I'm leaving LTC

Hi Sue,

Sure wish you the best in your new adventure!!!

OklaLPN

I agree that they will suck your soul out of you. I have been in LTC for about 2 years as an LPN. I just finished school and can't wait to leave it. At work we always say treat the families not the patients...and medicate the staff, b/c in the end we will need it more :)

Sue, I left LTC in October of last year, went to med surg. As busy as it gets at times, it still feels almost like a vacation after working LTC all those years. Good luck, I think you will like it.

Thank you all.

:)

I feel so relieved.

Woo hoo! Congrats to you. I have been guiltily reading your posts and nodding my head for a while. You've said several things that I've only allowed myself to think quietly! LTC is mostly depressing, but then occasionally heartwarming............ it's hard to give your all to a job that only occasionally seems worth it. Unless you're lucky to work with a group of "true believer" nurses, it does get demoralizing. I truly wish you the best. You seem like a good egg lost in the wrong setting!

You've said several things that I've only allowed myself to think quietly!

Sometimes I say them aloud in the wrrrrooooong setting!

Best of luck to you! I can't wait to hear your observations since I enjoyed your honest assessments of working LTC. Congrats on the new job!

Well girlfriend, I think it will be a refreshing but challenging change. At least you are not going into medsurg as a brand new nurse, and that will help enormously.

You may run your butt off but you will learn a lot.

I did not realize that you were so close to the Vt boarder. Working in another state can be a little disorienting at first until you understand how they do things.

Pay attention to how they handle narcotics and how they waste them especially. It can be really different.

You said that scope of practice is expanded so you know that already.

I wish you the best of luck. I am sure that you will be better off once you get your bearings in that new setting.

Pay attention to how they handle narcotics and how they waste them especially. It can be really different.

Everyone's more relaxed than NY. They haven't made me pee in a cup yet. Even Wal*Mart does that this side of the pond.

:)

I got a med/surg spot, evenings, LPN.

I'm excited. There's so much I need to learn and the VT scope of practice is wider than NYS's.

I'll miss a couple of my old folks, but, frankly, I'm tired of taking care of other people's dying, demented relatives. I'm tired of people smacking me and chasing transpondered elopers through the parking lot and standing behind a med cart for 8 hours a day.

And mostly I now know that I can not effect change in LTC except on the smallest, one-to-one level. That's important, obviously, but my spirit is being crushed. I have had a lousy year and being surrounded by people for whom the best outcome is death in their sleep isn't improving my depression.

Cross your fingers for me, all.

You lucky dog! I wish I could find a job in a hospital somewhere instead of LTC! I am tired of med carts and elopers and just plain bs! I too love my residents, but I am getting disheartened by the fact that I seem to be the only nurse who truly cares about them and their feelings and rights. I mean there are a couple of other nurses who I believe care a lot, but due to no one wanting to create more work for themselves, a lot of things seem to get pushed under the rug that I believe should be addressed for the resident's sake. My true love is ER or OR, and someday, when I graduate RN, I will work in one of those two spots, but for now, I guess I will keep fighting the battle for my residents.