Hospital vs. Nursing Home

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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What, if anything, is the difference between a CNA's duties in a hospital vs. in a nursing home?

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Just from my experience being in the hospital with my son for many months, having a sister who is a cna at a hospital, and working at a nursing home before...

each hospital has cna's do different things, the cna's on the pediatric cardiac floor did temps and bp, somtimes they assisted with weighings, but they don't to a lot

my sister works at an adult cardiac floor and is helping out with u/s and ekg's etc as well as other 'usual' cna work

at the nursing home I worked at ( iwas in my teens Iwas a bedmaker) the cnas would complain about wiping bums all day, some of them were young and immature... they would assist with the daily care of a person, if you think what it takes to get yourself together everyday and needed help, all those things, also when a person passed on they would help prepare the body to be moved to the funeral home.

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ur usually gonna make more at a nursing home, but ur gonna do less desireable/harder work too, patient hygiene related.

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Specializes in Telemetry.
ur usually gonna make more at a nursing home, but ur gonna do less desireable/harder work too, patient hygiene related.

I make quit a bit more at my hospital job than I did at a nursing home or assisted living. Much better benefits too. It did however take me a long time to get a job in a hospital. I am very happy though and I love my job now :redpinkhe so it was worth the wait and hard work that led up to it. Good luck to you!

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The others are right ltc your going to do a lot of daily care things, dry rounds every 2 hours where I worked, showers, denture care, making beds ect. I'm told Cnas in the hospitals have it much better ie their patients change all the time, they usually don't have to do feedings ect. But be mindful one former nurse told me that the hospital where she worked treated cnas like cr**

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Specializes in Forensics, Trauma, Pediatrics,.

Well, here in NJ there is a lot more opportunity (in my opinion) at a hospital. Hospitals tend to teach CNA's to do things such as phlebotomy and EKG's that they otherwise would not be able to do. You get paid better in a hospital, because you do more work there. At long term care facilities you get paid less, but from my experience the work is a lot more laid back. It is a slower pace, and a smaller number of patients. After working in both places I would say it depends on you and what you like. I hated LTC at some points, but loved it at others. Now that I no longer work there and I work in a Dermatology office I miss it, but I don't think I would if I was back doing it again. Anyway, to each their own. :)

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Specializes in Geriatrics.
Well, here in NJ there is a lot more opportunity (in my opinion) at a hospital. Hospitals tend to teach CNA's to do things such as phlebotomy and EKG's that they otherwise would not be able to do. You get paid better in a hospital, because you do more work there. At long term care facilities you get paid less, but from my experience the work is a lot more laid back. It is a slower pace, and a smaller number of patients. After working in both places I would say it depends on you and what you like. I hated LTC at some points, but loved it at others. Now that I no longer work there and I work in a Dermatology office I miss it, but I don't think I would if I was back doing it again. Anyway, to each their own. :)

LOL, I don't know where you worked but CNAs in LTC typically have MORE work and a FASTER pace than CNAs in a hospital setting. I have 14-18, sometimes up to 24 residents to myself on any given day and most of them aren't able to do much of anything for themselves.

I wouldn't work in a hospital. I prefer to take care of the same people each day and I like the faster pace.

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Specializes in Forensics, Trauma, Pediatrics,.
LOL, I don't know where you worked but CNAs in LTC typically have MORE work and a FASTER pace than CNAs in a hospital setting. I have 14-18, sometimes up to 24 residents to myself on any given day and most of them aren't able to do much of anything for themselves.

I wouldn't work in a hospital. I prefer to take care of the same people each day and I like the faster pace.

Well like I said, what I wrote is just from my experience. And clearly we work in different facilities I worked in a long-term care/rehabilitation sub-acute facility. We never had over 12 patients each. Many of my patients can and do walk around, or are learning to walk again after surgeries. We would never have time to take care of that many patients in the way they should be. I like to take care of the same people each day as well, I don't think I would like new people everyday as much as I do the consistency.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Man, I wish I only had 12 ambulatory patients. That would be nice.

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