RN's exiting from aged care postions

Specialties Geriatric

Published

I was having a conversation with a fellow RN today who is trying to do some research on the number of RN's who are leaving the aged care/ gerontology areas -

I mentioned this particular BB and that l may get a response that would be useful (I am particularly interested in your answers - )

some thoughts that mabe worht considering if these have impacted on you are poor staffinglevels, poor monetary compensation compared to the acute sector, The continual stress and undervaluing of the role itself. Also the documentaiton that is required for us to get both our funding and the legal reasons etc. also the accredtiation process / I gather you call this surveys?

we would be very interested in the following questions

1- Is there currently an exit of RN's from the aged care area (or the equivalent in your country?

2 - Why are they, or why have you left this area of work ?

3 - where do they / you go when you leave - do you leave altogether or into another area to work ?

Please make any comments about this as we are both interested - any useful sites would be apprecated - If the moderated feels that l wpould gain more response by putting this into the general discussion area please do

I would also be interested in not just RN's response but any one working in the aged care industry - and your thoughts.

hank you for you time

Tookie

:p

Stormy

It is very hard

- We have a fortnightly newsletter in our organisation that comes out woth our pays - l am trying not to oly nclude eduaction inforamtion ie dementia etc but would like thi year to try and put in photos - we have a digital camera of photos of the staff at every day (non steressful type activites) We without getting into the union type stuff have a supportive union who at the moment is REALLY trying to actively raise the profile of aged care nursing (someof this is because we are lossing skilled nurses to the acute ssector - another story)

It is only through people like yourself whpo try - TRY and remiain positive and find the good thing in their choice of work and work within the system that WILL make it better

GOOD LUCK

posiitve thoughts to you

It's all about money (the root of all evil).....no matter how hard you try in doing anything in LTC. You can only do so much and when you feel you're burning out, it's time to get out. You can't fight it. Regulations will always be there, short staffing will always be there, the poor attitudes will always be there, management who do what they're told and only care about keeping the budget at a minimum for a bonus aren't going anywhere. I feel that the elderly are getting ripped off so badly, that most of the upper eschelon need to be in jail for doing their job which is taking advantage of our elderly by taking everything they own for lousy

half-azzed care. These people need to be put in nursing homes and made to be treated just one week like our seniors....Their attitudes might change, but as long as someone is getting rich off of these old feeble people who also control the regulations of keeping staffing to an absolute minimum to put more money in their pockets, not giving a rats azz about what it really takes to properly care for "old people," (and it doesn't take hours and hours of mindless paper work) things aren't going to change. Your job will always be just that......a job. It's those people we need to go after. And who are these people??? The government! Not many people want to fight them. They make the rules and regulations...why????? BECAUSE THEY CAN. It's these people who will never feel the impact of being in a nursing home because they have the money to be taken care of at home by private nurses for themselves AND their loved ones when the time comes....Part of the bennies of the job paid for by ripping off the public with their corruptions. How do these criminals sleep at night I'll never know, but one day they will have to meet their high and exaultant ruler and I pity them. The bottom line is money, the bottom line will ALWAYS be money and that will NEVER change......EVER! So keep your chins up, keep hope alive and keep the faith and stop fighting the system...It's an endless battle. You can't bolster people's spirits when yours is gone with the wind.

Specializes in Home Health.

Interesting point Tookie, of why so little RN's stay in LTC. I am far to discriminate towards LPN's because many have taught me alot and still continue to do so. I too, was a victim of going into supervisory work right after I got my RN. After a 2 year history of dealing with issues very much like the above posts, I went back into hands on SNF nursing. I'm much happier caring for the patients dispite alot of day to day problems.

I'm an agency nurse and a LTC nurse. I go to different facilities and lately I have taken an interest of "Where have all the RN's Gone"....sounds like a song...:)

One facility has 4 and that includes the DON. As I recall regulations state you need to have an RN in the house at all times. So how do they get around that? They call me...and still pay me LPN wages through my agency. Better than staying at home.

Another of which is the same company is very much the same and they even use Med-Techs. Which starts another scenario. Before an LPN can work if theres an RN. And now a Med-tech can work if theres an LPN.

I too, would like to see some numbers of how many RN's take boards, pass and work in the field.

Seems around here we eventually go full circle and meet again in another place.

Keep this thread going Tookie....I enjoy ready the posts!!

Hi Shiraz...for LTC/SNF, you have to have an RN 8 consecutive hours 7 days a week. This is a federal tag.

Originally posted by night owl

It's all about money (the root of all evil).....no matter how hard you try in doing anything in LTC. You can only do so much and when you feel you're burning out, it's time to get out. You can't fight it.

