Long term care

txtopaandback · May 14, 2003

I work a Baylor program at a LTC facility, 12 hr shifts Saturday and Sunday. Get paid for 36 hrs. The good part about it is5 days off a week, Saturday and Sundays there is not alot of administration around so the environment is more relaxed.

The bad part family members visit mostly on weekends, most are very nice but the others!!! There is a definate divide in the staff, Us against Mon-Fri staff, the nurses (our team as well as their team) that are looking to start trouble and blame someone from the other team. The CNA's all have every other weekend off and we are always working short of CNA's. If 1 of us is on vacation or calls off sick it is hard to get someone from Mon-Fri to come in to help. worst day I remember 4 nurses including the supervisor when normal staffing is 5 nurses and suoervisor, I got a total of 48 res but we all ganged up on med asses and did bare minimum charting and dared administration to say anything.

But, if it wasn't for the Baylor program I would have left LTC, I frankly don't know how Mon- Fri does it 5 days in a row and I don't want to know.

By the way would you be committed to working holidays, Xmas, Thanksgiving etc that fall Mon- Fri? Lucky for you, Mother's day and easter are over, those are the worst.

GAstudent · May 15, 2003

Are you an Rn, LPN, or CNA? I love ltc..nothing like working with the old and young..not the inbetween. I enjoy what I do but I would love to have such a program where i was off five days week..Good luck..compare your pay.

hogan4736, BSN, RN · May 16, 2003

I'm an RN...The director told me there would be minimal patient care, as the CNAs and LPNs (according to her) take the lionshare of the patient care.

I would be house charge...Lord knows what that entails.

I am just fed up w/ ER/Urgent care and its "I lost my vicodin" "I am 400 lbs and have knee pain" family of 6 on welfare ALL checking in for runny noses at 2300.

Yea, yea, I'm judging, but I'm also human.

The ER is not for emergencies anymore, rather for the depressed, lonely, and bored!

GAstudent · May 16, 2003

agree on the ER thing.

MY charge nurse doesn't do much, it's true about the LPN's and CNA's having the most part. Not much pt care at all other then then passing meds. She keeps up the CNA's and LPN's and we love her. She keeps everyone in order and makes sure that they work and I can trust her with my life..I HOPE>LOL...but it is wonderful..I am in school for my Rn and hope to have a position like hers one day. Sometimes she will come and help but not much we have it all taken care of. Good luck with it. See if you can go in one day and check out what all the RN does during the day. I would love to have off 5 days a week.LOL

sassynurse78 · May 16, 2003

I love LTC. I love the fact that you develop relationships with your pts. and also with their families, and yes there are some very hard families to deal with. But I find it very rewarding. Maybe if you are burned out in the ER, a change will do you good. Although I must warn you, We still get the 400lb pt c/o knee pain, and deal with alot of "depressed,lonely and bored" people. :)

hogan4736, BSN, RN · May 16, 2003

agreed sassy...

the grass is never greener...

it's just the mentality of the typical, habitual ER patient

Disablednurse · May 17, 2003

If the long term care is like the last place I worked, be prepared to work a unit at least once a week when someone calls in sick. I was charge nurse and on the weekends, I had to work the floor just about everytime I was charge nurse. Good luck. It might be wise for you to call the current charge nurse and ask them what they do during one of their shifts and how often they have to work the floor rather than be charge or in addition to being charge.

hogan4736, BSN, RN · May 17, 2003

how bad can 2 days a week be???

jude11142 · May 17, 2003

I work weekday baylor........16 hrs shifts, twice a week. I usually work Mon and Thurs or Tues and Friday........they used to let us work back to back shifts but recently stgpped that. No weekends!!! That's because on weekends they have it covered with weekend baylors who work both days 7am to 7pm. We work 32 hrs and get paid for 40 hrs. I love it!

As for job descriptions at my facility, we have the supervisor who is an RN. Then there are 5 units that are either covered by an RN or an LPN. The same responsibilities, do the same things.......first med pass, finger sticks\insulin , xrays/labs......report problems/dealing with family members/giving cna's their assignments........then maybe get to eat,lol.....then treatments which include dsg changes/g-tube etc.......resp/urinary assessments.....try to sqeeze in some charting before next med pass,lol.....then we have to sign off on the I&O's and other paperwork........I'm not saying in no way that lpn's are the same as rn's, lol, not even going there. Just wanted to say that where I am, the same is expected out of us. If there is an rn scheduled for one of the units and calls out sick, they cover it with either lpn or rn.........We are all called "charge nurse" of our unit. Obviousely, as lpn's we cannot supervise.

Anyways, back to main issue. It's great because it gives you more hrs/days to have a life. Ofcourse, they tend to call you alot to work. What I do is sometimes work pool. It gives me some extra money which is always nice. Oh yeah, if we do work say another 8 hrs shift, it is not overtime for us. You have to actually work 40hrs, so since we are 32 hrs, it is straight time. Then after that it is OT. Last week, I worked Mon and Wed and I was off until the following Wed(again wed and fri).....so all in all, I had 6 days off(our week starts on Sunday). One thing that kind of bothers me though is that some(even coworkers)tend to think that you are not a full-time employee and that we ONLY??? work 2 days as opposed to their 5 days. I know that I shouldn't let that bother me, but it does. It is not always easy to do these hrs, I work 3pm until 7am and beleive me, sometimes by 3am I am beat!! My coworker also does the same shifts as they did not offer 7am-11pm and won't. I prefer these hrs anyways, less people working, so you don't get all that stuff that goes on during the day shift..

Good luck, you'll know soon if you like it or not. We have had 6 who did weekday baylor and now it's only 2 of us, so it's not for everyone.

JUDE

duckie · May 18, 2003

Wish I had this option open to me, I'd grab it in a second. It would be great having 5 days a week off and you could always pick up extra shifts if you want. It would be like having a vacation every week........what a dream come true. I wish you lots of luck in your choice. Duckie

hogan4736, BSN, RN · May 18, 2003

jude,

it's 6a-1030p...

it could be fri 3p-7a, sat 3p-7a...but that doesn't fill their needs, but they are also desperate...

i'll likely do the sat/sunday because it's not night shift!

again, how bad can 2 days be? besides we all get dumped on whether it's mon-fri or 4 10s, 3 12s

IT"S 2 DAYS/WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :roll

and as far as calling me in to work, I learned long ago that "NO" is easy to say. I am not the director, therefore it's NOT my responsibility to cover on my days off! I have a life, and will live it! (Besides, if I want to work extra, I'll work registry somewhere else...something else I learned long ago - too many extra shifts at one's main job helps make it easier to hate the main job!)