LTC nurses are amazing!

[Emergent, RN]

I'm doing a little agency nursing for my semi retirement, in addition to my school nurse substitution duties. I did three shifts in the local nursing home. I hadn't worked in a nursing home since the 1990s. It was a lot easier back then.

Back in those days it was all paper charting, and the nursing home I worked in was very organized. It was basically kept an order by a couple of old school LPNs on days.

The nursing home I had previously worked in had two wings. The two wings had 30 patients a piece. The nursing home where I worked recently has three wings and I had maybe 26 patients? But the work was much more difficult. The computer system is ridiculous, with a bunch of stupid prompts. Paper charting was incredibly easier.

The place seemed pretty disorganized to me. They get their meds from a courier system, from a pharmacy out of the area. The carts are disorganized, and the meds aren't always there and you have to track them down. When I worked at a nursing home back in the day, the meds were always in the cart, and managed by a small town Pharmacy with excellence.

I talked to some of the staff and the place is going downhill since it got sold to yet another, out of the area, commercial interest. I worked last Sunday and all three nurses were agency. Morale is plummeting. I don't know how those nurses do it. I have another shift scheduled, but I'm getting my stuff together so that I can fill in at hospitals. I might still do some shifts at the nursing home since it is local. I am semi-retired, and I don't want to kill myself. Hats off to LTC nurses!