So I am in LPN school and work as a Care Manager (fancy term as a CNA/Home Health Aide) in an assisted living place and I adore it!!!! I look foward to going to work each day and smile though every shift. I have been doing this for years and love it. When people ask me what field of nursing I want to go into I say LTC or Assisted Living and they look at me like I have two heads!!!!!
Is that really that weird?? Yes, I know I won't get to use as many "technical" skills but I love hearing the stories, making the residents smile and being there because quite frankly some of them haven't seen their family in years and you are the only one who are there for them. And isn't nursing about caring?
Oh and I float to dementia too and I LOVE it!
Does anyone else feel that way? Do you think I am crazy?
Also, Will I be doing much Bedside care as an LPN or will it be up to the CNAs? If i want to be doing much care what is better AL or LTC??
I'm with you. I'm not a nurse yet- I graduate in the spring, but I've been a CNA for a few years now, and working with the elderly (especially those with dementia) is my passion. I really can't imagine working in any other area, besides psych. I'm actually not really enjoying my hospital clinicals at all, unless I get a patient over the age of 75 I can't wait until the spring, when we can get back to working with the geriatric population.
I think I'm one of the few in my class who doesn't want to work in the hospital. No, thanks- just not for me. Give me a 90 year old woman with Alzheimer's who says she needs to meet her mother at the bus stop, anyday
I'm with you. I'm not a nurse yet- I graduate in the spring, but I've been a CNA for a few years now, and working with the elderly (especially those with dementia) is my passion. I really can't imagine working in any other area, besides psych. I'm actually not really enjoying my hospital clinicals at all, unless I get a patient over the age of 75 I can't wait until the spring, when we can get back to working with the geriatric population.
I think I'm one of the few in my class who doesn't want to work in the hospital. No, thanks- just not for me. Give me a 90 year old woman with Alzheimer's who says she needs to meet her mother at the bus stop, anyday
I love it! I'm in school again working toward a BSN. Every one of my classmates wants to work either:
1) ICU
2) CRNA
3) ER
I'm staying in hospice. I love my geriatric pts. LOL meeting her mom at the bus stop----priceless!
I've been an RN for 9 months working in LTC and I love my oldsters! They are precious and when you give them the little extra love they need, it is really special. I'm transitioning into acute care soon, but staying PRN at my LTC facility because I know I'll miss them!
not no, but hell no! Makes me feel like an evil person after reading all these Hallmark card responses that are genuine expressions of your caring and compassion. I can't take the crap that goes with the job, understaffing, endless paperwork, and not the happily demented pt's but the one's who cry or scream endlessly. Esp the ones that sound a lot like sexual abuse of some kind took place when they were children.
not no, but hell no! Makes me feel like an evil person after reading all these Hallmark card responses that are genuine expressions of your caring and compassion. I can't take the crap that goes with the job, understaffing, endless paperwork, and not the happily demented pt's but the one's who cry or scream endlessly. Esp the ones that sound a lot like sexual abuse of some kind took place when they were children.
You're not an evil person, lol. I love my seniors, but we're all different. I say hell no to peds, emerg, ICU. Just as some people cringe at geriatrics, I feel the same about peds. I can't stand kids. Newborns, I could totally enjoy. Runny nosed kids...hell no!
I also don't care for the understaffing or the paperwork, but many areas are faced with these issues.
I love geriatrics. It is challenging with all the paperwork, understaffing and some extremely demanding patients (not to mention the families), and the stress does get to me now and then, but really, I wouldn't want to work anywhere else. I love the fact that I get to know my patients over time, I learn their likes and dislikes, what works and what doesn't. I can tell when I see H's face starting to scrunch that she needs some tylenol. I know that J* will need a snack before bed and that E's G-tube tends to get clogged. There are challenges in any setting - find what you love and they won't seem so bad (most of the time).
there are 2 types of nurses in those facilities....the ones that are so terrible that whould not have license and the ones that thave always wanted to b3 there
I can't wait until the spring, when we can get back to working with the geriatric population.
SpelaD
171 Posts
Is it weird I start orientation in LTC on thursday and I still don't know what my salary is going to be?