LTC Nurses Bottom of the Barrel

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Specializes in Ltc, Hospice, Spinal Cord.

when i started looking for jobs as a new grad i really didn't think it mattered what specialty i started with because experience is experience i told myself. and i had listened to stories about how nurses jumped from specialty to specialty enjoying the variety and flexibility of our profession. however i began my career in ltc and am discovering what an negative impact that is making on my career goals. it appears my experience is not valued at all and that i'm view as the "bottom of the barrel". i even had a manager say to me; "she just a nursing home nurse" as though she had no value at all.

doesn't the healthcare community have any idea what it takes to be a "nursing home nurse"?? i have never worked so hard in my life! my time management is stellar!!! it has to be!! i do more in the first couple hours on my shift than most acute care nurses do all day. i've become very efficient at doing assessments because i don't have the luxury of having doctors and specialist at my immediate disposal. i can educate just about anyone about just about anything. my interpersonal skills are top notch and i can communicate with any discipline with confidence and authority. i don't have phlebotomists drawing my labs or iv nurses starting my iv's...i do it. i can probably pass the wound certification because i've dressed every kind of wound with every kind of dressing known to man. how is that not valued!?! :confused:

seems i've joined the most underappreciated undervalued nursing specialty possible. and yet i'm proud of the nurse i've become because of that choice. :nurse:

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There's a lot of ignorance out there. I see this all the time - ED nurses look down on med/surg, who are looked down on by ICU* -- whatever. I know how much I need to know to take care of my folks.

(Generalizations galore, I know. I'm just -- generalizing.)

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That sucks! I've never heard a degrogatory statement about SNF nurses. I have been there (as a SNF nurse)... hopefully never again. While probably being the lowest paid nurses, you are ever so valuable.

Maybe there is a misconception because SOME SNF nurses work in units where pretty much all they do is pass meds. I've had that job too! Gag! Boring! Low skill!

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

I think the attitude is changing, but it will take time. LTCs do many things that in the past would never have been done outside the acute care setting - I hear it isn't uncommon to have stable vent patients in LTC as well now-- and no RT !!!

Since we now have so many new grads unable to find work I think Nurse Recruiters may look more favorably on a new grad who got a job in an LTC and learned everything she could in the interim as opposed to doing nothing but turn up their nose at an LTC position. There was a thread posted here about that a few days ago, and every one of the experienced nurses said they would have hired the nurse who made the best of things and went to work. The times they are a chang'in.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I don't like the facilities, but I respect the nurses that work there.

IMO, most of the LTC facilities don't give the nurses the adequate staff, supplies, and proper equipment to give the residents the care that they deserve. And those nurses make the best out of what they have. That's a hard job to do.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.

I worked for several years in LTC and I enjoyed it. Time management is essential! I had some pretty interesting wounds, PEGs, a couple of trachs, several psych pts, etc. I just really enjoyed working with the geriatric population. There is a terrible misunderstanding of LTC nurses. Some people actually think that all you do is pass meds, but there is SO much more!

I have been in home hospice for the past 11 years and this is truly my calling. I have 6 pts currently in a LTC facility that I see 2X/week and I see how hard (most) of those nurses work. I know a couple of the nurses on the noc shift that, quiet frankly, scare me. One of them doesn't have the sense God gave a billy goat. But that's another story entirely.

I thank God for those who do work in LTC! I don't think any one speciality is more important than the other. Each one of us has our individual strenghts and weaknesses. If we were all the same, just think how boring life would be.

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Specializes in Case Management.

Keep your chin up. I work in managed care and I can tell you, patients are spending less time in acute and our medical directors are pushing for more patients to go to skilled care if they cannot quickly and safely be discharged home.

We in managed care highly value a good LTC with a stellar reputation. The nurses in the LTC's are the front line for making a great LTC facility.

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Specializes in pediatric critical care.

I worked prn in a LTC facility once, as a new grad. I was completely overwhelmed. The LTC nurse has to wear so many hats, has to have such a knowledge base, you don't have all the resources at the other end of the phone like a hospital nurse. The med pass was so overwhelming, so many meds, so many residents, and blood sugars, BP checks, wound care...I was not good at it, and I am in awe of those that are! No other nursing job expects a nurse to take on such responsibiity with so few staff. You have to be the med/surg nurse, the wound care nurse, the ER nurse, the nurse's aide, and sometimes a social worker as well. God bless the LTC nurses!

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

I was at a job fair at year or two ago. I actually had a recruiter look down at my resume, look back up at me, handed me back my resume & say "You're just a LTC nurse..you can't work in a hospital". Unfortunately I have found that to be the prevailing attitude in this region. Very frustrating.

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LTC is bottom of the barrel, a growing segment of nursing, and easier to get a start. Yes I'm only 'LTC'. I have had my license since JAN2010, and jobs are extremely difficult in west Tennessee for anyone right now. I am going to learn all I can, and get any certifications tha I can, and when I move on to something else I'll just take my lumps. LPN, LTC, BOB and proud.

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Specializes in Quality Nurse Specialist, Health Coach.

I know how you feel. Many nurses also look down on corrections nurses. I am a mixture of a med/surg, ER, and psych nurse all rolled into one! LTC nurses are similar. We have to rely on our own hands on skills and assessments because their isn't others around to do it for us! We are special!:hug:

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Specializes in geriatrics.

To the OP: Excellent post! Despite the bad rap LTC nurses have, you realize the skills it takes to do the job well. I, too, am a fairly new grad (12/08) working in LTC and couldn't agree more.

We have vent, psyc, med-surg...well just about everything but L&D. Like you, I've done enough wound care to probably pass a certification test! We are understaffed, working with antiquated equipment (I didn't know crank beds still existed!), making the best to treat these residents as the human beings they are.

I look at this position as "boot camp"/"basic training". Thanks for the wonderful post.

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