ANYTHING good about LTC?

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Okay, another request for career advice. Please don't pass this up because I really want advice from LTC nurses.

I know I want to go into nursing and have been admitted to a program, have been a CNA for 11 years including LTC, homecare and hospital, adn know I love geriatrics best, but the working conditions! I loved my job when I could do it, when staffing was good, but when does that happen? You all have to put up with so much with so little support, and the pay doesn't seem great. I don't THINK I want to work in a hospital, and if LTC's are as universally bad as all of that, maybe I could look into another field. I just don't know.

So- my question is are there any good nursing homes? What would you suggest so someone starting out who wants to work geriatrics? Any advice is appreciated.

Thank You!

That's why I prefer the CCRC! Even though they don't like "moving", we get to move them to the higher care levels!

Specializes in LTC, sub-acute, urology, gastro.
1) An old guy is just ONE Person. You work acute, a majority of the patients will be bugging you left and right (half of them are on PCA's already). And guess what? You'll be bugging the doctors too for pain orders

2) You're supposed to monitor them after you give them anything that puts them at risk for falling AND THEY SHOULD BE IN BED WITH THE SIDE RAILS UP after giving Ativan.

3) Not as much as ICU and Med Surg. I've work for years in LONG TERM CARE and I've only heard/been involved in codes 3-4 X. I've worked 8 years in Med Surg and intensive care and there's always a code every week practically. I've also placed deceased pt's in the local hospital morgues more than a dozen times.

4) You forgot Telemetry machines. Do the ratio. Who do you think uses the most beeping machines? Acute or LTC?

5) Just $0.02

6) Really? I just yawn half the time showing up for work and the only changes I see are....*thinking* ...:rolleyes:

Wow... I hope you're not currently in LTC - you sound very bored/uninspired, which is something LTC does not need - STICK WITH ICU & MED SURGE PLEASE!!

!) You aren't doing it right if you find anything about it "easy"

2) If you are the boss... 'nuff said

3) Ativan is a chemical restraint... and siderails are physical restraints. Both only to be used as a last resort, after all other nursing interventions have been attempted.

4)Our unit has an age range from 42 - 100 years... about 1/3 are full codes, and we respect their right to choose

5) Bed alarms, call lights, IV's, motion sensors...

6)True. A wonderful caring family atmosphere.

7)We have an average of 7-10 admits q week. Daily changes are the norm.

I don't know where you are working, but it certainly isn't on my unit!

Med Surg Pro's from an LVN POV:

1) Higher pay

2) Supplies

3) Benefits

4) Pension

5) Career advancement

6) Better Staffing

7) Better equipment

8) Code blue team

LTC pro's:

1) Old folks are easier to take care of than some whiny young patient who wants Roxanol every damn 5 minutes.

2) You're the boss

3) Quieter if you're used to the demented resident yelling the whole night (Just give 'em an Ativan).

4) Code blues are a rarity (mostly DNR)

5) No stupid beeping sounds

6) Family atmosphere

7) No surprises and consistency. I know my residents so well, I don't even have to look in the MAR or treatment binder to do my nursing care ( of course I check my MAR anyway along with new MD orders). I also know their habits and that helps save time.

:) I am a 20 year veteran in nursing. 19 of those years I worked in a small rural hospital doing everything from working the floor, Labor and delivery, emergency room, scrub nurse, you name it, I did it. I used to tell myself I would never I mean never work at a nursing home. For the last year that is where i have been and I love it. I have run into alot of nurses that have never worked anywhere else but LTC and you can tell it. Get some experience behind before you go back into LTC. You have to make a lot of calls on your own, and the experience you will get working in a hospital setting will help you alot. GOODLUCK :nurse: :)

Okay, another request for career advice. Please don't pass this up because I really want advice from LTC nurses.

I know I want to go into nursing and have been admitted to a program, have been a CNA for 11 years including LTC, homecare and hospital, adn know I love geriatrics best, but the working conditions! I loved my job when I could do it, when staffing was good, but when does that happen? You all have to put up with so much with so little support, and the pay doesn't seem great. I don't THINK I want to work in a hospital, and if LTC's are as universally bad as all of that, maybe I could look into another field. I just don't know.

