Is LTC really this bad?

withasmilelpn · Jan 24, 2007

i work in ltc, on the skilled floor. our census is 60, we are constantly filled. we have 3 nurses on 2 shifts, usually 4-5 cna's per shift. many of our residents are here for rehab. only so the turnover is quick. where things go terribly wrong is with corporate. they are more interested in lining their pockets than providing the equiptment, we have no computers, constantly running out of supplies, beds are broken, not enough overlays,not enough equiptment. i can go on forever. the staff on my floor are like family, we watch each others backs, and help each other if we get in a bind. you don't have to ask, you know they'll be there. adm sucks, if nothing is wrong, they'll invent something. the pay is also below standard. another floor has a show room, it's to show what you won't get. the residents rooms are old, broken scratched furniture, broken blinds, broken privacy curtains, but we had a $750.00 xmas tree in the front lobby. everything above the 1st. floor is crap. so to ans your question, is ltc that bad. it depends on how you look at it. i love the residents, and my co-workers, but the rest of it can"bite me":flamesonb

frankly rehab is not ltc! what's happening is scary. people are d/c'd from the hospital sooner than they used to be, with picc lines etc, who may or may not be 'stable'. when i started in ltc, you could take care of 30 patients because they really were stable , had been there for years, and there meds stayed the same. an admission happened once in a blue moon. i remember having 1 iv in over 5 years in the entire building. i think that assisted living has become what ltc used to be(of course with even less staffing). it's all about the $. how can we use the least amount of nurses and spend the least amount of money are those company's mantras.

linzz · Jan 24, 2007

Unfortunately I feel the same way as Hecete and I have not even been nursing a year yet. This bothers me greatly' because a good attitude is so important but how does one stay positive in these conditions. We all know it won't change. The last place I worked at sounds just like the one Hecete described, almost exactly, except with the addition of garbage overflowing out of trash cans, uggh! Oh well I guess reality shock is part of nursing. Sigh!!:stone

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Jan 24, 2007

Many of the staffing ratios quoted on this thread are the same as when I was a CNA at many LTCs in the 70's. Except that was a whole different world. About 1/4 of our residents were just retirees who made a nursing home their last residence. No IVs, no codes. The care level required now in LTC would have been a med/surg hospital floor in 1975! And yet LTC staffing? About the same!

Simplepleasures · Jan 24, 2007

Many of the staffing ratios quoted on this thread are the same as when I was a CNA at many LTCs in the 70's. Except that was a whole different world. About 1/4 of our residents were just retirees who made a nursing home their last residence. No IVs, no codes. The care level required now in LTC would have been a med/surg hospital floor in 1975! And yet LTC staffing? About the same!

Exactly!! The acuity has gone up tremendously. The little old folks we used to have are now in ALFs, and the post surgical patients have been kicked out of the med surg units into LTCs.The staffing has actually gone down from years ago, I used to have a unit at noc with 44 patients that was considered to be heavy. By the time I left nursing in 2005 I had 67 patients, with 4 CNAs, many times just 3.This facility was lauded as one of the best in the county.:lol_hitti