I am ready to go back to LTC

Specialties Private Duty

Published

I am burned out with private duty nursing. I had thought that I would be home alone with the child while the parents worked. I thought I would have some privacy. Instead the parents don't go to work half of the time. I have the family in the room when I am giving him his bed bath. The reason I left LTC was because I was sick and tired of having an audience. Now I am doing private duty and I still have an audience. The only difference is that I was getting paid much better when I worked at LTC. I asked about getting a new case and the only new cases available are a 2 hour drive from my home.

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Specializes in Oncology.

I'd rather die than go back to the misery that is LTC. Find something else.

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Yes you may be right but there are other problems with private duty too. You never know when your patient is going to get sick and go into the hospital. You don't know if the family is going to decide to get rid of you. I want to find out what it is like to make a decision again. I am not allowed to make any decisions. I have to do what Mom says. I am tired of Mom telling me what to do and how to do it. I am so tired of these agencies that always lie and promise you that there are always plenty of private duty jobs available in your area. You spend hours and hours doing their paperwork only to discover that the only real jobs available are always 2-3 hours away from you. Yes LTC is pure hell that's for sure. I just want a steady paycheck these days.

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I found the same thing with private duty. The company promised me things that never happened. I would tell mom what I thought should be done but it was her call in the end. I found the lack of human interaction unbearable (i worked overnights) and I was told that when a day position opened up i would be the first considered....until a new hire got the position. It was hard feeling like I was there as a glorified babysitter but I also chose to not go back to long term care and am now happy

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Glad to hear that things worked out well for you. It has not worked out well for me at all. Right now, my other patient is in the hospital and is in bad condition so that job may be over permanently. I just found out that medicaid has not approved any nursing hours starting Sept 15th for my full time patient so I don't even know if I will be working any more hours starting Sept 15th. I have to wait and worry and hope for the best. I am tired of living in fear like this. Yes these agencies lie so very much. It doesn't surprise me at all that the "new hire" got that day position that they had promised you. One of the agencies told me that they paid LPN's $17 an hour. However, when they called me for an actual case, they said: "We pay $15 an hour. We don't know why so and so told you that they paid LPN's $17 an hour" I belong to 3 agencies here. None of the 3 agencies have any work available in my area. The only work available is in towns located 2 hours away from me. None of these 3 agencies pay for mileage. Thank God there is a Dominoe's Pizza in town. They pay their pizza delivery drivers $15 an hour. Maybe I need to get over to Dominoe's.

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Wow! That is crazy. I was on a private insurance case so I got a higher wage than the medicare cases here. I think that home health has such a potential but that the agencies do not care enough to put forth the effort to make it a good experience. I hated never knowing if i would be called off or not. I took a cut in hours (from 40 to 36) but its a much more secure job.

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Goodbye private duty nursing. I just got a phone call saying I have the full-time job at LTC. So I guess now instead of me complaining about private duty nursing you will hear me complaining about LTC instead. Thanks to all for all of your wonderful advice and help here.

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