Love the Geriatric population, but not sure where to work in that field

[Rocktheman]

I currently work as a CNA at a nursing home and I am graduating with my BSN from IUP this May. I honestly have fallen in love with Geriatrics. I love my patients to death (from a professional viewpoint of course) and love how close I can get with some of them. I even have inside jokes with some of them, and sometimes come behind them and scare them on purpose, and they do it back (note, I only do this to the ones i know very well). Long story short I love this population. The only thing is I don't know if I wanna work in a nursing home as an RN. The RN supervisor at my facility has little patient contact, and is often doing other things like charting, getting doctors orders etc. My question is what field can i go into as an RN and get plenty of patient contact with geriatrics. Also is there a specific field for geriatrics in the nurse practitioner role? thanks!

[quiltynurse56, LPN, LVN]

If the RN's don't have patient contact/care in your facility, check out others. I have worked in two where the RN's have lots of patient contact/care.

[Geslina, BSN, RN]

I work in a nursing home, I'm an RN. I work as both a floor nurse and a supervisor. I have more patient contact than I want sometimes. Our DON and ADON, our unit managers, they all have lots of patient contact. I think it's up to you, how much you have. I will warn you, nursing home nurses bust their behinds, it's a lot of work. People are living longer today, they don't just go to nursing homes to die, and care is more complicated than it used to be. The average floor nurse has 25+ residents, and at any given time I'll have at least 2 on IV meds or fluids, a couple peg tubes, all sorts of respiratory issues...not to mention 60% have dementia of some sort and all of the behavior issues that that implies. So yeah, it's a hustle for sure. But if you enjoy the elderly, and don't mind being so busy you don't have time to pee all night, you'll love it.