It is no doubt that more and more people nowadays prefer to receive health care from their homes. One will get discharged from a medical facility, and choose to have a home health care nurse follow up on their progress. Elderly and disabled people also may need a nurse at home to help them with basic things like feeding, bathing, and dressing. This translates to more growth and popularity of home health care nursing. It is a promising career if one does it with passion since it may become demanding sometimes requiring you to lift, turn and even move your patients when need be. So, how can one become a home health care nurse?

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to become a home health care nurse

Complete a nursing program

Your career starts with you completing a diploma, associate’s or bachelor’s degree program in nursing. These courses will involve coursework, clinical practicums and laboratory work. You can enhance your skills by looking for volunteer opportunities and interacting with clients in home environments. Use such programs to determine whether you are fit for a home health care nursing or not.

Get licensed

Once you have completed your nursing program and have met other state requirements, you are supposed to sit for an NCLEX-RN exam, which is administered by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. For you to become a licensed registered nurse, you have to pass this exam. Study and prepare for the exam if you want this license. You can look for colleges that offer training in these courses as a way of increasing your chances of passing this exam.

Get experience as a licensed nurse

Mostly, employers will require knowing how much you can offer for obvious reasons. They will get this from how much experience you have in that field before hiring you. Who would choose a newbie over an experienced expert in any field? There is more confidence in hiring an experienced nurse, and that is why having some experience helps you get noticed and considered faster. With at least one year experience, more so in critical care, you are on the safer side. If you have provided critical care, worked in the emergency room or intensive care unit in a hospital before, the better. This gives you the essential skills to work in a home care setting.

Look for career advancement opportunities

After landing yourself a home health care job as a nurse, you don’t stop there. There are various better-paying opportunities out there that are waiting for the right candidate, who could be you. If you are a registered nurse, you can choose to move to more desirable environments such as community health settings or hospitals. You can also decide to move to either management or business side of this career, which would reward better. There is also an option of becoming a more advanced practice registered nurse so that you get bigger responsibilities with better payments.