Low Census...and LOVING IT!

Specialties Geriatric

Published

This past weekend, I had 7 less residents d/t a combination of hospitalizations and discharges. For the first time in MONTHS, I have had two wonderful shifts in a row. I felt like a caring nurse: I had a few minutes to talk to the residents and visiting families, I was able to complete all the treatments w/o rushing; charted thorough explanations; and best of all--punched out on time :up:! Also, had a lunch and two breaks. It's almost surreal, lol.

I am a new nurse, working in ltc for my first job. Why do people think this is easier than medsurg? Wound vacs, picc lines, tube feeds and 20+ patients. How is it even safe?

I read somewhere an efficiency expert complaining that they have been unable to make nursing 'more efficient' - they get to a certain point and can't cut staff any more.

So, no emotional connection, no time with the patients, no time to get everything done now - and they just keep adding more people.

It is discouraging to say the least.

There is nothing easy about sub-acute in LTC (medicare unit), we are taking people that are sicker, more acute, earlier discharging from the hospitals, with more meds, IV's,and bigger bugs and resistant infections, and lots of worse wounds,wound vacs, flaps etc etc. I can honestly say that sub-acute rehab in LTC IS med-surg andwe recover ortho, do CPM's for knees, and deal with co-morbities/speech and swallow issues, and expect the nurses to care for 20 of these types of patients,not the 5-7 in thehospital.so...yep,put itdown as med-surg, cuz it is. We run TPN, 2-3 lines, peg tube, cardiac, stroke, headinjury, you name it, we take it, and most of our residents return to their prior level of function, home or assisted living or group home. Typically, only the elderly stay and with so many options in home care, AL/AFH, we keep very few ofthem as well.

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Oh yes....this is EXACTLY my job. I NEVER go out and check on the care of the residents. I just sit slumped over my desk all day counting ppd, and overtime, and trying to figure out ways to cut staff and still make more money. Absolutely. Oh, and not get in trouble for poor resident care, because, of course, I care nothing about the resident care in general, or how the families feel. NOPE. Don't care at all.

Please.:confused:

LOL, my job description as well. tee hee.

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LOL, my job description as well. tee hee.

Slumped, only after 5 pm though, before that I am happily computing hours and adding up all the numbers furiously on my calculator, there is one on my desk with paper in it, so I can SEE the numbers that I am crunching!!

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Oh yes....this is EXACTLY my job. I NEVER go out and check on the care of the residents. I just sit slumped over my desk all day counting ppd, and overtime, and trying to figure out ways to cut staff and still make more money. Absolutely. Oh, and not get in trouble for poor resident care, because, of course, I care nothing about the resident care in general, or how the families feel. NOPE. Don't care at all.

Please.:confused:

LOLOL....I didn't really get my point across in that paragraph and if you read the entire post you will see that I agree...full beds = money for the facility = jobs.

There are people tho at the corporate level that do crunch numbers. If they didn't, who would? Rarely do I see my administrator just sitting around at her desk with the door closed. We actually encourage him to close his door, let us take messages and let him get "his" work done.

BTW...we were told that we will be working with less CNAs because it isn't in the budget. We only have 3-4 for 50 residents on the 3-11 shift. So...yes, you do look at the numbers...its a fact of the business. I understand that and it will never go away.

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The thing that I love best about LTC is that it IS such a learning curve for nurses, particularly new ones. I still learn something new every day, and I love to be at the bedside with the residents that have a daily improvement and are so happy with just the little bit of encouragment from a nurse/c.n.a. It really makes things worthwhile.

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