Do you prefer LTC, Hospital, or Live-In jobs as a CNA?

I would think since you are going to become a LPN first. You may want to work in LTC starting out. Also, its good to get experience in LTC since you get a great foundation of being a CNA. The rule of the thumb is that you get a year of experience for the best pay and more opportunities. I dont see why it takes a year though. Within two months I felt secure in my skills. I often floated to different floors with different patients. But 1 year is the rule of thumb. LTC for new grads especially if you have interest in being a LPN. It may also be some where you can grant a job faster as a new grad LPN. Then from there do a year and move towards hospital and your RN. Wish you luck. I also have hopes of doing LPN-RN. Then hopefully RN-BSN.

Its so individual. Most people want to work at a hospital but then I've heard horror stories of mean doctors ect so I think its all relative to the company you work for. My ltc does everything it can to keep us and the residents happy, great medical, great 401K, easy scheduling, double time on holidays so while I can't say I love the work, doing my 3 12 hour shifts isn't a horror story.

You can search through the forum for the last couple of pages of postings and you'll find 'hospital versus LTC' type of discussions.

I much preferred the hospital, but that was me. If you read some of the descriptions of jobs in either place, you'll see how much different they are.

One major difference that is a 'show stopper' for many people is the question of wanting to work where patients are constantly turning over, with no routine, versus LTC where you get to know residents to one degree or another and can get some kind of routine or general shift expectations.

Different strokes. Constant turnover can be exciting, or stressful, depending on your attitude. LTC can be comfortable (maybe not the best choice of a word) or boring, depending on your attitude.

A hospital WILL give you more, overall experience and will help prepare you better for nursing, IMHO. But, otherwise, I would not say 'better' or 'worse'.

I think you'd do much better starting at LTC or a hospital. There are a few major downsides to live-in work! First, you'd be much more limited in the work you do and are exposed to. Learning opportunities and experience would be harder to come by.

And live-where-you-work in itself has a HUGE downside! I have gone down that road in another field and it's tough. While in theory, you have off time, you are never REALLY off That gets old pretty quickly, no matter how well you like your employers. And they are employers, although some have a hard time with the distinction.

It sounds like you're just throwing around options right now and that's a great place to start. It seems to me that you'd be better off going to a facility of some kind where you'll get more experience and practice on a larger variety of skills.

Private duty (I didn't live there, but at 60 hours a week it sometimes felt like I did!) is nice because you can dote on the person 100%. You can do all the little things you don't have time for in a nursing home. If you're at the same house all day, you can do homework or whatever. But it can be hard on you when they die, plus you're suddenly out of a job.

Nursing home jobs are very fast-paced, with a heavy workload, and you almost never have time for the little things like ROM or nail care. I like it when I have to hustle at a job, but it's also very stressful. In a private duty job you get to look at the person holistically and address every little detail, but in a NH you learn time management and are exposed to many different people.