Quitting...are they all the same??

Specialties Geriatric

Published

I am quitting my current position in a LTC facility because

1. I give meds for 7 hrs on a 8 hr shift.

2. I can't stay in compliance

3. I believe that 1/2 the LNAs I work with don't care about the residents needs.

4. I can't say no to a crying resident's request and no one but I seems to hear them.

5. I don't have enough time to complete all of the assigned tasks.

6. I cry everynight when I get home.

I like geriatrics and like knowing my patients. Should I look at other facilities or are they all like this one? :uhoh21:

I also quit my Ltc job because of staffing issues ...One nurse to 40 patients? impossible to give quality nursing care

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

At the risk of being flamed, will someone please tell me what all y'all think is the definition of 'quality nursing care'? It is not the amount of time spent with a resident. It is what you do with that time. Surely not all 40 patients are acute or even subacutely ill. Surely they don't all need that much nursing care. Did you give them their meds in a safe manner? If they were still living at home do you think they would be better? safer? healthier?

I've worked in long term care for most of my 25 years (yikes!) as an RN and have worked in many different facilities. Sometimes you have to find the place where you will best fit.

They all take too many meds so get together with the doc to get rid of some of the useless ones. Get some volunteers to come in and lead a music group or a reading group. But, please don't just throw your hands up in the air and say It's not for me. LTC needs good nurses.

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At the risk of being flamed, will someone please tell me what all y'all think is the definition of 'quality nursing care'? It is not the amount of time spent with a resident. It is what you do with that time. Surely not all 40 patients are acute or even subacutely ill. Surely they don't all need that much nursing care. Did you give them their meds in a safe manner? If they were still living at home do you think they would be better? safer? healthier?

I've worked in long term care for most of my 25 years (yikes!) as an RN and have worked in many different facilities. Sometimes you have to find the place where you will best fit.

They all take too many meds so get together with the doc to get rid of some of the useless ones. Get some volunteers to come in and lead a music group or a reading group. But, please don't just throw your hands up in the air and say It's not for me. LTC needs good nurses.

I imagine that some nursing homes have less acuity than others on any type of unit.Last LTC I worked, two years ago,I had 67 people, and 4 CNA's tops, sometimes three. On a noc shift during flu season, over 40 of them were on report and had to be assessed, charted on, medicated, etc. etc. etc. This particular nursing home was considered a "good" place by the community. It was a non profit. This is the type of nurse patient ratio on the night shift that is not unusual in WI. Volunteers dont come in at night,activities are great, but they dont do hands on cares, naturally. Once again, there are just not enough staff to do the work safely.The supervisor could not help because the work load on the Acute Care unit downstairs was staffed the same way and the poor nurse had to have help most of the night from the poor supervisor.The supervisor, myself and the Acute care nurse went to management many times and told them how unsafe the situation was, we were told "get used to it it's not going to change". Turnover of staff was always high because of this and many other things. Once again, this was considered to be a good nursing home , tag free by the "state".So so much more I could say.

LTC does need good nurses, but good nurses will eventually burn out with an untenable work load. Good nurses are intelligent and see that the grass may be greener in some other type of nursing. Those nurses who actually like geriatrics are all the more frustrated when they CANNOT do the job well because of staffing issues, ethical concerns, legal concerns, etc. etc. etc.

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Try a different shift. I worked t he NOC shift and loved it as an LPN, now I work 7:30 to 4 and 1 weekend a month I love my job. I work Hard do a ton a charting as I do all the patient assessments. I am Charge nurse and assistant Care manager
Just curious, how many patients did you have on the night shift?
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To some degree, all LTC facilities are the same. Some are worse than others. Your OP lists some of the reasons why I have gone to home health and don't regret it. There is no reason why I can't, during a shift, do everything possible that I know of to take good care of my one patient. I could never do this for 80 patients in LTC.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
I.Last LTC I worked, two years ago,I had 67 people, and 4 CNA's tops, sometimes three.
The LTC I worked in prior to my present one was staffed like that-I regularly worked evenings on a 62 bed unit- it was always 2 nurses and 3 cna's-and we nurses were expected to stop everything to help feed at dinner and do PM on 8 residents.

The facility I am with now is county run and we have much better bennies then any of the private for profits.We'll have a 42 bed unit with always 2 nurses-usually 3 on days and 5 to 7 cna's...The smaller 21 bed units are staffed by 1 nurse and 3 cna's.I feed or toilet when my time permits but it is not expected because our management realized that we nurse's can do the cna's tasks but they can't do ours-many days I'm still finishing up and the cna's are waving goodbye to me...

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I just started working in a specialy hospital. You may want to try that. I have 5-7 pts. My first night was horrible because the charge nurse wouldn't lift much of a finger, but my second day, we had a very great and organized charge nurse and I actually look forward to coming back. There is a rehab side and a skilled side. The charge nurse told me that the rehab side is a piece of cake compared to skilled, so you may want to look into that as well. I love geri patients and if we don't help to make changes, nothing changes!

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