Looking down upon LTC nurses?

Hi Vicki:

I hope to heck people don't look down on LTC, seeing as there are next to nil jobs for new RNs. It's not my top choice but I may need to go that route with the hopes of moving into a more traditional hospital-based RN position down the road.

I'll be curious to hear what other people have to say on the topic - and - how people with LTC/SNF are viewed when applying for, say, a med-surg job.

:)

That's what I'm worried about....I'm starting a Diploma program in a few weeks (I already have a degree in something else) and this site is making me worried that I'm making a big big mistake by not going straight into a BSN program. Apparently, hospitals are mostly hiring new grads with a BSN....

As an LTC nurse (we also do transitional care), I would have to agree with this viewpoint. When my fellow nurses find out what I do (IRL) I get an "oh". What has been interesting for them to learn is my patient load. I work both the LTC wing and the TCU wing, so if I am assigned to the LTC side, I have 24 pts. The TCU side--12.

I spend 2-3 hours of my shift passing medications. I spend 1-2 hours doing treatments, skin care/skin checks, and other routine treatments such as changing catheters, weekly vitals, and daily wound care, G-tube cares, 02 sats, or trach cares. I spend another 1-2 hours of orders (we do not utilize a HUC), dealing with acute conditions, and dealing with pending faxes and labs. I spend time checking bowel status (we utilize a program) and assessing bowels as well giving PRN meds for those in need. Many of fellow nurses in hospital settings are surprised at my knowledge of post-surgery care and labs. Well, I have to be up on those things too! Then I spend an hour charting, and somewhere in there I'm supposed to get a break.

We do IV's, take care of PICC lines, remove sutures and staples, change trachs, and hold the hands of our dying pts. and families.

It's a tough job, and we've seen a lot of hospital trained nurses fall flat on their faces, expecting these "stable" patients to be easy to care for, and their not! Most have quit within a few weeks.

I work my butt off every day, love what I do, and am paid very poorly for it. However, the job market sucks right now and this is where I'll be staying. I do have a part time job in home care and a PRN job at a hospital--very different pace. Night and day difference. If I could make what I do at my other jobs, I would stay at this facility for the rest of my career.

We also provide hospice care, and I love the comfort focused, family focused care.

But no, we don't get a lot of respect from nurses in other specialties.

Well lets see..more often than not I am introduced as the "medication nurse." Which I am sorry if anybody uses this phrase--it offends me. I do not just pass pills. I do treatments, change catheters, start/maintain IVs, stabilize patients after falls, notify MD of labs, document and all the other million things that nurses do. Sometimes I feel like someone should just introduce me as the Unlicensed medication tech because that is how little respect that I get not only from the building I work for--but fellow nurses & even people that I go to RN school with. I guess they will be in for a rude awakening when they realize that it is tough to find a job in a hospital as a brand new RN without any experience. Maybe then they will realize what an important role nurses play in LTC.

**In NO WAY am I saying anything against medication techs--just saying that I am a Nurse too not just a "pill pusher"!!**

I don't understand why anyone would look down on LTC nurses. LTC is hard work and not for the faint of heart.

**In NO WAY am I saying anything against medication techs--just saying that I am a Nurse, too not just a "pill pusher"!!**

I'm a nurse in an ALF, and pill-pushing is pretty much all I do. Thanks to the new Aide dress code (scrub tops), lots of people think I'm a Med Tech. When I had to intervene after a fall in the dining room, I was amazed at the number of people who said "Get a nurse," especially after I said "I'm right here."

I would never look down on a LTC nurse, but half the time we're not even recognized as nurses.

Well lets see..more often than not I am introduced as the "medication nurse." Which I am sorry if anybody uses this phrase--it offends me. I do not just pass pills. I do treatments, change catheters, start/maintain IVs, stabilize patients after falls, notify MD of labs, document and all the other million things that nurses do. Sometimes I feel like someone should just introduce me as the Unlicensed medication tech because that is how little respect that I get not only from the building I work for--but fellow nurses & even people that I go to RN school with. I guess they will be in for a rude awakening when they realize that it is tough to find a job in a hospital as a brand new RN without any experience. Maybe then they will realize what an important role nurses play in LTC.

**In NO WAY am I saying anything against medication techs--just saying that I am a Nurse too not just a "pill pusher"!!**

So is it easier to find a job at a LTC facility? Would that be a good way to start and then enter the hospital environment with experience? Are LTC nurses looked down by hospitals as well?

I don't understand why anyone would look down on LTC nurses. LTC is hard work and not for the faint of heart.

Exactly. I could never been a LTC nurse. They work so hard and keep it all together. They have hearts of steel for sure.

I work in med-surg as an LPN, and we have gone to team nursing. So now I am "meds". When the charge nurse puts our names on the patient's boards, it will say, So-and-So, RN; sparkette-meds. I don't qualify as a nurse anymore.

Hat Person and Allsmiles, I totally understand where you're coming from. I am SO SICK of being treated as a no-good, low life, less-than-human, second class citizen because of 3 letters behind my name instead of 2.

I have considered going LTC because what I hear is LPNs rule the roost there. And I know it may not sound like it, but this is really not about my ego, this is about that I want the patients really cared for and treated with respect, and now, with the change to team nursing, my opinion doesn't count. I get laughed at for asking questions. I get in trouble if I am caught looking at labs, because "if it's important, your RN will let you know about it". I thought I went to nursing school to be a nurse? Not just a pill pusher???

OP, I have heard that before too, and I think it is ridiculous! LTC nurses deserve admiration, IMO! I don't know how they walk into work everyday and do their jobs taking care of so many residents.

It's been my experience that hospitals also look down on LTC nurses regardless of how many years experience you've got. If it ain't "acute care" it doesn't count! Granted, I did do hospital nursing...but it took A LOT of trys to get in.