Working in AL ; trying to get skilled job

[mdonohue76]

Hi Everyone -

I have been working in AL for 21/2 years and LOVE it. I was hired right out of nursing school to AL, since no hospitals or any other place really will hire new grads. I am the only nurse on for over 100 residents. I do NOT pass meds, only some that are required for nurses to give. I do all treatments, wound care, assesments, work with hospice/terminally ill, etc.I could go on. It's VERY busy.

I feel like working in AL is excellent experience bc you are the only nurse on, you get very familiar with meds, you deal with psych issues, you have NO doctors, no other nurses, etc so your assesment skills are top notch. You have yourself and yourself only to rely on if the patient needs to go out, can be treated at home, etc.

ANyways, even tho I love my job, I applied at a certain compnay for some home health cases. I want to expand my skills. I was really interested in the hospice aspect as well as wound care, but also interested in their trachs/vents and they said they would be willing to train me on anything I wasn't comfortable with.

Great. Until they saw that I haven't done a catheter or feeding tube since nursing school. (AL doesn't have catheters or tubes) THey almost dropped me right there. I said all I would need is a quick refresher, Im an RN for over 2 years, I am 100% confident I would be fine iwth it. ANyways, she made me feel a bit humiliated like I wasn't a "real nurse" because I work in AL. Really not fair. I bust my butt in AL, and deal with all sorts of diseases and illness and have to dx people on my own without help from anyone else.

Has any other AL nurses run into this? THe company said maybe I could do a couple in our skilled unit so I would feel more comfortable, but honestly, I think I would pick up doing a cath and handling a feeding tube pretty darn quickly! If they wanted me to take a certification test or something I would, but everone wants this "on the field" experience, but NO ONE will train you!!! How do they expect these new nurses to be any good if no compnies will train them? Has anyone out there switched from AL to more acute care??? HOw did you do it?

[caliotter3]

If they said they were willing to train you, they should have stuck to their word without belittling you. After all, you were honest. Some people would have kept their mouth shut and tried to bluff their way through. Just set this aside and get your experience in. You will feel comfortable after awhile.