New to Assisted Living

CABG patch kid, BSN, RN · Dec 29, 2008

Have you checked out the Long Term Care section of this forum? There may be something there for you. I don't know anything about the position myself but just wanted to wish you good luck and I hope you enjoy it!

1stloveistobeanurse · Dec 29, 2008

Before going out for my nursing degree, I use to be an asst exec director for a assisted living facality. ALF do not have as much structure as a nursing home, so I can see how you would consider yourself as being too careful. However, after working as a CNA in some ALF throughout the years this maybe a good thing. ALF tend to not have certified CNA and most only have one LPN. I say all this to say, if you could bring the background you have in your nursing home setting to that ALF you would most likely have given this agency a tremendous amount of help. Think about exactly what they want you to do as a Clinical Director, is this the same as a Resident Director? in other words are you the supervising nurse here? I also had a friend who is a LPN and she was a Clinical Director for the ALF we both worked at. The ALF was in bad shape and did not have a director for well over a year however, her responsibility was to

1. Get to know the resident

2. Make up the caregiver schedules.

3. administer medication the caregivers are not allowed to admin like injections, wound care....

4. Get caught up on the holes in the MORs (meds report)

This was pretty much it, mostly all ALF I have been exposed to do not have or operate with a Care Plan for the resident's. So if you can do assesments and establish this for the current residents moving forward try and introduce them to your staff and to Dietary, to follow proper nutrition of your residents. This would allow for great structure and most likely take sometime to implement so it would be a great project to begin.

I don't know if these ideas are helpful but I hope they are congrats and Good Luck

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Dec 29, 2008

I was an ALF Director of Health Services (which is essentially the same as a DON position in a nursing home) for several years. The job descriptions vary from place to place, but in the buildings I've been in, the job carries heavy responsibilities but very little real authority. Unless you wind up functioning as an assistant administrator, as I did in one position I held for 2 1/2 years. In that job, I hired, fired, disciplined, and trained employees, did the scheduling, purchased clinical supplies, developed service plans, presided over service plan meetings with residents and families, wrote policies and procedures---pretty much everything except maintenance, and yes, I plunged the occasional toilet too. LOL