Hiring and Retaining Home Care Nurses

Abstract

Home care agencies are tasked with finding increasingly cost-efficient care processes to improve the quality of patient care outcomes. Hiring and retaining nurses who are well suited for home care are important factors that can influence the cost and provision of quality care in the home. The purpose of this article is to identify characteristics of home healthcare nurses that enable them to be successful home healthcare team members and leaders. A search of the literature was conducted to compile a list of questions with which to screen home healthcare nurse applicants for the required knowledge and skills as well as to improve retention rates of nurses hired. The nature of home healthcare practice makes nurse qualification screening and interviewing a challenge. To assist hiring managers in the screening and interviewing of nurse applicants in this challenging environment, we identified targeted interview questions that will help discern those nurses who are most likely to succeed and be productive, long-term members of the home healthcare agency.

Perceptions and experiences of risk management by managers of residential aged care facilities: a qualitative study from Hunan Province, China

“…The majority of managers stated that they expected to recruit highly trained nursing staff to improve care delivery outcomes. This insight highlighted managerial functions in recruiting and retaining qualified and productive personnel, a priority in continuum care settings (Mitchell & Oermann, 2017 ). Managers also described the need for specific training on basic or advanced emergency knowledge and skills.…”

Becoming an Expert Home Health Nurse

“…Needed skills include the ability to work with a variety of patient types, ages, complex acute and chronic conditions, supportive technologies, as well as a knowledge of regulations guiding home healthcare. The nurse must have the ability to work autonomously to quickly assess a situation and respond appropriately while alone with the patient in the home (Mitchell & Oermann, 2017). It is especially important to clarify the role of the home health nurse because hospital or emergency department discharges with hospital-at-home programs may suggest that inpatient nursing skills easily transfer to home settings.…”

The Home Healthcare Nurse

“…Many times, home healthcare nurses have difficulty obtaining accurate patient information during transitions of care, resulting in swiftly adapting and improvising to meet patient needs (Andrade & Silva, 2018; Norlyk et al, 2020). Knowledge of community resources, significant travel, patient scheduling, and productivity all impact nurses' adaptation to caring for patients in the home setting (Mitchell & Oermann, 2017). Flexibility, navigational skills, and caring for patients in complicated situations are all essential competencies of home healthcare nurses (Andersson et al, 2017; De Groot et al, 2018).…”

“…Feeling confident in their role as caregivers is a key component of pediatric home healthcare nurses (Samuelson et al, 2015) with parents of technology-dependent children reporting the importance of home healthcare nurses acting confidently and without hesitation (Mendes, 2013). Self-efficacy in critical thinking, communication, clinical and navigational skills are all crucial for the home healthcare nurse (Funk et al, 2011; Mitchell & Oermann, 2017). Self-efficacy includes proficiency in home healthcare documentation by illustrating an accurate picture of patients' acuity levels in the home through timely completion of documentation in the electronic health record (Sockolow et al, 2014; Yang et al, 2019).…”