Advice for new LPN in LTC/Rehab

[dezire]

Hi everyone, 

My first day of work as a LPN is tomorrow. I'm going to be working weekends on a rehab side of a LTC facility. The facility seemed clean when I toured during orientation and a lot of employees have been there 10+ years. I'm just very nervous about what to do. I've never handled feeding tubes, IVs, or wound vacs... I worry I'll look incompetent. I'm not IV certified because our school told us we'd have to get it through our job, so that's another thing nagging at me because I was told they have PICC lines here.

Any advice appreciated. I was a med tech (CNA who passes meds) in a ALF for 4 years but I know the work load there is very small in comparison to what I'm going to tomorrow. They both use pointclickcare so I'll at least be a little familiar. I'm just so nervous! What should I expect for my first day? It's 12 hour shifts.

[TheMoonisMyLantern, LPN, RN]

Congrats on the job! It sounds like you've got some real advantages that you may not realize: people are there for 10+ years is a really good sign especially in LTC, you have experience as a med tech so when it comes to med pass (the bulk of your day) the learning curve shouldn't be as steep compared to others who haven't done an ALF or LTC med pass, and finally you know the charting system! Knowing the charting system is a huge percent of the battle during orientation and will allow you to focus on other areas of learning.

Don't worry about looking incompetent, you're a new grad so you're not expected to know how to do everything, be honest with your preceptor, ask them to demonstrate or have them guide you through the task. As far as IV's and PICC's, see if your facility will support you in taking an IV certification class and even with that it may take some time to get comfortable with IV's etc and that's to be pretty expected as well.

Usually the first day in most LTC's is doing paperwork, education, going over policies, meeting the department heads, getting your PCC access, things of that nature. Best of luck to you and let us know how it goes!