Should I accept a SNF position as a new grad even though this is not the field I want?

[FishBones]

Hi everyone,

I am a new grad nurse who graduated Dec 2017. I was offered an RN position at a SNF with starting pay $44/hr in the Bay Area, CA. Full benefits and 401K. However the average RN to patient ratio is 1:16. The patients non-acute and I was told that the position was mostly passing meds, occasionally IV, and other very low key skills. The orientation period is only 4 days.

I have not heard back at all from any other places that I have applied to and the only interviews that I have managed to get were from LTC/SNF. So far, this position sounds the best.

Should I accept this job even though I know for sure that once I enter the job I would already be looking for other jobs on the side (L&D or more acute positions)?

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

Take the job if you have no other options, but keep searching for a non-SNF job. The only thing worse than a SNF job you hate is getting typecast as a SNF nurse.

I was in your shoes 10 years ago; a new grad at the start of the Great Recession. No one wanted new grads. After 10 months, I found a job in an ALF. It wasn't a good environment, but I needed to start somewhere.

After I had a year of experience, I started job hunting again. The jobs that had previously required 1 year of experience now required 3-5 years of recent experience in the specialty you were applying for. I found a better-paying job at a SNF. I had 17 residents, paper charting, and no med aides (the LNAs only did ADLs). After 4 days of orientation I was on my own. It was 6 weeks of hell. No help. Little communication. Everything was a big deal. Everything was the nurse's fault.

After that, I got a job in home health, for a 33% pay cut. With no BSN or acute care experience, a hospital job was not an option. If I hadn't found that job, I would have left nursing altogether.

Ten years later, I'm still in home health, making a bit more than I did in Nursing Home Hell. Lots of people don't want to work in SNFs. There's nothing wrong with that. SNFs can be horrible places to work. I will sell my body on the street before I work in another SNF. Money isn't everything.

[FishBones]

It's a good starting ground place. Luckily I have a lot of very supportive and helpful co-workers. The first month was rough, but I'm a fast learner so I picked up everything fairly quickly. I'm OK with the job now, but I plan on looking for jobs that are more align with my field of interest once I get 6 months of experience. One caution is that they literally only give you a few days of training. I got 4 days. Then it's trial by fire. I'm ok with those terms since I had worked as an EMT before. Overall, the place I'm at is OK. My biggest issue was with management (and quite frankly how incompetent they were). No one in management seemed to care about improving the SNF and complaints from residents and employees largely fall on deaf ears with empty promises.

[FishBones]

I am also a new grad in the bay area, and came from out of state. I am only getting SNF interviews as well. I am wondering if you ever got this position and if so, how is it going? I'm curious, what facility was this?!

by FishBones

0

11:27 pm by FishBones

It's a good starting ground place. Luckily I have a lot of very supportive and helpful co-workers. The first month was rough, but I'm a fast learner so I picked up everything fairly quickly. I'm OK with the job now, but I plan on looking for jobs that are more align with my field of interest once I get 6 months of experience. One caution is that they literally only give you a few days of training. I got 4 days. Then it's trial by fire. I'm ok with those terms since I had worked as an EMT before. Overall, the place I'm at is OK. My biggest issue was with management (and quite frankly how incompetent they were). No one in management seemed to care about improving the SNF and complaints from residents and employees largely fall on deaf ears with empty promises.