Are Nursing Homes a good place for a new nurse to gain experience?

rnlately · Feb 10, 2009

I think it is an excellent place to start. Most things will be routine with something out of the ordinary happening once every so often. You will have opportunities to give injections, administer tube feedings, insert catheters, draw blood, and start an occasional IV. I've even administered ABT through a PICC line. It really depends on which state you live in. The experience is all what you make of it. I say go for it.

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2009

It would be pretty much impossibe to work prn/per diem without experience. LTC is its own speciality and takes a while to learn.

If you take a full-time position on a medicare/rehab unit of a nursing home, you will use many skills, and learn a lot.

rnlately · Feb 10, 2009

It would be pretty much impossibe to work prn/per diem without experience. LTC is its own speciality and takes a while to learn.
If you take a full-time position on a medicare/rehab unit of a nursing home, you will use many skills, and learn a lot.

I started per diem fresh out of the gate. I had ample orientation time and had spent many clinical hours there so I guess that helped. I guess it would depend on the facility though. And yes, I'm still learning; every shift worked is a new learning experience.

jjensen · Feb 10, 2009

Back when I first graduated as a RN, almost all the hospitals required a year of working in a nursing home before they would even consider hiring a new grad... There must be something to that for sure... Take everyday as some sort of learning experience...

CathyLew · Feb 11, 2009

I think you will gain a lot of experience working in a LTC facility. You can learn about many kinds of medications, patient care, treatments, dressing, skin care, wound care.... if you worked on a Med Surg floor, you would be taking care of many of the same patients. And I think that the system is looking at the complications of aging and our health care system more closely. The elderly that go to a Med Surg floor.. they are looking at skin issues, medication interactions, etc.

wherever you work, you can get the most out of it. Get active in your faclilities plan of care. Don't just pass the meds, learn about them while you do it. Don't just change a dressing, study the progression of the wound, and if it isn't progressing, talk with team leaders.... study up on better methods of wound care.

I have heard of nurses lumping up the nursing home experience as a dead end. It is not. And it can be a very rewarding job, and a place to gain a lot of experience.

caliotter3 · Feb 11, 2009

Yes, good place to start, especially if you are facing being unemployed otherwise. You may think you are limited at first, but when you go for that second job and are not treated like an inexperienced new grad, and actually get hired, you will think differently.

Jessmed0324 · Feb 11, 2009

Cathylew and Caliotter3,

Thank you both so much. I am a little ancy because being a nursing student is totally different than being a real nurse and actually doing a nurses job. I just hope that everything falls into play and that i'll remember everything i need to to be a good and prudent nurse:) May God be with you both! :yeah:

eriksoln, BSN, RN · Feb 11, 2009

I knew a girl who went that way, from nursing home to hospital. She was a superior nurse. She called off a lot, but when she was there, she did fine.

Satori77, ADN · Feb 11, 2009

My mom worked LTC for quite a while...first as an LPN, then DON, then eventually she became director of the whole place. But she always kept an eye out over the nurses. Many people think an LTC facility is easy, but from her stories it isn't. Critical thinking is very important. You have the benefit of seeing the same people day in and day out, which helps you to really see their progressions (whether good or bad). You learn a lot of meds, a lot of different diseases. Wound care, diabetes, dementia. She really loved it. But it can be emotionally hard, because you really care about the people. I believe it is very rewarding work for the right person, and also a great stepping stone into other things. Good luck.

winterallsummer · Feb 11, 2009

How often do you deal with "code brown" at a nursing home?

Sorry I know typical question but I have no where else to ask.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Feb 11, 2009

How often do you deal with "code brown" at a nursing home?
Sorry I know typical question but I have no where else to ask.

I can't speak for all nursing homes but where I work, if you are a nurse... never. Most of the time they don't even know about it until we tell them, "So and So does NOT need MoM after all- they just exploded!" If it happens to occur in front of the nurse, while she's in the room, she'll put on the call light and tell one of us to clean it up and hightail it out of there.

Again, not saying that all LTC nurses are above cleaning poop (or that they even have the time), but where I work, only the CNAs deal with that stuff.