Does anyone LOVE long term care??

Specialties Geriatric

Published

:redbeathe Hi there everyone. I'm currently working in LTC as a certified nursing assistant, but am looking forward to becoming a LPN within the next year. So far, despite the intense stress, I love working in LTC. However, it seems like every LPN I come across hates the work they do in the nursing home. They are stressed, overworked, understaffed, underappreciated, etc etc... It's discouraging to say the least, and it is making me question whether or not I'll be happy working in a nursing home once I graduate my LPN program. Does anyone out there love working long term care?? I keep reading post after post on here about the horrors of being a nurse in that environment. I'd love to hear from anyone who can represent the flip side of the coin!

Thank you

Catlver (btw I have about TEN of the furry little devils lol) my school was exactly the same way... constantly stating... "nursing school skims the surface and most everything was on the job training and that you would learn it all once you start working".... which I have learned a great deal in just the three months I have been on the floor.... but I still have a long way to go and I fully realize that.

I am now looking for something else because I am not going to spend each weekend tied in knots and miserable..then worrying what they are going to call me about on Monday that I supposedly didn't do right. This was a small facility and all of the charting was on paper. It was nearly impossible to finish writing one sentence without being interrupted, as charting was done at the nurse's station. One of the residents was constantly behind the nurses station. He wasn't even on my hall, but it fell many times to me to get up and remove him, at which time he either became combative or tried to "cop a feel". There are several of the residents I am going to miss however, I didn't have the heart to tell them last weekend that I would not be back again.

Eldragon, congrats on the new position! I hope that in the upcoming weeks I will find something better. You mentioned about saying that I HAD read the PPD... when I was in last weekend... I couldn't help but notice there were literally DAYS that NO ONE had signed for any medication given the previous week. It also looked like to me that someone had added PPD's in that frankly I don't even remember being there. That doesn't surprise me though since I discovered after getting a copy... that stuff was added to the write up after I signed it also. Oh well... you live and you learn and boy did I learn lol.

I hope you guys have a great day!

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I'm surprised that the last post on this subject was in April 2010, I guess everybody is busy taking care of 60+ residents and filling out incident reports, lol. I woke up today, thinking about the state of LTC for the LPN.

As the user name implies, I learned the hard way a long time ago, starting in 2003, that this LTC thing was heading for disaster, and it is no wonder patient care has declined in LTC. The number-one reason, of course, is money and I of all people realize that everyone has bills to pay because I have worked in some real dungeons, until I came to my senses and decided that I would not allow these greedy facilities to slowly take my license away. There are very few facilities out there now that have a decent patient to nurse ratio, and it won't be long before they jump on the money wagon as well. It is apparent that this is leading to nowhere as far as the LPN is concerned and the sad thing is that we don't have anyone standing up for us.

The nursing board is busy collecting fees and providing scholarships for RNs; state auditors are only concerned with catching facilities with their pants down and collecting fees also. So, who can we go to for help as an LPN in LTC? no one, but back to school to get our RN degrees. Until we stand up and refuse to work under such substandard work conditions, this problem will continue to get worse. I'm no longer in LTC and haven't been since 2011, and it hurts me to my heart, because there is a special place in my heart for the elderly, and they make it so hard for us to take care of them, so I was forced to come out of LTC.

I have been working in-home care for the pass three years and have just started taking classes this summer towards earning my RN degree. I have decided that, I don't have a choice if I want to continue working in nursing. There are so many more opportunities out there for the RN. I really feel for the new LPNs coming out of school now and for those farther down the line. The future does not look bright for us, unless we're willing to just settle and take chances with our licenses. I think that some LPNs are waking up and not putting up with it anymore, because I have noticed the increase in LPN vacancies on CareerBuilder.com as well as other job sites and this is how we get something done, maybe not for us, but for the LPNs coming in after us, will have better working conditions.

A lot of people are going to disagree with everything that I have said here, and that's ok, if you have not experienced any of this, God bless you. I always said that I was not going back to nursing school, and that I was going to remain and LPN, but circumstances have forced me to change my mind.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I'm surprised that the last post on this subject was in April 2010, I guess everybody is busy taking care of 60+ residents and filling out incident reports, lol.

We have an entire forum dedicated to LTC: Geriatric Nurses / LTC Nursing

The last post on this subject was not in 2010, and there are nurses who do love LTC.

