Has working in a nursing home changed your views on nursing?

cosmic511 · Nov 30, 2016

What are you referring to, in your question of how it affects others? What is your position in Nursing Home you work at?

jwolansk · Nov 30, 2016

So it has turned me off of nursing. I love my residents, but the people I work with mostly turn me off. The hopelessness of the whole place, the carelessness i have seen from RNs and CNAs alike. I just wondered how working in a nursing home makes you feel about nursing. I know nurses who worked in hospitals and retired to nursing homes and say they are terrible.

ponymom · Dec 3, 2016

The only thing (the only thing) that has turned me away from nursing in ltc (once again, the only thing) is the chronic understaffing. Not the families, not the patients/residents, not the coworkers, not the shifts, not the holidays on-duty, not the charting, etc. All of that is and always has been surmountable when warranted.

However when combined with chronic understaffing, I left and God willing, will never need to even think about needing to work in healthcare for a living ever again.

Btw, ltc was where I actually wanted to work.

Kareegasee · Dec 7, 2016

I worked in a long term care facility right out of school for just over 1 year. It wasn't my dream nursing job but I fell in love with my residents and took advantage of as many opportunities to learn as I could. Less than 3 years from graduating, I have landed my dream position in a surgical ICU, still learning as much I can every day. It's the attitude in which you enter a situation that makes the largest difference in the outcome. Sure, there are obviously many negative aspects to working as a nurse in a LTC facility, mainly the understaffing that results in extreme nurse to patient ratios, and tense work relationships between nurses and aides (or so I personally felt). Your time and attention is spread between 25 people, and you are the primary soul responsible for their well-being, safety, and happiness. You are constantly torn between saving time and doing what you know is right. Many long days might come to an end with you driving home, feeling you were not the nurse you sought out to be when you graduated, not the nurse you should have been for that person. You need to keep your integrity, and do what is right when no one is looking. Do the dressing change the right way. Do the dressing change at all. Do the Foley care. Double check your medications, and only bring one patient's at a time, even if they have another roommate. Take your blood sugars. Be prepared for that code. When their family leaves for the day, or when their family stops coming, or never came at all, spend an extra minute to be that person for them. And if LTC is not your goal, get the heck out when you can. And when you look back, remember it as an opportunity that allowed you to learn.