Nursing homes for fresh RN?

boggle, ASN, RN · Jun 17, 2008

You have a tough situation here. You have to do what is right for you and your family. Can you keep working as you are in the nursing home, while keeping up with your continuing education and keep you eyes open for other options in other health care settings?

Meanwhile, don't discount your role as the geriatric nurse/ nursing home nurse. Your friends aren't seeing the whole picture here. In the nursing home, your assessment skills have to be mighty sharp, you often have to make clinical judgments without other staff and docs to lean on. Bet very few of your friends have to be that independent.

Hold your head high, Firstclass. Best wishes to you

grace202004 · Jun 17, 2008

I think if you love your job it really doesn't matter where you work, I am a new grad since December 07, and I left a med surg floor to come back to LTC where I had orginally worked as a CNA. I love it :) I could not have made a better decision for myself, and I do not feel that I am wasted at all. This is my niche and I feel that I am a better nurse here, than on a medsurg floor bc this is where my heart truley is. The people that I take care of are like family to me, and well I just love it here :) So if you like LTC and you are happy there, then I'm sure you are blessing to those that you are taking care of, and that is really what nursing is about in my opinion...Taking care of the whole person, heart, body and soul. :heartbeat

BradleyRN · Jun 17, 2008

When i was an LPN in LTC, i felt my only skill was to crush pills and mix them in pudding. Certainly skills will be lost. But it is a trade off. Day shift with a family is way more important than night shift with skills. Your classmates are working night shift and sleeping all day. Im sure it can be done with a family, but not without more sacrifice.

When you finally do go to a hospital, no matter how many years you have been a nurse, they will give you 6-8 weeks of orientation and that will help catch you up to speed. So dont worry! And congratulations! :up:

bekindtokittens · Jun 17, 2008

Try to stop comparing yourself to your classmates. What makes them satisfied may not make you satisfied. If you are happy with working morning shift so you can be with your kids, stick with it! And when they're older and you want to try acute care, you could always take a refresher course. Do what's best for you!

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Jun 17, 2008

In the end, you have to do what YOU know is right for your situation....If you'd rather work days and have your family around...then stick with it. You accomplish a lot, and I'm sure you make the residents day!

Myself? I enjoy night shift with less pressure, more patient contact, and less management to get in the way.....I do end up sleeping most days for a long time, but I get myself out of it after a day...

You may lose some skills, but you'd be suprised how quickly some things are accomplished with a trade-off once you get a new position. In the meantime, look at the big picture. when the kids are teenagers, you may want to be out of the way at night!

mauxtav8r · Jun 17, 2008

I have to chime in and agree with the other posters. I'm in a similar situation and would take virtually any new grad job that offered me the time I need to be with my kids.

About med surg experience, my instructors told me a) yes, it is a great learning environnment, b) it will be there for you when you are ready to go there, c) if you want to take a refresher at that time, do it.

Next time one of those new RNs who works in the NICU or whatever specialty is popular where you are talk about your choices, ask them "So, how long until you are able to go to 8's on days?"

You don't have to be catty, but it points out the differences in your decision and theirs. Around here, there are very few specialty positions for new grads, so all of them go to the floor for a year or more and none that I know of are on days. Then, they transfer to a specialty. Again, no days yet.

There is one hospital here which will accept a few new nurses into an OR training program. They are very open that the new grads get basically no day time work option until they are in their third year at the facility.

I have made a similar choice to yours after considering LTC, dialysis and other jobs that have a DIFFERENT skill set than med surg.

Good luck.

Itshamrtym · Jun 17, 2008

i am a new RN since February. I was already working as LPN in a nursing home and continued as RN at the same place. All my class mates (Fresh Graduates) are working in hospitals and other acute care facilities. Most of them look down on me when I say that I am working in a nursing home. They feel that nursing homes is meant for nurses who get burnt out, or at the *** end of their career. They feel I cannot get the assessment skills and other technical skills if I am working in a nursing home. Sometimes I feel, all I do is passing meds and applying creams on butts. My friends feel I am wasted in the nursing home.
The only reason I am working in a nursing home is that I have been offered Morning shift. It works out perfectly as I can be home with my kids when they come back from school. All the hospitals I applied for, offer only Night or PM shifts. I feel that I am missing out a lot as nursing experience. I can only work PM or Night shifts when my kids are at college. My youngest child is 9 years old. SO by the time I am out of the nursing home job market, I feel I may not cope in acute care settings as I may not have skills in coping with the different nursing skills
I need desperate advice from my fellow nurses. Please help me:cry:

aLSO check out the LTC forum on allnurses..... This maybe will give you some direction and insight @ what you may want to do.... You have to do what makes you and your family happy!!!! I do believe if you check out the LTC forum there will be another nurse in a similar position as you.....

Take care and good luck!!!:redbeathe:redbeathe

queen777 · Jun 17, 2008

i am a new RN since February. I was already working as LPN in a nursing home and continued as RN at the same place. All my class mates (Fresh Graduates) are working in hospitals and other acute care facilities. Most of them look down on me when I say that I am working in a nursing home. They feel that nursing homes is meant for nurses who get burnt out, or at the *** end of their career. They feel I cannot get the assessment skills and other technical skills if I am working in a nursing home. Sometimes I feel, all I do is passing meds and applying creams on butts. My friends feel I am wasted in the nursing home.
The only reason I am working in a nursing home is that I have been offered Morning shift. It works out perfectly as I can be home with my kids when they come back from school. All the hospitals I applied for, offer only Night or PM shifts. I feel that I am missing out a lot as nursing experience. I can only work PM or Night shifts when my kids are at college. My youngest child is 9 years old. SO by the time I am out of the nursing home job market, I feel I may not cope in acute care settings as I may not have skills in coping with the different nursing skills
I need desperate advice from my fellow nurses. Please help me:cry:[/quote
Oh no no no. Look for a nurisng home with a subacute floor. I worked in 3 different ones and they will keep you hopping much more than those nurses who work in a hospital!
You have to call the shots. There is no one there except for you and a couple of other nurses. I loved it. It gave me the chance to say, "Oh yes I am a nurse!" You will find yourself in all kinds of situations: insolation, MRSA, IV Abts, many brittle diabetics, PT's on Coumadin, calling the Doctor's offices for various reasons, say a pt has gone down hill, call for ambulances, work with tracs, NG tubes, peg tubes, pic lines, trac care, dressings of all kinds, fresh hip replacements, knee replacements, oncology pts, etc etc etc.
If you only work in a long term facility, they are right, all you do is pass meds and apply creams.
Go to a Acute Care setting and you will use those nursing skills and believe me they need more RN's in the Acute Care setting.
Go for it!

queen777 · Jun 17, 2008

Go to a Subacute Care setting. You will feel like you are working in a mini hospital and have plenty to do. I worked on one and loved it because I did get to apply my nursing skills in every way that a nurse in a hospital does.

Try it you will like it. Read my quote under your question.

You get to do some of everything!