Nursing HOme RN's...

I am a Nursing Student and already know that I would like to work in a Nursing Home, but now I am wondering if I need to rethink my plans..

Last night I ran into a good friend who was telling me about her mom and her difficulties in the Nursing Home she was working in..

Her mom is a RN and taught the CNA program I took 19 years ago..(wow, I am old!) and is on a leave of absence due to stressors at work, the big one being CNA's writing the charge nurses up and the DON/ADON not backing any of the RN's/LPN's up.

I am certainly not writing this to cause a stir by no means..I am just interested in hearing if there are any RN's facing similiar situations..

Thanks!

[ear]

I am not a RN, (am a RN student though), and I have worked in nursing homes for the last 13 years in a department head capacity. I have worked in a lot of homes, and I have worked up close and personal with the RN's. Nursing homes are extremely complicated, the federal regulations are about a million pages, and each surveyer has their own "interpretation" of them. There are new regulations all the time, which means, policies that were working well for the residents now have to be changed, to suit the new reg. That in and of itself is enough to drive the workers mad, add to that families, resident care, staffing issues, census issues, departments pointing fingers at each other, corporate things coming down the pike, chain of command issues, resident complaints, MDS, Care planning... ok, I will stop, but could go on forever about the never ending list of things going on in long term care.

It stinks that your friend is going through this. There are facilities that really are bad, and there are facilities that are really good too. There is an immense amount of pressure, and it does come from every direction. A few years ago, I took a few months off, and "was never going back into that type of place" but after a few months, and learning how to leave work at work, I am back in long term care.

It is hard though, to leave work at work, you establish long term relationships with the residents and families, not usually just a few days, so you know what their lives are like, and are responsible to help with getting them through their issues. I really enjoy long term care, it is a lot of work, but is well worth watching someone reach their goals.

best of luck to you. Give it a chance. How far are you now? have you had any clinical experiences in long term care??