So- my question is are there any good nursing homes? What would you suggest so someone starting out who wants to work geriatrics? Any advice is appreciated.

Thank You!

Thank you for your posts! I've been spending a lot of time in nursing homes lately, reading, and reading your posts on other threads. I still think I want to work in long term care but I may just go for my NP license, geriatrics, just buckle down and go to school and do the time in an acute care setting. I want to do good, would love to believe that I can change the situation :lol2:

With corporate politics, the aging baby boomers yadda yadda, the situation looks pretty dire. Still, I have to believe that it can be better, even if just for the people I'm caring for at any given time. That attitude has carried me when I was an aide.

Still, I'm guns blaring ready to fight the Mcnursing home movement, and the effort to gut social security. In my dream world, the centers that care for our disabled/ elderly are the centers of communities, are staffed based on need not greed, and provide good care to sick people. And are nice to work in :kiss

Germain, I got in on this late, but am an LPN in a SNF/LTC...they have recently certified the entire building-all beds for Medicare. I have a set, a section I always work, & it is 28 beds. We get admissions & discharges routinely, and our pt ages run from 20-100+, some are long-term care, some are pretty intense. It varies from week to week, but there is still the regulars, the ltc pts. My pt load runs from about 21 pts to the full 28, & by my choice I work weekend doubles, so am always running. The needs run from PEG tubes & IV's, PICC lines, to s/p ORIF, to other sugeries, to hospice it is where people go when they are too sick to be at home, but not so bad they need to be in the local hospital, which is pretty small. I think I've learned a lot there, & love my ltc pts...it is a personal choice, & I don't feel any less of a nurse cos that's where I choose to provide care...it can be very hard, esp when you go home feeling like you missed something, or felt you should've gotten more done so not as much to pass on to the night shift nurse...hope that's helpful...Oh, yea, was an NAC for 7 years before getting LPN...it shows when you are in the trenches & not too good to get your hands dirty, if yo know what I mean...

Okay, another request for career advice. Please don't pass this up because I really want advice from LTC nurses.

I know I want to go into nursing and have been admitted to a program, have been a CNA for 11 years including LTC, homecare and hospital, adn know I love geriatrics best, but the working conditions! I loved my job when I could do it, when staffing was good, but when does that happen? You all have to put up with so much with so little support, and the pay doesn't seem great. I don't THINK I want to work in a hospital, and if LTC's are as universally bad as all of that, maybe I could look into another field. I just don't know.

So- my question is are there any good nursing homes? What would you suggest so someone starting out who wants to work geriatrics? Any advice is appreciated.

Thank You!

LTC was my last choice in nursing but I found that it has been one of the most rewarding. Since you have been accepted into a program I suggest that you get some acute care experience under your belt. Minimum of 2 years. It will make a orld of difference in your assessmnet skills. Being a CNA is quite different than being "the charge nurse". Yes there are GOOD NURSING HOMES. I work in one. The nursing home is only as good as the "CARING NURSES" that work in it. Happy nurses, make happier 'residents' (as we refer to our patients since it is their home)

Look at the CMS.gov website, they post the latest 'reports' on any nursing home in the country. Perhaps this way you can compare important values such as incidents of falls, restraints, UTI's, etc. they tell 'stories' on the way they are run.

Let you conscience be your guide.

The LTC I worked in for a couple of years was a nightmare straight out of H**L.

It is a well known company, but I ain't callin' no names.

They had a list of deficiencies when I started there and a list when I left as long as your arm, and they get write ups in the daily paper quite often, by some lawyer wanting to talk to families. It was a good place to lose your license if you weren't careful.

Habitually shortstaffing, residents not getting treatment they were due, snacks not being passed out, not being changed/turned, the list goes on and on.

And it is such a shame because this is such a beautiful facility. Just a few years old, it is really nice. But they just cannot seem to get it together.

I just got really discouraged there and I hope I never have to work in LTC again.

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