Is this too much?? Or am I just new??

[stephanienicole87]

I have been a LPN about 3 months at a LTC. First off the told me I would have ten days oriantation, never more than 20 pts blah blah blah more broken promises. But my question is... Is this too much: 25 pts total, 7 DM 3 or which have outageous blood glucose levels frequently in the 300 and 400, 4 tube feeders, 3 ABT IV's, 2 trach pt's, 4 require wound care on my shift, everyone has at least 1 kind of cream, alot of these patients have dementia, 2-3 skin checks per day, 1 monthly summary per shift and 9 pts that require charting (although I chart on alot more). In this facility the nurses are they only ones allowed to answer phones so we are constantly getting pulled away from our carts to talk to family, doctors or tell someone their work schedule. When we have admissions it is all on us the nurse no one else helps. I feel like they give me too much. This is just an example of one hall I am normally assigned to. To top it all off we never have supplies, they only give us supplies on thurs, I have worked an entire shift being out of soap(SOAP??? I had to buy my own on break!!??? What in the world??) when the DON was informed she said to ration it more closely. So now every time a CNA needs soap I have to give them a med cup full. Sorry I guess this is a rant. I am currently looking for a new job, I can't work in a place pts and staff get treated like this.

[pcolaqtfighter77]

no your not just new. i was a paramedic for 3 years, and now iam an lpn in rn school. things are jacked up. management anywhere will change there view and/or mind from one minute to the next. you see it alot with female vs female. arguments,, controlling, etc. not everywhere, but it does exist. you are obviously conscienscious. she probably doesnt like that, hit me back if this helps or need more advice. every place has its ups and downs. do your days work, go home and recharge your mental batteries, then totally forget about it till the next day. arguing will only make it worse, and probably make the DON feel threatened.

[nursenow]

Cant you switch to a hospital????To be honest with you I think nursing home is not a good choice to start for a new grad,maybe later down the road but you definitely want to get exposed to as much experience as you can...good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I am trying to remember what I saw in hospital med surg or PCCU that I haven't seen at a LTC/SNF and I cant think of anything except ECG,. Every machine, tube, type of intrusive object, treatment... I saw in hopital clinicals I have done or observed in LTC/SNF. Including portable imaging equipment that is brought in from outside. You will deal with codes often. There are things in the ER I dont see here though.

I believe, like alot of people that have actually worked in this environment and are familiar with what goes on here, that it is a great place to get experience especialy in time and stress management, treatments and the different meds. Excellent confidence booster for dealing with doctors, patients and unfriendly family memebers. (even other staff members)

Working LTC/SNF is GREAT experience in wound care, broken bones, post surgery and all kinds of stuff from end stage diseases to new amputations, wound vacs, skin graphs... If you can become comfortable and technicaly proficient working in this environment you probably can work in any environment. That is something I have heard form RNs/BSNs that have either moved on or came back.

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

I'm pretty new too and I remember my first shift alone was on the only wing I never set foot on for training. It was the hardest wing to boot! I'm Casual, which is prn, so I don't get many hours. This means that I never get a good handle on what happens. I can handle the resident load, usually around 25 res, but if I get an admission or someone goes down hill, or there's orders I get so far behind. I never had orders, admits, or a change of condition during my training. I had 6 shifts to train and that was it. I also got stock with a very overworked lpn who had to train me and another lpn at the same time. Senseless!

They add all kinds of work onto my already stressed to the max butt. I can't possibly get everything done and I hate passing things onto noc's. I've done that and whatever I pass on doesn't get done anyway. I leave feeling like I've forgotten something really important every night. I look at awe at the same nurse who trained with me getting her work done before the nurses that have been there for 20+ yrs. How does she do it? I've heard she doesn't do her treatments. I couldn't tell because she seems to have a handle on it.

I often wonder whats wrong with me. I usually feel like a crappy nurse and I know I'm not; I think I've got too much unfamiliar stuff on my plate.

I wish you the best in job hunting. Doling out soap is just one more stupid thing we have to do. That makes me sick. Pukey sick. Something about spreading MRSA and not having soap makes me think state would love that one.

[Bokyo]

way too much............

but if you could handle all of that...then you're, i would say d' best!!!