Do Med/Surg Hospitals accept LTAC experience?

[angelicasmth]

I am a new grad CNA, I worked in a Psych Hospital for a couple months now, but started looking into other hospitals because I want more hands on, medical experience as a CNA. Ideally I would love to work at my local large Hospital (Palomar Hospital). I have been applying to every hospital near me, Palomar, Scripps, Sharp, Rady Childrens, UCSD, but so far not a single phone call.

I have been offered a position as a CNA at Kindred Hospital, but I am wondering if this experience will eventually get me where I want to be.

According to what these hospitals (Palomar, Scripps, Sharp, Rady Childrens, UCSD) want is 6-12 months acute care.

So my question is for the experienced CNA's, LVN/LPN's, RN's, and MSN's, do hospitals see LTAC as acute care experience?

[Alex_RN, BSN]

Absolutely, but it helps if during your interview you can talk about your acute care skills and experiences. I do not know psych so I don't know how much of that you have.

Kindred LTAC is a demanding job, so I think they would be happy to have you. They have their share of psych and dementia patients, and restraints. There is a lot of toileting, bathing, and vital signs are at least Q4. A lot of patients will need to be turned Q2. Proper body mechanics are important to protect your back. Many of your patients will have lots of lines: IVs, central lines, O2, ventilators, CPAP/BIPAP, PEG tubes so you will quickly be an expert on working around those when you take care of your patients. You will have a lot of hemodialysis patients so you need to be aware of limb alerts (no BP on this arm, etc.). In a heavy environment like that, teamwork is important. Be nice to EVERYBODY. You need your coworkers to like you to get through your shift. If you help your coworkers they will help you.

I went from LTAC to a regular hospital. A regular hospital will see your LTAC experience as a valuable bootcamp. They know how hard it is.

[angelicasmth]

Thank you!!

[RNrhythm, BSN, RN]

As long as it is LTAC and not SNF, you are good.

[Alex_RN, BSN]

In addition to clinical stuff, they definitely want to know that you are reliable, will not call out, will show up on time, and can get along with people. Now that I think about it, those are probably most important overall.

[angelicasmth]

Thank you! The fact that you said not SNF, makes me feel way better. I did have many SNF offers, but I didn't feel like I'd get the experience I was looking for to get into my ideal hospital some day.

[ShadowNurse]

I just got out of an LTAC position at a Kindred hospital. It wasn't the place for me, but it suits many nurses. Our LTAC had a little of everything, from patients who were fully ambulatory and just needed IV antibiotics, to patients on the verge of coding with multiple drips (these patients were kept in our small High Dependency Unit). We had plenty of psych, dementia, respiratory, telemetry, addicts, chronically ill, dialysis the works. Like Alex says, we had so many lines, tubes and drains. The primary reasons for admission were wound care and ventilator weaning. So yes, not your typical long-term care setting and very acute indeed.

[kathom86]

Unfortunately, no. I work at a Kindred LTAC (not SNF) and I get automatically dismissed from interviews for not having "acute care" experience. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about Kindred and the short-term acute hospitals are bias towards the long-term acute hospitals. Many of my patients at Kindred rival IMC patients at traditional hospitals in terms of acuity but they don't want to hear it. There is also no difference the type of nursing care I provide or skills needed to do my job. If anything, I have more skills working with central lines, suctioning, complex wounds, etc. It doesn't matter though. I'm at a disadvantage in the job market since my time and experience don't count for anything.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

The hospital here considered working on a post acute unit in a SNF as good experience so I’m sure they’d feel the same about LTAC experience.