CVHC nurses usually find the transition from traditional patient care settings to home care very rewarding. Our nurses say this career offers professional treatment and a good lifestyle, with a specialized home care agency where they are valued.
CVHC nurses work as RN Clinicians and real partners who manage cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary patients in a community setting. CVHC management, physicians and patients appreciate their skills and experience. Working in a collaborative environment, as part of a multidisciplinary team, CVHC nurses find their input and feedback is not only respected, but also encouraged.
CVHC offers salaries that are competitive in the market. We actively research salary and benefits among Tarrant County healthcare providers that employ RNs, and make adjustments as needed.
Our RN Clinicians manage their own caseloads, and, in effect, can set their level of income based on number of cases and/or hours worked.
In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a wide variety of benefits and benefit options. These include:
We pay our RN Clinicians either on a fee basis or at an hourly rate, depending on the types of patients they care for and manage.
RNs who primarily care for cardiovascular patients are paid on a fee basis.
RNs who choose to care for our orthopedic patients are paid on an hourly basis.
Our RNs work together when time off is needed. To take a regular workday off, you can contact a fellow RN Clinician and arrange coverage for your patients, then inform the office of the coverage arrangements.
Field personnel begin accruing paid time off when they move to a fee basis. The value of the time off you accrue is based on the number visits you average. You may use the time off once you have accrued it. During the first six months, we recommend that you try to limit using PTO in order to learn and develop your new position. We also recommend maintaining a PTO reserve to use for unexpected needs.
RN Clinicians manage an average caseload of 18 – 25 patients. Some patients are seen weekly and some are once-daily visits, depending on individual patient needs. The RN Clinician will typically have 30 – 35 patient encounters each week.
Generally, an average patient encounter is 25 – 40 minutes, during which the patient receives an assessment, some teaching and instruction. The patient encounter may require other tasks such as symptom management, a lab draw, or medication calculation, such as a warfarin dose change.
For the weekly schedule, CVHC nurses must be available from 8-5, Monday – Friday to respond to agency phone calls.
Your actual daily appointment schedule will be set and controlled by you and your patients’ needs. Your caseload is self-managed, so the better you are at planning, the more effective you can be.
CVHC RNs are good self-managers who control their schedules effectively. They use the morning to review their schedules and handle other administrative aspects of their positions. They usually begin visits no later than 9:00 am and immediately chart after each patient encounter. Depending on patient load, patient needs and income desired, they would finish between 3:30 pm and 5:00 pm each day.
For the most part, each nurse’s schedule is Monday – Friday. At CVHC, all phones roll over to the “On-call Nurse” at 5:00 pm. We have fulltime weekend staff to maintain weekend call coverage.
An RN Clinician takes call coverage about four times a year. Each RN Clinician takes a turn in the on-call rotation for two weeknights plus one weekend day and acts as the back-up RN for the following weekend.
CVHC serves Tarrant County and the surrounding areas. To provide for maximum productivity, we hire staff to serve particular areas of the county such as Hurst-Euless-Bedford or North Richland Hills/Richland Hills, or South Arlington or Southwest Fort Worth, etc. Often, our RNs select a coverage area close to home or within a reasonable commute. Successful RN Clinicians are willing to travel to areas adjacent to their primary coverage area in order to build up or maintain their caseload. There is additional compensation for extra travel.
In some instances, RNs join our staff to serve an area in need, and, over time, build a caseload in an area that is closer to home.
We offer an in-depth, extensive orientation period to orient our RNs to our philosophy and care procedures. This training lasts about four weeks, and combines both office and fieldwork. Training modules may offer CEU credits.
When you are finished with orientation, you will begin receiving patient assignments. During this initial transition, we provide a proctor to assist you. In addition, the agency’s director is always available by phone to ensure you are comfortable with your treatments and progress.
We provide all the equipment related to treatments for the patients you are seeing. This will include a cell phone, laptop computer, INR machine, pulse oximeter, EKG cables, glucometer and all supplies.