Is it really "easier" working in a hospital after you have worked in a nursing home?

[jobhunting]

I have been working in a SNF for about 9 months now. Other days are okay, but overall stress level is high because of nurse/patient ratio. I barely even get to eat during my 8 hour shift, although I bring my bottled water with me on my medcart when I go around passing meds and stuff.But lately I have been thinking of applying in hospitals again (tried that as a new grad,no luck) maybe having nursing experience of almost a year might help.

Is it really easier in a sense working in a hospital when you've had nursing home experience because of having less patients now?

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

. Some jobs are just objectively harder/easier than others. Saying "all nursing jobs are equally difficult in their own way" is a little trite. Some really are harder, and some really are easier.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Ok lets stay on topic please.

[DizzyLizzyNurse]

I worked in LTC for 11 years total (the last 9 months as an RN) before getting a job in a hospital. I found it had pros and cons, mostly pros. I knew how to talk to patients and family members, I knew a lot about meds, I could talk to doctors. I had good assessment skills. I had practical experience doing things like insert foleys.

On the other hand, I wasn't really respected as for my experience because a lot of people look down on LTC nurses. There was a pretty good learning curve because in my experience things are done very differently in a hospital and nursing home. Make sure you don't have too much pride/don't let management talk you into not taking as much training time as you need. It's tough to go from knowing everything about each one of your patients to knowing just what's important. I love it though!!

[NurseCard, ADN]

The two are very different indeed; I've been working in both psych and LTC for the past three, almost four years now, and I honestly cannot imagine ever going back to an acute-care hospital environment, honestly. I'm not good at dealing with a lot of new people all of the time, I'm not that good with difficult family members, and I don't like doctors much.

Many people do indeed look down at LTC nurses, but I can tell you that I've never been prouder to be a nurse and I've never felt more appreciated by the people whom I take care of, than I do now. My job is super, super difficult at times and I get very frustrated by many aspects of it, but I feel rather fullfilled by it and I'll never go back to acute care.

[hopefulwhoop]

As someone who worked at a NH briefly before my current job at the hospital, I would say... kinda. The pts in the hospital are much sicker, but not having 20+ pts was a blessing and easier to balance. The pts at the hospital require more attention than the ones at the snf though. However, I definitely would not want to work in a nursing home ever again though.