Red Flags, Real Questions, and What to Expect Before You Sign

Your ultimate pre-hire survival guide for home-health nursing

If you’ve ever interviewed with a home-health agency and walked out thinking,
“Something felt… off,”
you’re not alone.

Home health can be one of the most rewarding nursing specialties — flexibility, autonomy, meaningful patient relationships, and the ability to truly practice whole-person care.

But the truth?
Not all home-health agencies are created equal.
Some will support you, protect your license, and set you up for success…
Others will bury you under unrealistic caseloads, offer vague answers, dodge compliance questions, and leave you feeling burned out before your first paycheck clears.

That’s exactly why I wrote The Home Health Nurse’s Guide to Choosing the Right Agency — a practical, no-fluff handbook designed to help nurses avoid the wrong agencies and confidently choose the right one.

⭐ Why This Guide Matters Right Now

The home-health industry is booming. Nurses are being hired fast — sometimes too fast — and many agencies rely on the fact that new hires don’t know what questions to ask.

This e-book arms you with:

The red flags agencies hope you overlook
The green flags that show an agency is worth your time
The exact questions to ask during interviews
What to expect during onboarding
How to protect your license before day one
What a healthy caseload actually looks like
How to spot billing pressure, unsafe practices, and unrealistic expectations

If you’re new to home health, this guide will keep you out of trouble.
If you’re experienced, it will validate what your instincts already know.

🚩 The Red Flags Every Nurse Should Know

Agencies rarely say the concerning part out loud — they reveal it through vague answers, rushed interviews, and inconsistent information.

Inside the book, you’ll learn to identify red flags like:

• “We don’t really have a set caseload—it fluctuates.”

Translation: Expect to drown.

• “Documentation shouldn’t take you too long.”

Translation: We don’t provide training and our EMR is a mess.

• “Our nurses handle everything themselves.”

Translation: No support. No teamwork. Good luck.

• “Mileage isn’t reimbursed, but everything is local.”

Translation: You will drive 100+ miles a day.

• “We don’t have a dedicated educator.”

Translation: You will train yourself.

The e-book explains each red flag in detail — why it matters, how it affects your workload, and how to follow up with precise questions that reveal the truth.

✅ Green Flags — What a Good Agency Actually Looks Like

This guide also highlights the positive signs of a healthy, functional agency:

Clear, consistent communication
A manageable caseload (with real numbers)
A dedicated clinical educator or preceptor
Reasonable productivity expectations
A supportive DON who answers questions quickly
Mileage reimbursement that matches IRS standards
Detailed onboarding, shadowing, and skills support

Not every agency is perfect — but many are genuinely fantastic.
This guide helps you recognize them.

📝 Real Questions to Ask Before You Sign

One of the richest sections of the e-book is the question list.
These aren’t generic interview questions.
They’re specific, strategic, and designed to reveal the agency’s true culture and workflow.

Some examples include:

“What is the exact average weekly caseload for an RN case manager here?”
“How many SOCs per week are considered reasonable?”
“How long is your orientation, and what does it include?”
“Do nurses rotate on-call? How often?”
“How quickly does the agency expect documentation to be completed?”
“Who handles supply ordering, scheduling, and DME issues?”
“How does your team support nurses when a case becomes unsafe?”

When you ask smarter questions, you get clearer answers — or you reveal a problem early.

🧭 What to Expect Before You Sign

The book walks you through the entire decision-making process:

1. Before the Interview

How to research the agency, compare competitors, and identify potential issues ahead of time.

2. During the Interview

How to read the room, interpret vague responses, and identify evasiveness.

3. After the Interview

What follow-up questions to ask, how to evaluate offers, and how to negotiate expectations.

4. The First 90 Days

What a healthy orientation looks like vs what an unsafe one looks like.

💬 Who This Guide Is For

New home-health nurses
Hospital nurses transitioning to community care
Experienced RNs looking for a better agency
Travel and per-diem nurses evaluating multiple offers
Nurses who have been burned by a past agency
Agencies wanting to improve their onboarding transparency

📘 Ready to Choose the Right Agency With Confidence?

The Home Health Nurse’s Guide to Choosing the Right Agency:
Red Flags, Real Questions, and What to Expect Before You Sign
is your personal checklist, interview companion, and career protection tool.

Whether you’re switching agencies or entering home health for the first time, this guide will help you make a confident, informed, safe decision.