Long term care desk nurse?

[Josifek]

Hello. I just graduated from LPN school and have taken a job is a LTC facility. The nurse who is orientating me wants me to work at the desk doing paper work. I worked for several years prior to becoming a nurse as a CNA so I expected to be doing paper work but I never thought I'd be sitting at the desk all shift. My question is how common is this to have one nurse at the desk doing paper work all shift. This particular facility has on each hall a CMT, a floor nurse, and a "desk nurse" on this particular shift. I would really like at some point to work the floor but the floor nurses there hate the desk and want nothing to do with it (hence I come into the picture). How are things done is y'alls' facilities? Where I worked as a CNA it seemed the unit manager did a large part of what I'm expected to do at my new job. Thanks for the responses.

[Bird2]

It is very important in LTC to know the paperwork and procedures. I wish our facility had a process that you are describing. Once you have the paperwork down then you should start with med passes, assessments and treatments. Good luck to you.

[LPN1974, LPN]

Just some food for thought............

If you have a CMT....does your "floor" nurse still have to pass meds?

If she does, I personally would be afraid to commit myself to just a desk job, because what's going to happen is if your "floor" nurse calls in sick you may be expected to fill in on the floor......and a medication round on the floor of a LTC can be heavy and long. I personally would hate to be thrown out there all of a sudden without any orientation....but you may be getting some orientation...I don't know. But if it were me, I'd want to be eased into giving meds kind of gradually until I felt comfortable with it, just being thrown out there suddenly could be frustrating.

But your facility may have other plans when someone calls in sick.

Just my

[st4wb3rr33sh0rtc4k3]

I was asked to do desk nurse one shift - it entails managing the unit, doing paperwork, and if required during a call-out take an assignment. Since I am a new nurse as well, it was a good learning experience to know exactly what needs to be done.

[txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN]

At my facility we have 2 nurses on our medicare unit and one may do treatments ,the other do all gtube meds and blood sugars but they both do paperwork at some point during the day. They usually have a med tech to pass the pills. Both nurses are in charge of the unit and it seems to work really well. It has been my experience that if you are a nurse working in geratrics there is no way you can sit and just do paperwork, patients and families wont leave you alone long enough...

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

geez! with my bad back i'd take your job in a minute. too bad you're on the other side of the country.

every ltc divides up it's workload differently. i think this will be a good way for you to ease into the job. don't be too eager to get your feet wet. i passed meds to 50 patients and did the treatments and the paperwork. your time will come, i'm sure. don't rush it. there's a lot about writing doctor's orders and following through on them that you are not yet familiar with, so this will be good practice for you. a good part of ltc is also knowing each patient's orders. so, even though you might not be doing a lot of hands on stuff at the moment you will be learning about the patients. also, keep your eyes and ears open and you'll learn even more by watching and hearing what others are doing. when that fateful day comes when you have to hitch up and do some hands on care, you'll be ready. besides, when you are all caught up i'm sure you'll be able to pitch in and lend a hand here and there which should satisfy your itch to work with patients.

read about some of the nightmares new grads in ltc have. i say you're very lucky. sounds like you picked a nice place to work.

opportunities are never lost. someone will take the ones you miss.

[Midwest4me]

...but I never thought I'd be sitting at the desk all shift. My question is how common is this to have one nurse at the desk doing paper work all shift.

Such a practice is very UNCOMMON in my LTC experience....sooner or later I'd venture to say you'll be pulled to work the floor and perhaps STILL be expected to complete the "desk work"....such is nursing!

[Josifek]

Thank y'all for all the responses. It's been a month and a half now since I took this job and I must say that working at the desk has taught me so much. I'm learning so much about different dx, meds, tx, labs, ect. because I'm bombarded with it all for 8 (more like 10 usually) hours a day. At first it looked to me like I'd be just filling out forms all shift but once I was out of orientation and on my own at the desk and the job of calling Mds, pharm, charting, taking off orders, MDS assessments fell to me alone I realised there was so much more to it. I feel like I'm really getting my nursing education now. By the way, I have worked the floor by picking up a few extra shifts so this is not totally unknown to me (although I'm a little slow). Anyway, thanks for all the encouragement!