I worked so hard and gave all I had while in LTC for the past 10 yrs, the last 8 I spent in a "corporation" owned facility. I ve been in any and every position as an LPN and then for the last 2 yrs as an RN "manager".

I finally realized that nothing I did would change the way it was but still tried every day to make a difference with the residents and try to teach my staff the right way to do things. Not too sure I could pinpoint what made me hand in my "surprise" letter of resignation maybe just a culmunation of the last 8 years of BS ?

I wont rant and rave about what was wrong and why I left but burnt out describes it well. I did what I did for me and my sanity.

I now work in a hospital for the first time and find it stressful in its own way but havent been more content about my career in a very long time.

Im out of LTC and will not go back..............

deb

Ok this is the second attept to write tis

So it may not make as much sense as the first time

I wanted to say thank you to the people who have contributed such heart felt thoughts- It is sad that the people who make the 'judgements' dont read our cometns (well maybe they do)

Anyway - I wanted to say thank you for your honesty your thoughts and your obvious love of the 'game' - aged acre is such an important area of care - we need to convey this to others - OK we are trying hard now to get others to ebsure our loved old people are cared for - this is not just because we care for them but we also want the system to be better not just for us but also for the people we love and our frineds and the starngers who will want to live life in quality

I also would like to apoligise to the 'non' RN's - i did not in any way want to discriminate against nurses who work in this sector no matter qualifiactions - l wnated to know why they are leaving the sector - the original question was asked by a frined and if l was too literal and stopped others from contributing l am sorry -

PLease keep your thoughts cming - this makes us think not only about what is wrong but l believe more importantly what is right - the care for our aged

Kep your thoughts on the board thank you

Tookie

Originally posted by catlady

Daisy Mae, I can relate. Until very recently, I was unit manager of a 49-bed SNF unit, lots of Medicares. I did all the MDS, PPS, RAPS, care planning, and was the head nurse of the unit. Upper management didn't provide any support, but constantly called me (you don't think they'd get out of the office, do you?) with their list of "I needs." I need this, I need that, stuff that they could often have done themselves but delegated every time. The DNS never missed a breakfast break, even though she rolled in after 9 am every day, never missed her eight thousand smoke breaks, while I'm holding it in because I don't have time to pee. When JCAHO came, we were choking back laughs when the DNS told the inspector that she and the ADNS made rounds every day. What a joke. Mind you, we're only talking a 98-bed building; it's not that far to travel.

I almost had an aneurysm the day that the ADNS rudely interrupted me and one of my nurses who were very busy sending out an unstable resident to the hospital--we needed to go to an inservice, because there was a guest speaker. It never occurred to her that patient care might have been the priority, or, gawdfabbid, that she could have made our apologies to the speaker, or she could have taken over for one of us so we could go to her bloody inservice (the first inservice in months, BTW. Of course she told JCAHO she did all the inservicing. I did more teaching than she did, and it wasn't part of my job. But I digress.) The CNAs were all standing there when she basically made a fool of herself. If I had to work the floor because a nurse called out, no one even checked on me or asked if I had anything urgent on my desk that they could clear up for me.

And at the same time, of course, the nurses and CNAs would come to me about everything. I don't blame them--it's not like anyone in the front office would take care of their needs.

Anyway, I jumped from this frying pan into a fire, where I lasted all of four days. It's going to be the same wherever you go, as long as you stay in long term care. Everyone is so terrified of The State, that they can't even think straight. The paperwork is horrendous, as you say. I did a couple of agency shifts this past week and I was horrified to see that other buildings had even more paperwork than we did! And so much of it is utterly redundant, such as charting I&O in three places.

But this week I was offered and immediately accepted a job as a nursing case manager for a major insurance company. I cry for happy. No patient care, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, no on-call, no state regulators.

I have learned from every experience I have had, and without those experiences, I wouldn't have been offered this job. So there's some value in the trial by fire. But at least now I know there may be life outside the trenches.

:nurse:

Not burnout. Not money. Not retirement age. Well perhaps these contribute, but the main reason is attitude.

I have worked in acute settings, in all areas, for the whole of my career. I decided to try long term care and love the

work, but oh the attitude of the majority of LPN's toward an RN. Hostile and defensive from the moment they see those two little letters after the name.

(Please don't write and tell me that it is the 'superior' attitude of the RN. ) These LPN's have never worked at any other facility, several of them are just out of school. They all know everything. They

also know that in an acute setting they would seldom get near a chart, let alone contact a doctor for orders etc: In other words they would not be important and this is the one place they excel. Importance.

Hallo just trying

+ Add a Comment