Dialysis vs SNF

Specialties Urology

Published

I'm looking at different nursing jobs to escape skilled nursing and trying to figure out if dialysis would be a good fit. The two biggest problems that I'm hoping won't exist in dialysis are 1. Back pain: My back aches more every night from constantly lifting patients up in bed, off the toilet, off the ground after a fall, or holding them in an awkward position while I do their heel or coccyx dressing change. I imagine these types of problems won't exist in dialysis, but please tell me if I'm wrong, of if there are other reasons you hurt your back. 2. Finishing all your work: There is never enough time in an 8 hour shift to complete all of your work. You either leave work undone, put it off to the next shift, stay overtime (which will get you in trouble), or stay off the clock. Most people stay off the clock as the easiest option, but I'm not okay with that. At the end of the day, do you feel like you completed everything you were responsible for, or do you have the same problems as skilled nursing?

I have zero experience in SNF, but I have been in HD for about 4 years now, so here's my $0.02. I would catch all kinds of grief if I said there is no heavy lifting in HD, but there's not a lot. We do transfer pts, often with amputations, from wc to chair but I can't think of anything else right now. Stocking and mixing chemicals is usually handled by the techs or biomed. You can stop thinking in terms of 8 hour shifts. In dialysis shifts are in terms of chair turnover. You will have 2-3 shifts per day, if a clinic only has 1 shift they will either change to a 3 day / week clinic (Mon, Wed, Fri) or soon close the doors. Having enough time to finish your tasks is really clinic specific. Your primary job will be to assess pts, pass meds and put on / take off catheter pts. You may also have to do more tech type work depending on how your clinic is staffed. But, your primary jobs will be finished when the pts leave. However, there is always going to be paperwork. How much paperwork depends on what happened during the day (incident reports, pts with new orders, etc) and how much your facility administrator (FA) delegates. If your FA delegates more than you can do without getting overtime, then take the overtime. S/he'll either pay it or cut back. It's been a couple of years since I worked in a chronic setting and Acute is totally different, so I may have missed some points. Good luck!

Thanks acuteHD, that sounds pretty doable and like an overall improvement.

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