Home Health Care Nurse – Career and Education Profile

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Home health care nurses work with patients who need daily help from medical professionals, but who opt to live at home rather than in long-term care facilities. This includes both elderly patients and patients from all age groups dealing with long-term medical conditions.

Job Responsibilities

As a home health care nurse, you’ll be on the road a lot, so this is a good job for nurses who enjoy traveling. Many patients need help with certain tasks, yet are still well enough to live at home alone or with family members. Your job will be to travel to these patients’ homes to help them with things like bathing and personal hygiene, administering medicine, and checking vital signs to ensure that the patient is still health enough to remain living at home. Your job could also include educating patients and their families and recommending patients see a doctor if their condition worsens.

Salary and Career Options

The average salary for a home health care nurse was $58,740 as of May 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As a home health care nurse, you’ll likely work with patients who live in a single area and are dealing with a number of different medical conditions, but in some opportunities, you can specialize in one area of medicine, which allows you to earn more money as a nurse. You can also earn more money by living in a high-need location.

Educational Requirements

Because you’ll work so independently as a home health care nurse, most agencies require that you are an RN and hire few LPNs. Becoming an RN means that you earn at least an associate’s degree, though some RNs earn bachelor’s degree, which allows you to go on to get your master’s degree or even doctorate in nursing. Many home health care nurses also require you to have experience as a nurse at a medical facility before you apply, and some require you to be certified in home health care with the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

LPN to RN College Programs

While several schools have online nursing degrees available, few offer LPN to RN programs. What's the good news? We have listed some accredited schools below that do offer the program in addition to schools with other bridge programs available. Find out more information and contact each school by using any of the links below.

Indiana State University—Indiana State University offers a robust online program designed for LPNs wanting to become registered nurses and earn their BSN degree. Since ISU's credits transfer to over 80 campus majors, this is an ideal program for people wanting to open opportunities for their career down the road.

The College Network—The College Network is a partnership with several universities and organizations like the National League for Nursing that focuses on online education and programs, with several courses for nurses or those interested in a nursing career. Specifically, TCN helps students prepare for their PN and RN licensures and move on to earn graduate degrees.

Other Nursing Degrees

Walden University—Walden University is typically a graduate school with several masters and doctoral programs available, but they do have BSN and RN to MSN bridge programs available. Walden is based out of Minneapolis and offers several options in transferring your previously earned credits to and from (or even within) the school.

Kaplan University—Kaplan University is one of the nation's largest and leading online educators and offers several bridge programs for registered nurses to earn their BSN or MSN degree. If you have previously earned credits, Kaplan makes it easy for you to transfer to any one of their undergraduate or graduate programs.

Herzing University—While Herzing University does not offer an undergraduate nursing degree, it is a great choice for working nurses wanting to pursue leadership positions in Nurse Education or Management. With over 10 campuses and 45 online programs available, Herzing has a massive network that makes it easy to transfer to or from the school.

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