I am thinking abut getting a job at a nursing home (any advice/tips?)...

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I am a RN who is sick of the hospital setting right now. I'm looking for a job that offers flexible hours and decent pay while I further my education. I need the least amount of stress with my job, because I am needing that energy for school. I interviewed at a clinic, but the pay was pretty bad.

when you compare nursing home work vs. hospital work (med/surg) do you think the stress level will be lower? I know that I will have tons of patients in the nursing home and that there is stress involved, but that it is a DIFFERENT type of stress.....opinions? Tips?

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The advice that I have is, as an RN don't play favorites, don't get friendly with any of the aides, keep it professional because you're going to have slackers on all 3 shifts. You must discipline the slackers and if you've become friendly with them on a personal basis that would be hard to do.

As an RN, please listen to your LPNs when they tell you of problems with the CNAs. At my facility it doesn't do any good to write anyone up, because nothing is done about it. They're too shorthanded and they aren't going to discipline anyone very hard, certainly not fire anyone.

The DON is also friendly with some of the biggest slackers there are.

It's just a never winning battle.

If you go LTC, don't get caught up in it, or you'll never make any progress towards improving patient care.

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Hmmm....the stress level can be really, really high at times. Multi-tasking, making sure the cna work is getting done, dealing with docs, families and the patients, working with little supplies etc.

Now....not every place is the same....there are good and bad. Find yourself a good one and you will love it!

I would recomend seeing if you like LTC and working on staff somewhere. If you want more flexability of shifts, a bit more pay and no ties to a place you can do agency.

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I have never worked in a hospital but I have been a RN in LTC for 6 years. I would say the stress is the same levels but just different. You will have more patients, less help, longer med passes. Ask what is your nurse to pt ratio. Ask what is the aide to pt ratio. Our n/p ratio is 1:25 and our a/p ratio is 1:10. If you have good co-workers and aides, it is a good day. If you are working with lazy people, your day is hard. What you are responsible for depends on what shift you are working. More meds, treatments, ect. on day shift. More cleaning/stocking/ordering meds on nights. Then on days you have to deal with docs, families, hospitals, ect. Also on day shift is admissions. On nights of course, you have less staff. We have one nurse to 50 patients and three aides for 50 patients. So if you have problems at night, you are busy with so much less staff. And it can be more difficult with the sundowners if there are any.

Hope this helps some!

Leslie

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
tips?

don't.

sorry to say that the quality of nursing care in most ltc facilities in pathetic.

before i get flamed by you wonderful ltc nurses (i know--you try and try but it doesn't get better) let me say i worked ltc, and was appalled by the care. sadly, this was the best snf in town--very scary!:uhoh21: i had to leave, as i felt my license was on the line.

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Make sure you have good before you start your job. The commercials on TV in my area are always telling the families to call them to join the lawsuits against the nursing homes.:(

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