Nursing Home Rn

I've been working in a nursing home for 6 months. There are alot of pros and cons. The pros are that if you work in the Long term care unit, the RN has the same patients most of the time with the occassional admission. Bonds are formed between nurse and patients. You get to know their personality and routines. You know their meds and health history off the top of your head.

The Cons: You have 27 patients to take care of. Meaning: All IV, emergencies, incidents, MD orders, Lab work, etc. are handled by you alone. There is usually nobody at the desk to answer the telephones after 4-5pm depending on the facility. Which means that if a doctor calls and you are down the hall with a patient you must drop what you are doing the answer the phone. Family is constantly coming up to you asking questions, and usually right in the middle of your med pass. If you have a question or concern and just want another nurses input, you have to go to another unit to find the nurse.

The problems that occur the most are UTI's and C-diff so there is usually a run of lab work and collection of stool. Also, diabetes.

Overall, it's not bad but when there are alot of issues going on on your unit which causes you to leave later, they have a fit (overtime!). However, due to the cost, most nursing homes refuse to have someone dedicated to handle just admissions. There is a ton of paperwork to do with each admission including the assessment. Plus if your facility is not computerized, that is even more paperwork to completed. One night I had 3 admissions and was working until 5am the next morning!

Hope this helps.

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^^^Pretty much what this person said. Well I get paid 22.54 at my fulltime job and 27.50 at my prn job. Some places will require you to supervise, I felt uncomfortable supervising 180 residents and nursing staff so I declined the extra dollar for that job, but at my prn job I don't have a choice. Plus there are wound vacs which can be a pain in the rear (time consuming), but they are fun. You will gain excellent time management and prioritization skills. I only lasted a few mos