Tuesday, June 3, 2014

#sharesomethinginspiring challenge - What I do all day . . .

Sweat Pink and Lorna Jane active put forth a challenge a couple of weeks ago in a quest to spread kindness and inspiration.  The #sharesomethinginspiring challenge was to post a daily bit of inspiration to twitter and/or instagram.

Since I love a great challenge, I was all in!  It has been really fun to do and interesting to see what others view as inspiring to them!  I've seen some great things!

The topic today was to share something interesting about your work.

This was my post.

 Mending people since 1996.

I have been a nurse for 18 years this month.  While every minute of my career has not been pleasant, overall it is really rewarding.  I've met so many interesting people, been in a lot of interesting circumstances and learned a hella lot of things!  I also love that there is so much opportunity for growth within the field.  I am currently smack dab in the middle of a Nurse Practitioner program.


One of the first questions I'm asked when people find out I'm a nurse is "what hospital do you work at?".  Well, the truth is I've only worked a very small part of my career in a hospital.  6 months to be exact.  In a *very* interesting ICU in downtown Dallas.  Hospital nursing just isn't for me.  I've always gravitated to the elderly population and worked in a Medicare based home care for over a decade.

Right now?  I have a really unique job.  I work at home.  I mean, how many nurses do you know that have that luxury.  No 12 hour shifts of back breaking work, bring constantly on my feet.  Nope.  I work in my PJ's and yoga pants.

What is my day like?

Well, I start my day at 9.  My position is in telehealth, which is a telephonic way of caring for patients, in this case individuals who have United Health Care as their insurance carrier.  We don't call them "patients", we call them "members".

So when I get to "work" (which is my home office).  I take a look at all of my "members" who are in a heart failure program.  Every day they weigh themselves and it is reported back to me.  If there are weight fluctuations, they get a call.  What we are trying to do is prevent hospitalizations.  I've worked with this program for almost 2 years and it really works.  We are able to manage symptoms at home instead of at the hospital, saving everyone money!


After that is done, I call on people who have had recent hospitalizations.  We want to make sure they don't go back into the hospital (which is REALLY common) and ensure they understand all of their discharge instructions and medications.

Before noon I am ready to call all the rest of my members.  I currently case manage around 260 people!  I call people who have asthma, heart failure and COPD (similar to emphysema).  I reach out to them to teach them about their condition, how to manage it better and just to check on their overall wellness.  Many also have other disease processes going on....it seems like EVERYONE has Type 2 Diabetes, which is kind of sad when you think about it.

The number of calls I make per day really varies.  I usually talk to 8-12 people a day, including MD offices.  It just depends on what's going down and if people are behaving themselves and staying on their low salt diets and out of the hospital.

I really love what I do.  Once in awhile you get a grumpy person or two....or the rambler who tells you their life story as well as their mother in law's life story, but overall, it's a good thing.


I love that I am home for Louis after school.  That I can just get up and go to his school for lunch or class parties.  I really love not having a commute!  Working for a bigger corporation was really a HUGE change for me and it can still be kind of frustrating, but overall I wouldn't trade it for any other job.

I mean, my dogs and cat are my office mates!


They are all very quiet and never annoying (ok, maybe the cat is when she is all over my desk or tipping over glasses of water on my computer), but you get the drift.

BAD KITTY!!!

I'll be ever grateful to my friend Heather, who talked me into working for United.

So that's what I do everyday!!




1 comment:

  1. What a fun challenge to do! Are you on instagram? I joined a few months back, but couldn't find you.
    I'm jealous that you get to work from home! That would be so nice! But driving around in a van all day with tunes cranked and looking at plants isn't so bad either. :)
    LOVE the kitty pic! He looks like he's about to stir up some trouble! Where have I seen that look before? Ha!
    Happy National Runners Day!! :)

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