Continuing education/growth

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Hello All! I am not going to post my whole story on here again, but long story short, I'm currently stuck in a nursing home. I graduated a little over a year ago and failed two different hospital orientations. I am desperate to get back to the hospital eventually, but for now, that's just not in the cards. My question is this. I kind of feel as though I am stalling in my learning at the nursing home. I'm trying to look for learning opportunities but there isn't many. Many times, the most excitement I see is either someone gets an infection of some sort and I get them on oral antibiotics or they are at the point we go to comfort cares. I just feel like I have hit a wall with my learning and I am craving more.

I am considering getting my ACLS, even though I don't need it for the nursing home at all. Any other ideas on what I can look into/pursue? I have three colleges in my town, but none of them seem to have any sort of nursing continuing education. I know I would probably learn a lot more in the hospital, and I am working towards potentially returning, but not just yet.

Any other ideas in the midterm?

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ACLS has a lot of rhythm interpretation, so unless you have telemetry at your nursing home, it wouldn't be very useful.

Have you considered wound care? You probably see that. Picc/port care? I wish more nursing home nurses felt comfortable with that. Infection control topics? There's a big public health push to get them more involved with certain disease prevention topics (cdiff prevention ). Dementia care? I know care for the agitated dementia pt is usually not evidence based.

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Just feeling stuck/bored, but on the other hand, not feeling mentally and emotionally ready to go back to the hospital, even though I really want to go eventually. I've been praying about it, but haven't felt led to apply again.... yet!!

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ACLS has a lot of rhythm interpretation, so unless you have telemetry at your nursing home, it wouldn't be very useful.

Have you considered wound care? You probably see that. Picc/port care? I wish more nursing home nurses felt comfortable with that. Infection control topics? There's a big public health push to get them more involved with certain disease prevention topics (cdiff prevention ). Dementia care? I know care for the agitated dementia pt is usually not evidence based.

I suppose your right with the ACLS. We have a short term rehab unit, but I'm not on it super often. That's really the only unit we get a pic line, but it's pretty spairingly and the iv's we use are the grenade style, so we hook it up and flick the clamp. That's about the extent of my IV experience there. We already have a wound nurse who is also an MDS nurse. We are a fairly small facility.... only 60some beds..... I'm not planning on staying in long term forever

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ACLS is doable. The rhythms are not complex and mainly presented on the written test. ACLS is being "dumbed down" for good reasons. The AHA, which provides the ACLS material and certifies students, realizes the first 10 minutes (or so) are critical. Keep It Simple Stupid works best for the patient to survive those first 10 minutes, with basic good CPR, AED's, and a few drugs.

A good ACLS instructor finds out the students level of knowledge and helps students who are taking it for the first time and "only" work in nursing homes. They want you to pass and will help you. I repeat a "good" instructor does this!

But that is not really your question. There have been other posts by nurses asking how to move out of nursing home care into acute care. Put that in the search box on Allnurses and check out the advice there.

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Thanks about the ACLS. I am looking to move out of LTC, but that isn't really my question. I have a hospital in mind that I am planning/hoping on returning to. I have posted my story on here before. Just not ready yet, but looking for learning opportunities in the mean time

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