Hospital vs Nursing Home for new RN grads.

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I need your help with a certain topic. I went to an ASN program that offered a bridge program. After the first year in the summer we had the option to take the LPN class & take boards.That way you can work your last year of nursing school working and getting paid more money and gain experience. Many students did do this. Now heres the thing. Many of us who were working as LPN's now have taken jobs at hospitals now that we have graduated with our RN degree. I have a friend who is in limbo. He keeps asking me if there is a difference from working in a hospital vs the nursing home. He keeps saying he can make more money.He has been working there for almost 5 years. From cna to lpn to now rn. So he is somewhat attached. He said soon hes going to be getting his profit sharing. He said that hes been told theres nothing he can do in the hospital that hes already doing. I keep telling him the experience is very different. Also that his skill level will grow. Am i wrong in telling him that? I told him to come to this site and ask himself. So until he does what suggestions does anyone have that i can tell him? Please help me help a friend. THanks. :uhoh3:

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If he wants to stay in the nursing home, more power to him. I don't see why every RN has to work in acute care. Every person is different, and God Bless us all!

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Specializes in vascular, med surg, home health , rehab,.

Hospital....need the baseline knowledge, experience , experience. Also more options in the future. He could do PT at both. I think seeing pts in an acute care setting just helps in a snf.

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Pt's in a SNF are essentially med surg/tele pts...

Some are even dc'd from the unit to a SNF...

profit sharing???

wow, where are you?

I want some of that cash...

really though...

Nursing experience is what you make of it...WHEREVER you are...

Acute sickness occurs in ALL settings...

the benefit a hospital affords him is nursing volume...

do the math

in a SNF there are fewer RNs...in a hospital, they are everywhere...it's not the setting so much, but who is around him to help him through difficult times...

new grads need support...

you won't find that in a nursing home/SNF

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I think there's too much snobbery in nursing towards nursing home nurses. I got my start in one, then got into acute care later, and now work in ICU. I learned a lot of skills in the nursing home, especially on how to deal with the elderly and their relatives.

Yes, I like the hospital better, there's more change, and you don't have a majority of the the workforce being CNAs. That's what I love about ICU, we don't have any CNAs, I don't like bossing them around, and making sure they do their work. But, some nurses are great at managing CNAs and enjoy the predictabilty of the nursing home enviornment. I think if this man is happy, leave him be and don't make him feel like a second class nurse for working in a nursing home.

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I too worked in the nursing home right after obtaining my LPN, I am now working towards my RN and have transferred to the hospital and I am glad I did. It really does give you a change to really use and fine tune your skills, there are many things I do daily at the hospital that I never would have gotten the chance to do in the nursing home.

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If he has 5 years CNA experience and one year LPN experience, why doesn't he keep his full time job at the nursing home and get a very part time job at a local hospital?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ER, L&D, ICU, OR, Educator.

I guess I'm a supporter of some acute care experience. If he knows that he will stay in LTC for his career, well, how nice to know what the future will bring! In times of a nursing shortage, he probably could get work in almost any nursing field, but without a shortage he could be creating a pigeon hole for himself.

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilities, LTC.

I'm absolutely terrified to do it, but I almost feel like I have to work in a hospital right after I graduate :sofahider because I'd forget my skills...starting an IV, PICC line dressing changes, inserting NG tube, etc. They don't do that kind of stuff in a nursing home, do they?

On the other hand, we treat our elderly like absolute crap in this country, & a lot of people I go to school with don't even want to touch a nursing home, so if this is his passion:heartbeat, maybe he should stick with it.

A friend of mine worked as a CNA, then as a nurse, at a facility for the developmentally disabled (basically, a home) and when rumors were flying around that the facility might close, she was terrified :no: about having to relearn her skills to work anywhere else.

So...shouldn't he be worried about losing his skills? I'd actually appreciate the answer to this question. :)

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