LTC Nurses... please answer

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Hey Guys........ LPN here taking classes for RN...... Have to write a speech about issues in health care..... Can be any issue.. So as a fellow LTC nurse, I would like to take a poll from here and the top 3 answers will be what I cover in my speech. So please respond with your honest opinions & concerns

Thanks so much for your input

Specializes in Oncology.

The problem most new grads have I feel is that they are thrown into the floor with no help, not enough guidance, not enough orientation, and without knowing the routine of the floor, policy and procedure, etc. I never had any problem with patient care as a new nurse, just the "floor policies" and other non-patient care busywork that bogged me down and stressed me out. I just am so freaking sick of people always saying new grads suck and we are all horrible and can't even take care of patients. We were all new once and I guarantee that no one new today is any worse than a new person 20 years ago was. I did so many hours of clinical, I was showing some of the experienced nurses tricks I learned for certain procedures and such that I'd learned!

*some* new grads do indeed graduate without knowing how to care for people. But that's not the new grad's fault. That's why jobs have orientation periods. I don't think the schools spend enough time on good, old fashioned hands on care. I think employers should have the or new nurses spend a week doing nothing but aide work as part of their orientation. Of course, this may not be economically feasible. But it would be nice.

As a LPN who just came off orientation in a LTC facility I whole heartedly agree. It is a way to get to know the pt's and their routines. I volunteered to do CNA work at CNA pay just so I could get to know the residents. I was a cna for 3 years before lpn school and I am not above cna work. The facility wouldn't agree to let me work as a cna. But I really wished I could've it may have saved the med error that I made today D/T the having same name an me not knowing the patient.

I am a new grad and got 4 weeks orientation, 1 week with policies and procedure, 1 week following/assisting the nurse, and a couple weeks being supervised but doing all Meds and treatments. I got the basics down but still ask for help 6 months in. I'd rather ask a dumb question then make a huge mistake. Stalfing is a important issue to be addressed.. And I like the psychotropic Meds one too ESP with Alzheimer's patients, we are lowering a lot of our pts doses and it's hard with behaviors and such but it's good for them.

Effective communication between patient and nurse or nurse to doctor or nurse to nurse...

Understaffing issues, effective pain management in hospice.

The road to transition from LPN to RN

Specializes in Cardiac Care.

patient ratio... aka staffing

Thanks everyone!

You have helped me narrow it down pretty much!.... Like many of you, I feel there are so MANY issues to choose from that it is really difficult to just pick a few, when I know I could write a freaking book!

Some of my biggest issues are staffing, and the treatment/abuse of staff members, Pt./family education... I too am usually able to make the family understand that Mom's time has come and its time to let her go.... But as a nurse, I feel that families should be educated, informed, and made aware long before I am in spending my "limited" time on why its not a good idea to go with a feeding tube.

But I honestly think my biggest issue that I really noticed starting to increase about a yr ago, is the FIGHT that a nurse has to go through to get a Resident sent to the ER..... I am not talking about the hospice residents.. I am talking about the one that you have been taking care of for months and months that you know like the back of your hand and you know something is not right, and they need to be sent to the ER and the Management wants you to wait 4 days until the NP comes in to evaluate them. It takes me contacting family to come in and insist they be sent and then they are admitted. Then have a supervisor tell you, well if they are not here we are not getting paid for them! #*% It really shouldn't take 8 hours to send a sick Res. to the ER!

Anyways thanks again for your input...

What exactly do you mean when you say that most new grads are clueless when it comes to patient care? What is it that you are observing them do (or not do)?

Specializes in Dialysis.

Staffing, public perception of nursing homes, pt /family education

Staff education!! Not all LTC nurses are this way but quite a few i worked with had the "well the dr knows so im not pursuing it anymorw" attitude! Just bc u work in LTC doesnt mean u are any less of a nurse or pt advocate

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