Long term care nursing

The pay around here is the same or more then the hospital. A typical day? No such thing!! For instance on Tuesday of this week I started work at 3pm, took report on 20 patients, 5 with scheduled HHN treatments, 6 diabetics with scans and insulins, 1 new admit to assess and do new admit physical and orders on. Dr who came in during supper and wrote orders on 5 pt's, 1 pt who fell and hit her head, q 2hour neuro checks. 2cna's to help toilet, ambulate, feed and turn patients. By the time I did my 2 med passes, treatments, medicare charting, took 1 20 minute break, I felt lucky to clock out only 40 minutes late. Then last night I had a different set of 20 patients, all long time residents, only 1 HHN treatment, and only 1 insulin, the evening was slow and easy, got my breaks and punched out by 11:05. A no stress night!! Each shift is different and rewarding. been doing it for 25 years and would not consider anything else. I get up each day looking foward to going in and working with MY residents. On the other hand day shift positions are very rare in LTC and if 2 opened up at the same time, I would look for the worm in that apple.

Off topic--but I love your nickname ParrotHeadRN!!

Jimmy is a way of life!! Going to see him for the second time on this tour on Sept 2.

i live in southern california. nursing homes pay well for certain positions like don, mds coordinator or staff developer and for some rn positions. sometimes better than a hospital. hospitals here pay better for more experienced nurses or nurses who have a specialty. cant say that pay is a deal breaker. seems like the turnover in nursing homes is far greater than in acute care. it might be a good idea if you shadowed someone for a day on the day shift before you signed up with these folks. then you would know for sure. :)

i got a call out of the blue from a nursing home i submitted an app to months ago. at the time they had no day positions, but now they have 2 available. i have never nursed in long term care and am wondering if someone can fill me in a little bit on what a typical day would be in a nursing home. also, i currently work in a hospital and am wondering if the pay is comparable. can anybody fill me in? my interview is tomorrow afternoon.

thanks!

I agree. Ask if you can shadow someone. Each facility is different and you need to see first hand what this place is like. LTC facilities can range from wonderful to awful. In our area, the pay is the same or more than, hospitals.

I live in rural, and I do mean rural Tennessee. The pay is better at the Nursing home by about $ 3-4/hr. The nursing home I work at has very low turnover. Most of the nurses have been there over 5 years. But recently, we did have a couple of day positions open up for different reasons. One nurse had a baby, and decided to stay at home. Another one moved away. If they would let you shadow, and see what goes on first hand, that would probably answer alot of your questions.

Well where I work - depends on what floor you have decides how many patients you have how hard the work load is . Normally med pass, treatments , supper med pass , treatments paperwork plus answering phones & helping the stnas with difficult patients & doing new admitts, calling doctors, families. The pay varies for shifts pretty decent though more then hospitals around here but not much on benefits unless you want to pay for them which will cost you through the roof.. :)

I agree here, why would any facility have 2 open day shift positions at the same time. Other shifts very often happen with the quick turn over rate, but day shift is generally a premium nurses wait sometimes years to get.

The whole thing would cause me to wonder.

First thing I would ask *them* is how it happens that they have 2 day shift positions open at the same time .

As far as typical day, I'll leave that to the current LTC nurses. I'll scoot this into that forum so they can assist.

I agree there are no typical days but there are some routines to get used to, like on day shift I know I will have 2 med passes, 2 meals, and treatments. Everything else unpredictable I squeeze in around.