LPN for 60 patients

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I have been an LPN for 4.5 years and am currently working on a med-surg floor in a small community hospital PRN. I have worked med-surg, LTC and a general surgery clinic in the past.

When I worked LTC in the past I had 20-25 patients.

I have recently decided to work LTC as PRN 11-7. My concern is I will have 60 residents to care for. Which of course entails meds, & charting. The DON promised no wound care on this shift and if any resident worsens, fall etc it is immediate transfer to the ER.

I will orientate 4 days then on my own. Is this too much?:uhoh21:

Any feedback would be appreciated.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

Sounds doable. With no ordered treatments and a real minimum of medications to give, I'm betting that most of what they have you doing is paperwork (weekly summaries, checking orders, reconciling the new month MARs/TARs before they go into the notebooks at the beginning of the month, skin checks, that sort of thing) and supervising the CNAs, of course!

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Depends on how many CNA's you have. I only have 1 on 11-7 and a lot of my time is taken up with CNA type things. I can never complete a med pass without stopping to potty or clean up some of the residents.

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My facility is non-Medicare, and I had 60 rezzies on 3-11. On 11-7, I had all 120. I have some decent Aides, so that helps. The most GT's we ever had were maybe 7 at one time, and 2 were Bolused. Once you get a routine, it is very do-able.

Suebird :)

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
Depends on how many CNA's you have. I only have 1 on 11-7 and a lot of my time is taken up with CNA type things. I can never complete a med pass without stopping to potty or clean up some of the residents.

Do you work on a pediatric unit?? POTTY?? Yikes, they are old people not little kids.

But,back to the subject--my old facility had a 60 bed long term unit with one nurse and 3 CNAs. She only had about 4 meds to give out at 6am and spent most of the time doing paperwork.

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Believe it or not, we have one or two who say "Potty". Meant as BR AND goofy. :)

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Holy Moly!!! 120 residents skilled or not seems like too many for one licensed person no matter how many CNAs you have.

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Been at the job for over 7 years. Once you get a routine, you're good to go. Very decent place, I think.

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For 11-7 in my LTC, it's usually 1 LPN and 3 CNA's for 76 non-skilled beds and 1 LPN and 2 CNA's for 42 skilled/medicare beds. This includes some treatments and 1 pretty heavy am med pass (all Accuchecks, eye drops, inhalers, insulins, patches and quite a few before breakfast meds like carafate, actonel, fosamax, reglan). Occasionally, if there is a call in, there may be just 1 LPN for all the beds for 2-4 hours.

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Thanks for all the feedback.

I am looking forward to it.

Hopefully all goes well after orientation

Thanks again

mom2saul&amaris

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Do you work on a pediatric unit?? POTTY?? Yikes, they are old people not little kids.

Sometimes I use 'shortcuts' when my tremors are bad - easier than taking the time to type out 'take to the bathroom'. Sorry to 'offend'. :uhoh21:

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This is UNSAFE, why do we continue to allow ourselves to be put in the position of believing the DON when she makes promises that she cannot keep? Med pass for 60 patients 3 hours minimum I bet, and thats done twicwe a shift, what about falls, deaths, etc, etc, etc. OMG! When are we going to get wise and change all this, FORCE change by UNIONIZING, its the ONLY way out of this quagmire.

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