Will I ever get out of LTC or am I doomed?

Specialties Geriatric

Published

I am a newer grad. Graduated last summer. Only job that even gave me a chance is LTC/sub-acute rehab. I hate it. I want a hospital job, desperately. Even a clinic, anything but this kind of nursing. All I do is pass meds, do basic, and rushed assessments, irrigate foleys, change bedsore dressings, chart, do fall work, and get yelled at, and the population I care for (elderly, dementia, or rehab and very needy and frankly a lot of them are abusive and drug-seeking) feels like glorified babysitting. Will anyplace besides this type of nursing facility ever consider me? I'm doing my BSN now so will that even help? If i am gonna be stuck in LTC forever with no hope I may as well go back to school for something else. I LOVE nursing, and I love my patients, but I have way too many (50 by myself) and not enough time, help, or supplies and I am quickly being burned out. Well, I am burned out. Less than a year in LTC and I can feel the compassion fatigue so much, I try to stay compassionate but it is hard when patients kick you and punch you, scream, call names, and have very annoying and disruptive behaviors but you have such a heavy med pass and treatment assignment you don't have 5 minutes to spend with them, and they beg for attention through behaviors. I NEVER wanted to work in LTC but I have to pay my bills. Any advice appreciated.

I understand your frustration 100%. I see in your newer posts that you found a new area of nursing. Big congratulations!!! I just want to say there is nothing wrong with being frustrated with risking your license by cotinuing to work in unsafe conditions. My facilty is worst and to top it off, they are so puzzled about why the new staff won't stay. It is just, just,.....omg i have no words to describe it. They don't even make it through their "2" days of orientation. Yes, 2!! And another thing, it drives me absolutely crazy when everyone wants to accuse you of "hating the elderly" when you just can't take working in these conditions. I work in a nursing home and a lot of my pts are not elderly. I just can't take much more of unanswered dr calls, no supplies, 36 pts to one nurse, no meds and my list can go on and on. But anyways, congratulations again. I'm sure i'll be accused of disrespecting the elderly now with this comment lol. Good luck

could not agree with you more egglady.

The point that always baffles me is this, WHY exactly do some nurses feel that a job in LTC is like a fate worse then death? And WHY do some nurses feel that to be a "real nurse" they have to work in a hospital?

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Because they don't know any better.

I've spent most of my career (30+ years) working in long term care. I graduated at the top of my class...I worked at the hospital because that's what we were supposed to do. I didn't like the politics or the way the elderly population was treated. The clinicians for the most part didn't understand that gerontology is a specialty. They never took time to find out why a 94 year old woman was confused...they gave out Haldol. Now the drug of choice for the hospitals seems to be Seroquel.

Is it about saving lives? I've saved more people than I can count. Is it about making someone's life better? Again, my staff and I allow all our residents to make the most of their lives whether they are with us for rehabbing a new knee, pneumonia, or for ever.

I say again walk a mile in my shoes.

Just because a nurse cannot tolerate ltc doesn't mean they have something against elderly people. I've worked ltc for 6 years and was very afraid of the dangerous ratio. Whoever assigns 30+ residents to one nurse is who i'll say doesn't care about the elderly.

Specializes in Geriatric/Sub Acute, Home Care.

I was a LTC/Sub acute Charge Nurse for over 17 years.......in the beginning I was working in a heaven on earth nursing home in NJ...since time has passed the whole place changed since I left after we had DONs leave one after another constantly leaving the Nursing Home staff to constantly be in a state of ILL repair and mis direction. I got fed up...I got fed up not with my patients who were vunerable and sick but with the system of nonsense, chaos and complete miscommunication OR NO Communication amongst staff and Management......it became a conumdrum of disorganization at the patients expense......limited staff or numerous call ins...too many patients per nurse or aides....results in very dissatisfied and disgruntled workers ......I enjoyed working there immensely in the first year...then the DON left(who was there for many years)after she was gone the place caved and the CORPORATIONS started to move in and make the place their own with their renovations of turning a homey warm place into a cold white walled Home without personality or character .....it was horrible.

The staff turned over but many stayed and complained and complained...it became a part of just working there.....My patients always got my care and the best of it.....they were vunerable and their safety compromised if procedures and tasks for them werent completed...and whos shoulders does it all fall onto....THE NURSE of course!!!!! So.......if you feel that strongly about not liking your career as I did over the years and not because you disliked your patients but the system itself....just think of this...its like that in nursing....its a mess now with Obamacare and everything going on.....and I dont see any type of hope on the horizon either with this coming into view. Do Homecare, even Hospice..or a medical office......its a very tough profession we work in and I am just about through with it all at my age.......but.....I always enjoyed learning and helping my patients feel better. This is what we are there for...not the complicated system that fouls up everything in my opinion......Nursing is a simple profession within itself.....providing basic care, spiritual care if needed, and just helping a patient get over an illness, crisis in their life, help with children, and taking care of the aged. Its become a whirlwind of complication in my eyes and it becomes harder and harder to do what we do best.....Provide the best care for our patients.

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