anyone go from LTC to hospital?

[lalalalexi]

I am going to be a new grad RN in May and the hospitals in my city and surrounding areas are mostly on hiring freezes. Pretty much no where is hiring and if they are, they want at least 2 years of experience and prefer BSNs. I am afraid I wont be able to find a job in nursing at all, let alone in a hospital. So I have accepted the fact that I will most likely be hired in a LTC facility or clinic before I'd find a position in a hospital. So I'm wondering if there are people out there who have eventually transitioned from a LTC position into acute care. My long term goal is to be a wound care nurse, and to get into a WOCN program, you need acute care experience. I do plan to do a RN to BSN online program over the next year or two, but I don't want to be shut out of nursing. I want to get some experience and use the degree I've worked so hard to get. What do you all think?

[PAERRN20]

If you do end up having to work LTC you should get plenty of wound care experience. Mention that if you interview...some LTC facilities hire nurses just to do wound care. Good luck.

[traumalover, RN]

As an RN student I worked in LTC as a LPN. Upon graduation, I was hired at a 586 bed hospital directly into ICU. LTC provides excellent opportunities with time management, wound care, and supervisory experience. That being said, I love ICU!

[ItsTheDude]

no idea why ppl think if u work in ltc (or other areas of nursing) u can't get a hospital job. the real issue is that hospitals may not count some or all of your ltc exp as applicable exp. worse case scenario, if you've been in ltc for 5 years, a hospital may see you as basically being a new grad (no applicable exp), so you'd start at the bottom (pay, etc).

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Every LTCF/nursing home in which I've ever worked has has full-time wound care nurses, since these facilities often deal with a number of residents who receive treatments for pressure ulcers, surgical incisions, non-healing diabetic ulcers, skin tears, arterial ulcers, stasis ulcers, and a number of other afflictions.

Therefore, you might receive some valuable experience in a nursing home setting if your ultimate goal is to become a wound care nurse.

[kcochrane]

I worked in LTC as a LPN for over 5 years. I have just started working as a RN as a hospital. I found that my LTC experience really helped with organization skills, passing meds on multiple patients, wound care, tube feeding, patient care, etc. It was a learning curve for me for the IVs, taking orders from MDs, blood draws, etc.

Rehab floors and respiratory floors will really give you some additional skills. LTC is getting more and more skilled these days.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I haven't made this transition myself being that I am still a student. But I have met many nurses that started in LTC. A Co Nurse I just had the other night said she spent a year in LTC. she said there weren't many jobs when she graduated so she worked there and although she still was considered a new grad and could only apply for new grad positions (you had to have 1 year acute care exp. to not be considered new grad) she said that having worked in the LTC for the year gave her a boost above the other new grads with no exp. at all and she was quickly hired on after she started applying to the hospitals again. The hospital she works at is a very hard hospital to get into as well in our area, so some experience even if it isn't the acute care hospital exp. is better then none, to my knowledge.

[Kitty Hawk, ADN, RN]

I haven't made this transition myself being that I am still a student. But I have met many nurses that started in LTC. A Co Nurse I just had the other night said she spent a year in LTC. she said there weren't many jobs when she graduated so she worked there and although she still was considered a new grad and could only apply for new grad positions (you had to have 1 year acute care exp. to not be considered new grad) she said that having worked in the LTC for the year gave her a boost above the other new grads with no exp. at all and she was quickly hired on after she started applying to the hospitals again. The hospital she works at is a very hard hospital to get into as well in our area, so some experience even if it isn't the acute care hospital exp. is better then none, to my knowledge.

That's encouraging! I'm wondering though if the hospital that this nurse got into, has a school affiliated with it?

I know that for me, even though there's more than a dozen hospitals it will depend on when that rush for more nurses emerges and if there's any graduating classes out there. The hospital that is connected to the school I went to, told me that the new grad positions they post are for the up and coming grads and aren't even budget approved as they're looking to fill in the summer. She said not to apply for positions that state at least a year exp...but I'm no longer a new grad either, so that leaves the positions that say it's okay for "temp permit/or license". I guess the big thing in all of this is and will be, timing.

[guest2210]

There are more and more LICs with skilled units that are almost the same as working in a hospital, the big difference being nurse to patient ratio. It would be the same as working on a med/surg floor in a hospital.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

There are more and more LICs with skilled units that are almost the same as working in a hospital, the big difference being nurse to patient ratio. It would be the same as working on a med/surg floor in a hospital.

I completely agree. The acuity levels are rising in LTCFs.

I worked on a subacute rehab unit at a nursing home for the better part of 2 years, but it was structured much like a free-standing rehabilitation hospital. I usually had 15 of these types of patients during day shift, and about 30 at night. My former workplace liked to separate the rehab wing from the LTC wings, because they did not want the fully alert rehab patients to mix with the demented nursing home residents.

On this particular unit, we dealt with many central lines, IV antibiotics, CPM machines, feeding tubes, suture removal, surgical staple removal, complicated wound care, ostomy appliances, diabetic management, casts, braces, splints, cervical halos, and so forth. I once had a patient who was receiving TPN.

Most of my patients had recently underwent surgical procedures such as laminectomies, knee and hip arthroplasties (joint replacements), kyphoplasties, CABGs, hysterectomies, limb amputations, colectomies, thromboembolectomies, and abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs.

The non-surgical patients were typically admitted to our unit for recovery from CVAs, acute MIs, debility, various cancers, fractures, status post pneumonia, deconditioned states, failure to thrive, status post falls, generalized weakness, and other afflictions.

[lalalalexi]

I definitely wouldnt mind working on one of the more skilled LTC care units like rehab or stepdown, but I'm not quite sure how you get placed on those units since most of the post hospital rehab is done in a nursing home. If I applied for a job in a nursing home, I assume I probably wouldnt get to choose to work the rehab wing. Anyway, a lot of you have given me hope that even if I do end up in LTC, I will still get some good experiences and won't be shut out of a hospital forever.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I'm not quite sure how you get placed on those units since most of the post hospital rehab is done in a nursing home.

In my area, LTCFs automatically place newly hired RNs into the skilled rehab and subacute units since these units are higher acuity. If the facility is going to pay higher wages to an RN, they'd rather place their RNs in the rehab and subacute wings where the workload tends to be busy.