to earn ADN, BSN, or MSN degree
- Pass NCLEX-RN exam
- Current BLS Certification
- 1 year in clinical patient care as a RN, at least 6 months recent home health experience
- OASIS charting experience
Home health RN salary:
The average base salary for the profession is $86,289 with variables like educational level, years of experience, location, and other travel elements.
Home Health LPN
What does a home health LPN do?
Home health LPN jobs typically include working with registered nurses to determine individualized patient care plans. Additional daily responsibilities of home health LPNs are to work hands-on with patients to monitor health signs, refresh bandages, administer medications and injections, and more.
How to become a home health LPN:
- 1 year to earn an LPN
- Pass NCLEX-PN exam
- Current BLS Certification
- 1 year in clinical patient care as an LPN, at least 6 months recent home health experience
- OASIS charting experience
Home health LPN salary:
The average base salary for the profession is $63,035 with variables like educational level, years of experience, location, and other travel elements.
Hospice RN
What does a hospice RN do?
As the lead caregivers for terminal patients during the final stages of their lives, hospice nurses provide for all their patient’s medical needs with a focus on maintaining the highest quality of life and comfort. Hospice RN job duties include performing patient assessments, reviewing medical histories, monitoring vitals, assessing breathing, asking about pain, keeping an eye on any wounds, and more.
How to become a hospice RN:
- 2-5 years to earn ADN, BSN, or MSN degree
- Pass NCLEX-RN exam
- 2-3 years in an acute care setting
- Pass the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Certification exam
- OASIS charting experience
Hospice RN salary:
The average base salary for the profession is $94,584 with variables like educational level, years of experience, location, and other travel elements.
Hospice LPN
What does a hospice LPN do?
A hospice LPN provides any necessary follow-up care once a RN case manager has seen a patient. Other job duties may include giving medications to patients throughout the day, tending to wounds as needed, assisting with patient home visits, and providing care and aid to patients in the comfort of their homes.
How to become hospice LPN:
- 1 year to earn an LPN
- Pass NCLEX-PN exam
- 2 years in an acute care setting
- Pass the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Certification exam
- OASIS charting experience
Hospice LPN salary:
The average base salary for the profession is $78,144 with variables like educational level, years of experience, location, and other travel elements.
Home Health Case Manager
What does a home health case manager do?
A home health case manager is mainly responsible for organizing patient home health care. This means coordinating physician or health care provider services, communicating with health insurance providers, and supervising nurses who visit the home. Other job responsibilities include developing a Plan of Care (POC) for patients, supporting adherence to the treatment plan, monitoring the patient’s needs, and recommending any community services required.
How to become a home health case manager:
- 2-5 years to earn ADN, BSN, or MSN degree
- Pass NCLEX-RN exam
- 5 years of nursing experience
- Pass the Commission for Case Manager Certification (CCMC) exam or other applicable certification
- OASIS charting experience
Home health case manager salary:
The average base salary for the profession is $48,175 with variables like educational level, years of experience, location, and other travel elements.
Home Health Clinical Manager
What does a home health clinical manager do?
A home health clinical manager ensures patient care is coordinated and managed properly. As part of their job description, they supervise clinical personnel and make sure care and services are delivered appropriately.
How to become a home health clinical manager:
- 4-5 years to earn BSN or MSN degree
- Pass NCLEX-RN exam
- 3-5 years of nursing experience
- Pass Certified Medical Manager-Professional Association of Health Care Office Management exam or Certified Health Care Manager-American Institute of Health Care Professionals exam
- OASIS charting experience
Home health clinical manager salary:
The average base salary for the profession is $75,896 with variables like educational level, years of experience, location, and other travel elements.
Home Infusion RN
What does a home infusion RN do?
Home infusion nurses make sure patients receiving intravenous (IV) therapy receive appropriate care for the therapy ordered. That means they choose an appropriate infusion device, manage the device, as well as monitoring and evaluating the patient’s response to the IV therapy.
How to become a home infusion RN:
- 2-4 years to earn ADN or BSN
- Pass NCLEX-RN exam
- 2 years infusion therapy experience
- Pass Certified Registered Nurse Infusion(CRNI) exam
- OASIS charting experience
Home infusion RN salary:
The average base salary for the profession is $98,443 with variables like educational level, years of experience, location, and other travel elements.
Steps to get your home health certification
The next step of getting into home health, is making sure you have OASIS charting experience or becoming OASIS certified. But what is OASIS? OASIS are data sets through Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It tracks data used for insurance reimbursements, measures the quality of home health care, and is the basis of home health planning. OASIS charting helps Medicare and Medicaid calculate the appropriate reimbursement amounts for a home health patient by measuring the level of care they need. It’s also used to monitor the quality of home health care to ensure the patient needs are being met. Additionally, OASIS can predict patient outcomes over time by tracking their health statuses and analyzing the care process and success methods.
How to become OASIS certified
If you’ve never used OASIS before, it’s important to pass the OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) Exam before breaking into the home health field. The COS-C exam is a voluntary certificate examination available to home health providers interested in demonstrating their expertise and commitment to OASIS data accuracy.
The COS-C exam includes CMS rules related to OASIS time points, regulations, patient populations, and OASIS item-specific scoring. In preparation for taking the COS-C exam, you can take practice tests and review OASIS study materials. As a plus, it's an open-book exam. There are three ways to take the exam: paper and pencil at a workshop location, computer-based test at a testing center, or a remote online test at home. Keep in mind some travel agencies may reimburse you for the certificate costs.
Find home health jobs on Fusion Marketplace
Eager to find a home health travel assignment? On Fusion Marketplace you can choose from a large selection of home health care jobs, offered by multiple staffing agencies. You can filter details like:
- Pay package
- Shift type
- Benefits
- Housing
- Location
- Agency
- Job type
- Hours
With our transparent job descriptions and pay package details, you can easily compare jobs to find the best assignment for you. Plus, with you in the driver’s seat of your career, you can quickly apply for jobs and achieve speed to placement. It’s easier than ever to break into the home health field with Fusion Marketplace.
Home health trends and travel healthcare jobs on the rise means now is the best time to make your way into the home health sector. Take advantage of the demand for healthcare workers and find your ideal home health assignment on Fusion Marketplace! Create your custom profile and start searching for home health jobs today.
