LTC retention

Maybe you should suggest a new grad training program, they'd get zillions of apps and new grads cost less per hour. And we want to learn. :) No one wants to teach us booooooooo

I totally agree! I hope you have good luck with finding a position you can enjoy. Nurses work too hard for the title not to enjoy their practice.

most nursing homes are owned by larger parent companies with bureaucracies that you cannot comprehend.

Where I work it isn't the pay but the nurse patient ratio that makes people leave. We have patients that are constantly in and out of the hospital so you know they are sick. People are pushed out of the hospital sooner so we are taking care of patients who really belong in the hospital. When you have 20-25 residents to take care of on a skilled nursing unit it becomes impossible to do everything in 8 hours. And forget about trying to finish the med pass in 2 hours. I love my residents but I don't know how much longer I can work in LTC. I feel like my license is constantly at risk.

Pay isn't an issue in our area. I make a good penny that I prob wouldn't make in the acute setting.

I agree with The Commuter's point. Reimbursements are not always covering the care that we give. The pts are coming to us sicker with more meds that are $$$ and eating into the profits.

As far as retention...it isn't the pay and isn't always the staffing ratios but I see it as being caused by poor management. Srlsy. Nothing has really changed in our LTC area except for the poor management. Some people are born leaders and some just don't get it.

Pay is usually good here in IN for LTC nurses.

I make more as a LTC LPN than my SIL who is a new grad RN.

My 18 years of experience pays quite well, I will actually take close to $2/hr cut in pay when I get my RN.

First and foremost to retain LTC staff, there needs to be just that~ Dependable staff on that schedule everytime.

It is becoming a really disatisfying rule that 'who cares if you quit/get fired' by management because we are 24/7/365 the loss will be put upon the floor staff that is reliable and is here.

Management won't usually help with short staffing, those who are unreliable don't care about short staffing, and the owner/operator smiles at the savings.

Better management organization. A huge, huge cause for job dissatisfaction.

A more reasonable, organized charting system. I swear I chart VS, and pusle O2's in 5 seperate areas so that the DON, Clinical Coordinator, and MDS all can look in a different place to do their work. That is ridiculous. No its irritating and stressful.

I have literally taken a job at lower pay just to get away from the stress that LTC involves.

I took an Assisted Living job at a $4/hr pay cut just to do less, even though I had more residents.

The work load, the charting, the short staffing and the ungrateful attitude of management is more of what causes staff to run for the door to not come back than pay.

Most place pay well, you work for every penny but the pay isn't the big issue.

I don't know why but what you say about 'hiding the pay scale' is becoming the new thing at some places. You'd thind it was a matter of national security.

I hope to find out why its being done, because I can't figure why.

Most places pay basically the same.

I work LTC and the problem with retention isnt pay (at least not for nurses). The problem is being overworked, understaffed, with insufficient supplies and endless gossip/drama. They refuse to fire the terrible people, so the good people get frustrated and leave.

I am about to start looking for something new.... I have only worked there a few months, but I am exhausted and so tired of being tired!

most nursing homes are owned by larger parent companies with bureaucracies that you cannot comprehend.

That bureaucracy is there to insultate them from law suits- in legal terms, it is called, "piercing the corporate veil".

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

I was hired as a new grad by a LTC place and got the standard 3 days' of orientation. Pay was slightly below average, though I eventually did weekends for them and got a superior wage that way. Our facility picked up a lot of new grads, though had trouble with retention because the new hires, experienced and green, were terrified for their licenses, hated the duplicate and triplicate charting and the work culture stank (lots of drama from a few rotten apples).

I've been at a few TC places and frankly, I think the turnover is because of the workload, combined with the stifling regulations inherent to LTC. For example, I now work in a hospital and was stunned that when a patient fell (unhurt), it cost only 5 minutes' work, and when a patient's family called with a medication question, I didn't have to chart on it. In LTC, as you know, if a patient breaks wind, it means calls to family, MD, and documentation to back it all up. >8-o

"I don't know why but what you say about 'hiding the pay scale' is becoming the new thing at some places. You'd think it was a matter of national security.

I hope to find out why its being done, because I can't figure why."

BECAUSE.....

they want to get you wanting the job right now, thinking you're going to get hired and you have to have money, right?

Then at the last minute, whoever it is in charge of that little fact throws out less than you anticipated, but you take it because you need it!!!

That may not ALWAYS be the scenario, but I've sure seen it often enough. And its related to that lovely corporate rule "Don't discuss your salary." Why, because you may find out that Nancy Nurse who has half your experience and no common sense knows how to bargain and makes $10K more than you.

Maybe I'm just cynical........