BACK TO WORK

[Valarie]

I am currently a part-time student nurse studying externally due to being in a remote area. I was working in a nursing home but quit. My reasons were too many hours being offered as it was supposed to be only a casual position. I also found management to be negative, unprofessional and disorganised. Most of the co-workers were very negative and unfriendly and generated a pecking order.

I totally enjoyed working with the oldies. Now that I have quit I miss the money, experience and the elderly residents. Any suggestions on how to handle the negatives of the job If I decide to go back?

[Deniseloch]

Unfortunately, often this is the case in long term care. I worked in assisted living for one year after I received my RN. You get some bad ones and you get some good ones to work with. I worked with a male LPN that had been a nurse for quite a while and it was like he had developed an immunity to working with the bad ones. So, maybe it just bothers us less and less as time goes on. In an ideal work world, maybe we can find a facility that only has good ones.

Good Luck,

Deniseloch

[lorrie]

Valerie

My advice to you....this is going to be everywhere...almost. I can't classify every LTC facility into one sterotypical prototype but, but more often than not this is the case, and in nursing in general alot of the times. The longer you work in that type of environment with those types of people the more you start to tune out negitivity and focus on the task at hand...quality patient care. I am actually grateful for all the "crappy" work places and people because it has made me a better nurse and a more focused person. In places like that if you worry about the negative, out of order things going on around you, your job would never be completed. So go back to work, focus on the task at hand, learn to be a better person, enjoy your profession, seize learning opportunities, and tune out the people who are happiest in controversy.

Good luck and keep us posted.

lorrie

P.S. I have found in my experiences with negative people at the workplace, they thrive to feel the need to be more important than everyone else,so instead of letting them make me mad or upset, I make them feel silly. That is probably the most effective "ego busting, get off of my back" tactic. No one likes to feel silly, but they're trying to upset you or make you mad, so don't give in.

[This message has been edited by lorrie (edited January 17, 2001).]

[Jenny P]

Is there some way you could volunteer either there or through some religious organization to work with the elderly? It may give you the experience you would need, but you wouldn't have to be at the bottom of the pecking order and you wouldn't have to deal with management either. It also won't help with the money issue, but then again, it may open some interesting doors for you. I mention a religious organization because I'm thinking of my experiences in a small community where there was a church that took it upon itself to deliver hot meals and rides to doctors' appointments for seniors who needed these services. Most of the volunteers were people who grew up in that community and devloped friendships with the elders through their volunteer work.