LTC vs Assisted living

Nurses LPN/LVN

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I am a new nurse with 3 months experience in a nursing home fresh out of school. I am a wound nurse because I'm doing 4-5 wounds all stage 3 or 4. I am a respiratory therapist because I'm administering nebulizer treatments. I am a medication nurse because I'm passing meds to 20 patients. We have wound nurses on duty but they pick and choose which wounds to do, the CNAS are in cliques and doesn't want to help, and there is a nurse who lies, gossip, and twist EVERY situation. After reaching my breaking point I decided to give assisted living a try, I'll be starting in 2 weeks. I hope and pray that this is a better situation then my current one!!!! Can anyone give me their advice, opinions, or share their story on this topic???

That's a very smart plan Mscoleman78

I work assisted living for a year now and i never want to back to SNF. We have close to 90 residents. I mostly apply all the ointments, do wound care, and handle as much telephone / calling Dr , Hospice duties as I can. I feel good knowing that I will always go home after 8.5 hours of work. I do worry though about getting sued by a pesky family member (we have 90 residents). Our supportive staff is good. I hope the Med Tech (Unlicensed) does not quit or else I'm going to have to pass meds for 90 people lol

I am an LPN who recently took a position in an ALF as the Assistant Healthcare Director (ADON). I do paperwork, answer family inquiries, do assessments, make schedules and am on several committees. Our CMA's do the hands on work. Showers, tx, meds, etc. Easiest job I've ever had!!! We have 70 residents with a nurse on evenings and 4 CMA's. Days 2 nurses (myself and the Director) with 5 CMA's. Just depends on the facility you work at I guess. After 10 years killing myself in LTC I will be here until I retire!!!

I am an LPN who recently took a position in an ALF as the Assistant Healthcare Director (ADON). I do paperwork, answer family inquiries, do assessments, make schedules and am on several committees. Our CMA's do the hands on work. Showers, tx, meds, etc. Easiest job I've ever had!!! We have 70 residents with a nurse on evenings and 4 CMA's. Days 2 nurses (myself and the Director) with 5 CMA's. Just depends on the facility you work at I guess. After 10 years killing myself in LTC I will be here until I retire!!!

I have a friend who left LTC and she is working at 2 Assisted Living facilities and she keeps saying the same thing about how easy it is and how much lighter the world load is. I was shocked when I read the responses to this post and how everyone said it's the same or worse than LTCS. I'm going to take it at face value and work the job and see for myself how it is because all jobs are different. Thank you, for your response!!!!!

Hi, I believe that you will enjoy the assisted living facility for many reasons. The residents live there; so it is pretty and mostly routine as far as nursing care. Your patient to nurse ratio might be high, but you will have CNA's to help you in that regard. My advice is to please be nice to the CNA's because they are extremely helpful to you and can be an extra pair of eyes for you as well. Some of the CNA's are trained to give medications which can be a big help to you as you will probably be doing care plans and a lot of charting as well. Also, the residents at the assisted living facility bring a lot of wisdom and experience to the table. I wish you the best and good luck in your new adventure.

YEs ! Assisted Living is where to be. No G-tubes, no medicare charting, no change of condition charting, no weekly summary, no audits. Also if an LPN at a SNF leaves work on time (7am-330pm) , they are CHEATING! , theres no way in hell that you could squeeze all that work into an eight hour shift , plus all those interruptions ugh i hate SNF's lol

Hi, I believe that you will enjoy the assisted living facility for many reasons. The residents live there; so it is pretty and mostly routine as far as nursing care. Your patient to nurse ratio might be high, but you will have CNA's to help you in that regard. My advice is to please be nice to the CNA's because they are extremely helpful to you and can be an extra pair of eyes for you as well. Some of the CNA's are trained to give medications which can be a big help to you as you will probably be doing care plans and a lot of charting as well. Also, the residents at the assisted living facility bring a lot of wisdom and experience to the table. I wish you the best and good luck in your new adventure.

I sure hope so!!!! I'm just getting mixed reviews, but all I can do is give it a chance. Thanks, for the vote of confidence!!!! I appreciate that:up:

YEs ! Assisted Living is where to be. No G-tubes, no medicare charting, no change of condition charting, no weekly summary, no audits. Also if an LPN at a SNF leaves work on time (7am-330pm) , they are CHEATING! , theres no way in hell that you could squeeze all that work into an eight hour shift , plus all those interruptions ugh i hate SNF's lol

Exactly!!!! I know I'm a new nurse, but I NEVER got out on time. That's the one thing I might miss at an ALF....the overtime that I got at the LTC!!!! I remember clocking 106 hours a couple of paychecks ago...lol. No seriously, I'm sure I'm gonna like the ALF and the extra perk of getting out on time.:)

I have worked LTC/ skilled nursing for many years. Its only been recently that I transitioned to ALF for dementia residents. I had to re-learn a lot. like, they are not CNA's, they are caregivers. The nurses are not allowed to give any injections, check blood sugars, etc. I cannot give suppositories or enemas. I must call and schedule home health services to do this. Wound care is extremely limited. home health provides most of these services. I am not entirely sure that I will be working here long-term.

I have worked LTC/ skilled nursing for many years. Its only been recently that I transitioned to ALF for dementia residents. I had to re-learn a lot. like, they are not CNA's, they are caregivers. The nurses are not allowed to give any injections, check blood sugars, etc. I cannot give suppositories or enemas. I must call and schedule home health services to do this. Wound care is extremely limited. home health provides most of these services. I am not entirely sure that I will be working here long-term.

What don't you like about ALF???

Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
What don't you like about ALF???

In my opinion, the hardest thing about working in ALFs is that their regs don't align with what we're taught in nursing school.

At one facility, I felt they were asking me to break rules/laws.

For ex: you are allowed to pre-pour (and you better, because you have 40-60-100 residents), also because the family or POA must approve any send out or med change, even if it's emergent. Also, at the ALF I worked in, there were no protocols or policies that allowed me to give residents things like barrier cream/other OTC meds. I needed an order which the family had to approve and there was very little in the way of house supply. We had to deal with each residents insurance company in order to obtain meds....this was tough when med changes occurred.

At the next facility I worked in, the DON was strong and had clear cut policies and procedures. I loved the 2nd place.

Assisted living is so much easier than hospital work; however they both have their positives and negatives. To me, I find the assisted living more and more less stressful than a hospital because the hospital is always changing and there is always new things which are happening all of the time. At an assisted living, you have changes but the change is not constant. You can have some normal daily tasks and normal everyday activities. Plus, an assisted living facility can have some animals like dogs, cats, or birds as good therapy for patients and hospitals cannot have that. So, the assisted living facility is a great change from the hospital nursing atmosphere.

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