Is working in nursing home harder then working in hospital for new RN?

PeacockMaiden · Aug 17, 2013

Three days of orientation is typical for a SNF because they are too cheap to invest anymore time and money into their new employees. I got the 3 days of orientation and then I was on my own after that. It was hard and I wanted to quit many times (like every day). I stuck it out for a year now only because no other job offers have come my way.

I love working with the elderly, but not in this environment. I am current in an adult/geri NP program where I think I can serve the elderly much better in that capacity.

My mom is a RN also, and she started out (many years ago) working in a SNF for about 10 years. The last 15 years of her career has been spent working in med/surg at an acute hospital. So she was seen both types of environments. Although her job in med/surg is hard too, she said she believes working at a SNF was harder due to the patient ratio, lack of supplies, ridiculous outdated systems, etc.

thenursemandy · Aug 17, 2013

I am at a LTC as a new nurse. I had 4 days of orientation two of them on the floor. I would find out how many patients you will be responsible for. I work days and have 12-16 patients. It is hard but rewarding. I don't think that the two days on the floor were enough as you only learned how to act in the situations that occurred on those two days. For instance if there are no admissions while you are there, then you will have no idea how to admit someone. If no one gets sent out to the hospital, you will not know the procedure or criteria to send someone to the hospital. I find learning that stuff for the first time very hard because the amount of help you are given depends on who is working with you that day and whether you are short-staffed or not. Having said that...I am happy here now. I love the 8 hour shifts, enjoy the patients, am getting the hang of what I'm doing and love the 7 minute commute. When I would have a bad day, I would come to allnurses and search "hate job" and all of the posts would put my job into perspective about how wonderful it is [/quote']
Under 20 pts in LTC is RARE. Believe me! Id hold on to that job if I were you. :)

indiechic, LPN · Sep 17, 2013

That just depends on your definition of "hard"... I can only speak from working in LTC and having done clinical rotations in the hospitals. I find LTC much more challenging as you generally lack a lot of the support staff that hospitals can provide. LTC isn't for those who struggle with working independently. Good luck!

SusanDumond · Sep 20, 2013

I started in LTC after working 4 yrs Med-Surg. I was sure glad I knew what I knew, especially in the respiratory & venous access depts.

TechnoDanceNurse · Nov 7, 2014

After working my first nursing job in an inpatient drug rehab for 2.5 years, I was hired by large SNF company, with 29 facilities in the region. I'm currently in orientation which is scheduled to last 1-3 months. The patient load is about 25/nurse. At the facility I'm training at, there is an LTC side and an Acute side, but I will be transferring to an all-acute facility after I complete my training. There is an electronic record system that seems efficient and easy to use. I haven't noticed a shortage of supplies (but this is my first week). We have med-aids pass a lot (but not all) meds when census is high, and when it gets low, then the nurse takes over that duty. Compared to the specialty psych environment I came from, this is much harder work. Compared to my clinical experience at the hospital during nursing school, this is still slightly harder because of the high patient load. I find it intimidating to have to be responsible for 25 people, but I suppose it's better than some other places, plus it looks like we have decent support (DNS, RCMs, CMAs, etc.) The nurses do a lot of hands-on work (especially wound and skin care). The RNs also work very closely with the CNAs to feed, transfer, and maintain hygiene. Everybody changes diapers, including the RNs. There's much more dementia at a SNF, and that's a big difference between it and a hospital. Working with patients who have only basic communication skills, and sometimes no verbal communication at all is something that boggles my mind. But to summarize, and address your question once more, I think SNF nursing is harder than hospital nursing. The benefit is that if I can succeed in this environment, then I think I will be well-prepared for hospital work. No problem!

sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN · Nov 8, 2014

unfortunately that three dats is pretty standard, i know, insane