Drowning in LTC

Specialties Geriatric

Published

I just got my LPN license August 1st, and started working at a LTC facility the 8th. I got 3 days of orientation and got thrown on the floor the 4th day of work, working 3-11 with 35 residents on my side, 4 pegs and a trach. I was trying to do everything the correct way and at 9:30 the other nurse had to step in and help me with the last 15 pts. She said you had to combine 8 pm meds with 4 pm meds to get done unless it was a b/p med or insulin. Does every nursing home do this? I think if I had to go back to another 3-11 shift i would cry myself to sleep not going to lie. I am starting on nights 10:30 pm- 6:30 am. The meds seem significantly less. Do you think this is a better shift for a new grad? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, sorry Lioness, I just can't get my head around this, how can anyone actually get bullied into punching back in to do another nurse's work. I really just don't get it.

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"Well, I'm going to have to report you because you should have refused the admission when you saw it was getting past the time you would have been able to complete it." Simple. When you are young, new, just learning and didn't know you could refuse, that's scary. However, one of the above replies is probably from one of those types. Enough said.

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Meh, I would think that by the time your shift had been ended '5 minutes', you would have been out in your car. In that case you shouldn't have even seen the person roll down the hall. My shift always ended at the moment I punched out, whatever time that may have been, and I was out). Maybe you meant actual 'clock time' it was s'posed to end, as opposed to time when you may have actually left the nurses' station.

FWIW I had a similar incident about three weeks after I started as a new nurse. The oncoming nurse tried that same trick, however I had already punched out (and certainly wasn't punching back in ha) so I just said "good night". She tried something else a week or so later, trying to 'get back' at me (I guess), and thinking she could 'guilt' me, because I was so new. That didn't go over so well for her, either. She ended up punching out before I accepted the keys (she had thrown them across the desk and they went on the floor, which I did not touch them), and (luckily, unbeknownst to her) before I had even punched in for the shift. So I just went back out to my vehicle (no fuss, no muss) and waited for awhile.

The look on her face was priceless when she turned and saw me in my vehicle as she was leaving. DON calls me, nurse sheepishly returns (didn't make any eye contact this time LOL, and I waited for her to come back and go inside before I went inside). We all go for a little sit-down, she ends up on a 5-day suspension, I end up w/ no repercussions.

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Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.
You won't be doing admissions or discharges on 11-7. You won't be changing wound vacs, doing dressing changes, g-tube feedings, or IVs on the 11-7. People are supposed to sleep on 11-7 so there is less to do and therefore fewer opportunities to learn anything.

maybe it is just SETex, but admission can happen 24/7.......usuallly rare on nights but plenty on evenings....... you have received some good advice, you just cant double up on those 4 &8p meds .......

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You won't be doing admissions or discharges on 11-7. You won't be changing wound vacs, doing dressing changes, g-tube feedings, or IVs on the 11-7. People are supposed to sleep on 11-7 so there is less to do and therefore fewer opportunities to learn anything.

Oh yes she will! I worked nocs in LTC for years and did all of the above. with the exception of admits/discharges. The 0600 med pass was HUGE. All 9 of my tube feeders had to have new enteric feeding sets set up and filled on nocs, q noc.

All the FBS and insulins were done on nocs. I was way busier on 11-7 than I was on days at the same facility.

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And don't forget all the night shift paperwork which needs to be done in addition to all the 'regular' paperwork.:yes:

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For a new grad a LTD is hard and confusing. By switching to the night shift that's better. Speaking from experience u should make yourself familiar with the meds and paperwork and the residents. Ltd is repetitive. Once u get the meds, the paperwork, and the residents u will have it. Don't much change in LTC

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

I've changed most things in my facility so people sleep at night. The 6am med pass is very busy but there isn't as much hands on to do on the 11-7 shift as there is on the other 2 shifts.

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sorry to say this is sooo not true. I work 3rd and we do all of the above and then some. I have learned more on 3rd because there is a lot less staff to help so you are forced to learn it all.

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sorry to say this is sooo not true. I work 3rd and we do all of the above and then some. I have learned more on 3rd because there is a lot less staff to help so you are forced to learn it all.

Yes, I learned how to unclog a toilet with a clothes hanger, how to clean BM out of finger nails, call-light buttons, and phones with broken wooden swabs and hand sanitizer, how to plunge a sink clogged w/ vomit w/ a gloved hand, and other things working on nocs. Since nothing happens on nocs, and they're all sleeping, all janitor supplies are locked up, and we don't need any ancillary staff, right? :rolleyes:

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From a medical perspective, it is probably OK to combine a lot of the 4 PM and 8 PM meds, depending on what they are. However, you can't just do this willy nilly without getting the physician and pharmacy involved.

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It has been a while since I have posted on here, but I am loving 11/7 I do all the peg dressings, do feedings, and all the other things every other shift does except the new admits

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