LTC vs Hospital...Please give opinion

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

I will be graduating in Feb from an LPN program. I have done very well in school maintaing a straight A average. I have worked as a CNA in LTC for 18 years. I am VERY comfortable in that type of environment but I am feeling the need to change. I applied for a job at a hospital and they offered me a position in their sub acute care unit. I had about an 8 week rotation in a similiar unit at a different hospital where we learned how to take care of patients with tubes, trachs, vents etc. Their orientation and training consists of 2 basic hopsital orientation days then a week of classroom instruction going over basic compitentcies, then I would be with a preceptor until they feel i am ready to be on my own. To me, this sounds like a very thourough training. The hospital has thier own RN school there so they consider themselves to be a "teaching hospital". I feel i would get a good amount of support from the staff (me being a new grad I think I will need it). I am SCARED out of my mind to step into a new environment, but at the same time I am afraid that i will later regret not doing it. Any opinions??? Anyone else been in a similar situation???

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Do it! It would be great learning experience and I'm sure your years of experience would be an asset. It sounds like a great opportunity and who knows....maybe Rn school in the future if thats what you want.

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Yes, take the job and learn all you can from their preceptors.

You will always have the experience.

You may later decide you do not like the hospital type nursing,

but what you learn will always be with you.

You may also decide you love it. There are lots of areas

to work in a hospital and lots of choices in types of work

that you will/can do. You will never know if you do not go.

There are also many choices outside of hospital, but the

hospital experience will help you no matter where you wind up.

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.

Jump in! Enjoy the change! I have worked both LTC and med/surg. Neither are easy.... But LTC is so difficult! The meds are unreal!!!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I would definitely accept the subacute position at the hospital. To be perfectly honest, I totally enjoyed my subacute clinical rotations while in school and it seems like a nicely-paced area to start one's LPN career. So I would grab this golden job offer before it slips through the fingers.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.

go for it, the skills that you will learn will make it worth the time you spent there. i have seen new gradutes not go these route and not learn the skills they all worked so hard for and couldn't or had a hard time getting a different job later due to no experience.

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Yes without a doubt you should go for it. For any specialty or job you may want later they usually want hospital experience. LTC is so hard and burn out rates high. You can always get an LTC job later but if you do LTC now your fear of the hospital will only grow when it does not need too. Believe me if you can do LTC with all those pts and meds you can do hospital and learn so much more to boot. Good luck. Let us know what you end up doing.

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

I would take this opportunity! In fact...I worked in ALF/LTC for over 3 years recently...and there is no large career advancement in it! I hit the glass ceiling of what I could do there, and was left thinking "is this all I will do till I retire???". The answer was NO! I wanted to be in an environment where I could explore new options, increase my knowledge base, and do more technical aspects!

I just recently left the ALF, and now am agency for a hospital and I am very happy I did! I am learning all over again like a student (scary but won't take me long...I had a base in Med Surge anyway)..and having a BLAST! I feel like a real nurse again...and I am so glad I changed and took on the new adventure...no matter how initially scary it was (I was so use to ALF/LTC...I was intimidated to change that...downright terrified actually, and I didn't get orientation!!! Sink or swim for me..and I did it!!!!!!).

Good luck, and I would certainly take that opportunity!

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.

also in a hospital setting, no 2 days are the same!!!! you go to work one night have so called easy pt's that don't require a lot of hands on and then the next you may have an entire different group of pts and they need everything. i really love working on med/surg, most of my pts are elderly and i love to go in and call them young man or young lady and that really makes their day.

you can have renal, chf, iddm and the list goes on. the experience you can learn is wonderful and i find that every day i work, i continue to "learn".

best of luck to you

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