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Sorry for missing the whole forum on LTC. But if you had read my post with understanding, you would have seen that I never once stated that I did not love LTC. Everyone on the forum may not have it, like you. There are some folks out there that are tired of taking care of 60+ residents and I don't know where you work at, but residents are a lot sicker than they use to be, so you really can't or at least I can't and won't risk my license, trying to keep an eye on that many residents at a time. I do love LTC, but don't try and make me out to be a bad person because I chose speak out about real problems with the staffing in most facilities, I never said they we're all that way. So, if you are not taking care of 60+ residents with a lot of them having complex health issues, I don't expect for you to understand a word I have said in this post, or the one before it. If I could find a decent place to work, I would have never chosen to go back to school. There are simply more worthwhile opportunities out there for RN's. For those who have chosen to settle in their positions regardless of how bad it gets, that's their business, and I never once put anyone down for doing that. It is just that, I have chosen not to just settle anymore, I have put up with enough bull, and I refuse to do it anymore and you can form whatever opinion about me that you like, but one thing you won't be able to call me, and that's a fool. As Sweet Brown would put it "I ain't got no time for that".

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
So, if you are not taking care of 60+ residents with a lot of them having complex health issues, I don't expect for you to understand a word I have said in this post, or the one before it.
Been there, done that. I've had up to 68 patients in LTC.
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Yea, but are you still doing it, and on a continuous basis? If so, good for you. I decided that it wasn't good for me and have chosen to upgrade. Either way you go, it does not make a person bad for feeling the way they do. I'm sure we all have "been there and done that" to some degree but it's whether we decide to stay there and settle or not put up with it, and try to make changes that could possibly pave the way for those LPNs coming in behind us, and all I want, is for there to be more stable, and safe working conditions for those of us who care about that. I guess I'm posting in the wrong forum because nothing that I have said, seems to make any sense to anyone. Sorry for wasting my time and yours.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I'm a new RN working on the ortho/rehab floor of a SNF and love it. I don't love the crappy staffing and $$$$$ hungry corporate culture that keeps us overworked and understaffed.. but love the patients and people I work with.

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Specializes in Main O.R. and CVOR.

I hate it with a passion. i'm a RN and working a facility that is more like a prison. I love SOME of my residents, but overall I have residents with psych and behavior issues and ex cons like child molesters. I can not wait to leave this horror show. I literally get sick with dread before I go to work. I am now resigning and going back to the hospital.

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I hate it with a passion. i'm a RN and working a facility that is more like a prison. I love SOME of my residents, but overall I have residents with psych and behavior issues and ex cons like child molesters. I can not wait to leave this horror show. I literally get sick with dread before I go to work. I am now resigning and going back to the hospital.

I've been working in a long term for almost a decade now as RN I want to switch to another job to get more paid and with good benefits, but I don't drive I can't to work as a travel or home health nurse you think MDS could work any advise :(

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Thank you all for your responses. When I was training for my CNA certification, my instructor was a LPN. He said he felt like he did more paperwork than he did nursing while working in LTC. It's good to see the different perspectives from different LPNs. I imagine it's going to be one of those situations where I get in there, feel completely incompetent for a good six months, and then slowly get my footing and feel a little less overwhelmed. Since I am still working as a CNA, I think it's funny to hear all the other CNAs gripe about how L-A-Z-Y our LPNs are. You hear lots of things like, "All they do is push a cart around and run their mouth up at the nursing station." I'd like to hear some of my co-workers say those things when/if they ever earn their LPN and see how you literally drown in paperwork and how if an incident happens, your whole shift can be thrown off kilter. Fortunately, I've got several fantastic LPNs on my shift, and I've been draining them for information. Some love their job, love their residents, love their CNAs, but hate the stress load. Some probably shouldn't have ever become nurses in the first place. Well, really just one in particular. I guess every work place has to have that one person who is really abrasive and impossible to work with! Hopefully I can get in at a facility where there is enough staff/funding to make it a safe place to work. Definitely not looking to lose my license!
unfortunately its rare for a ltc to be adequately staffed. More like forever shortstaffed...at my nursing home, cnas resign all the time. And in a given shift up to 6cnas call out. Um yea like the floors can afford even one cna calling out, on every shift...
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Can't complain I don't drive so I just I can't do home health, stay in long term facility for a decade now :)

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