Clinicians using FeldCare Connects have told us how working in home healthcare has helped them tap into their creativity and access their entrepreneurial drive.
If you are a speech-language pathologist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, or registered dietician, and that sounds interesting to you, be sure to read this article.
Five Ways to Tap Into Your Creativity by Working in Home Healthcare
Working in home healthcare as a rehab specialist can be fascinating and inspiring. You get a chance to work in a patient’s everyday environment, see the challenges they face in real-time, and determine solutions that they can utilize every day. Inspiring this creativity comes with challenges, of course. You must build out your doctor’s bag and understand how and why each item is essential for your work. In fact, you may have to incorporate items with multiple uses.
Building your doctor’s bag, determining what patients genuinely need, and discovering ways to work with their existing environment can be exciting, fascinating, and, most of all, incredibly beneficial to the patient.
With all of this in mind, here are five ways to get you started – and tap into that creativity as you begin working in home healthcare.
1. Entrepreneurship
FeldCare Connects encourages you to tap into your entrepreneurial spirit. Every clinician using the FeldCare Connects network is an independent contractor, meaning they must be entrepreneurial, manage their schedule, focus on their passion, and build creativity when scheduling and working with patients.
2. Getting inspired by the patient’s environment
One of the most exciting aspects of working in home health is assisting a patient in their everyday environment. PTs and OTs, in particular, can see what a patient faces on a day-to-day, and can share strategies and tools to help a patient safely navigate their environment and learn to live in the space that they have.
3. You can set up your own doctor’s bag
Because you are visiting a patient in their home, your only tools are those you carry and those inside the house. This means that you must be thoughtful and learn from past sessions to determine what to bring with you. There is no way to bring an entire clinic to a patient, so home healthcare requires clinicians to be thoughtful and strategic in building their doctor’s bags.
4. Find new solutions that you might not think of in a hospital or clinical environment
It can be exciting to think outside the box and find new solutions for a patient’s real difficulty. Working in home health allows therapists to see and experience how the patient moves through life, discuss new solutions, and determine the best next action for the patient.
For example, let’s say that a patient has Dupuytren contracture. You and the patient can develop new solutions in their home that you may not have thought of in a clinical or hospital setting. This can be both fascinating work and incredibly helpful for a patient who does not have the capacity to go into an office for weekly appointments.
5. Get creative with your schedule
Because clinicians working with FeldCare Connects are freelancers, they can determine their schedule and the zone they plan to cover. A clinician is not required to take a full caseload, and you can take on as much or as little work as you wish.
Getting creative with scheduling allows you to decide which times are best for you and often gives patients more options for a schedule that works well for them. So, it can be a win-win for both of you.
Are you a PT, OT, or SLP interested in working in home health? Find out if FeldCare Connects is a good fit for you! Either call us at (818) 926-9057, or go to feldcareconnects.com/clinicians
